EiGhtEEn

Chapter 3

"Better pray to whatever you serve that you don't die today" he said annoyed. With every step forward he made, I made a corresponding step backward until my back made contact with the wall. His height alone made me feel belittled, his eyes were red maybe because he drank earlier on.

He raised his hand high in the air and I knew what was coming, so I closed my eyes and braced for the impact but to my greatest surprise there wasn't any instead I heard an all too familiar voice, my mum's.

"Leave her alone, you low life" she said. I opened my eyes to see her holding my father's arm, I was the exact replica of her, the red hair, deep blue eyes and same small stature. She looked pissed off and was trying her best to keep my dad's hand away from me.

"No, I wouldn't" came his reply. "She's as useless as you" by this time he had been able to pry his arm away from my mother's grip and look at her face to face.

"What haven't I done for you and this thing here huh, I've fed, clothed and sheltered the both of you but still you defile me and go against my orders" came the booming voice of my father.

"You have done nothing of that sort" came my mum's reply, "After losing your job, you stopped taking the role as the breadwinner, you didn't even freaking try to get a new one and you come her telling me cra__"

She was cut short by the slap my father gave to her, the sound echoed within my ears. She didn't see it coming and it was so hard that her head turned to the side and her face became completely red. He went as far as nudging her tummy which made her double over and I watched all these with tears in my eyes. My parents always argued and fought but my dad goes as far as hitting my mother and sometimes me.

Suddenly his gaze shifted back to me. I started shifting backwards, the look in his eyes were deadly. I didn't want to have to bare any hitting today. I quickly made a dash to the door, I struggled to open it, my dad came nearer but finally the door opened and I ran out, he caught me by the hem of my gown but I struggled and at the end he tore out a part of the gown, like just great and I really liked the gown.

I ran out of the building scared and crying until I came to a nearby park which was filled with kids laughter and some teens having fun. I sat down and hugged my knees and buried my face. I didn't know how long I was in that position but when I looked up again I saw the park was completely empty. I only could make out the figures of two people in the distance. They were talking and one voice in particular sounded vaguely familiar.

I decided to investigate further and  I quietly walked towards the position of the two people. I had gotten close enough to make out that it was a boy and a girl and the girl so happened to be Jenny!

What was she doing here and who was the boy she was talking to. I had never seen the boy before neither had Jenny mentioned him to me. He had short brown messy hair and grey stormy eyes, he was well toned and overall good looking. He was taller than Jenny. They both seemed to be engrossed in their conversation and they talked in whispers, the only words I could make out was "deal" and "time limit".

The whole thing was strange and I was very curious. So my curiosity made me to walk a little further to overhear more of their conversation and that's when luck decided to be against me, I mistakenly tripped over something and landed with a thud. They heard my movements and quickly turned to have a look around, me being a smart aleck had already quickly dived behind a bush thereby earning me some scrapes and bruises on my arms and legs , just wonderful.

I could still see them from the bush but they seemed to be rounding up with what they were saying to each other. I strained my ears to still try and hear what they were saying and this time I heard my name in full "Skylar Aubrey Jones".