Scarlett

Chapter 1: Night Fight (late night revision)

I hear glass shatter downstairs - I am terrified for my life. He is back; and by the sounds of it he is drunk once again. Scott, the father of the home I live in, has just arrived back home. His wife isn't home, she never is, and she doesn't know what happens on nights like these. Cherry is a nurse, she has late shifts. She's only home during five the morning until five in the evening.

I look at my lock helpless, it's hanging by a nail with barely any support from the nail at all. I need a new one because the last one was broken by him on a night just like this. The lock doesn't help much anyway, but it had given me at least a little protection and security. Since the lock is hopeless, I look around frantically and try to find a spot to hide, but I can't. There is nowhere that can even be considered a good spot.

I hear the footsteps coming upstairs, and my breathing starts to get heavier, almost to the point of hyperventilation. I feel as if my heart is beating a million times a second.

My adrenaline level is starting to rise, and I honestly don't know what to do. I am being trapped once again, and I am rendered defenseless. There is nothing I can do but pray that tonight I will be okay. Pray and fight, I have to fight this time. No excuses, and no exceptions.

I can hold my own in a fight, especially ever since I turned sixteen.

On my birthday I noticed that my hearing became extremely good. My vision was better than perfect, and I became stronger than I was before. I wasn't weak, I have to stay in shape to try and at least stop Scott - but even so, he is always too strong of a match in the end.

With the strange enhancements I had gotten on my sixteenth birthday, I am only around 120 pounds. I have muscles too, at least for my size I have muscles. And even with all of this - I am permanently screwed over, Before my enhancements I was even smaller, an easier target - however that works I suppose.

Now I'm a target that's a little bit more feisty.

Scott is six feet tall, and he used to be a professional body builder. He got injured while working out; he can't use weights like he used to - so he had to quit his job.

Bodybuilding was his life, all he knew, and it was ripped from him.

Don't get me wrong though, he is a tank. He collapsed after the accident and he became an alcoholic - now I have to suffer the consequences.

"Scarlett dear, I'm home! Let your daddy see that pretty little face, we need to get caught up. It's been a full day since we talked." Scott says loudly from downstairs, and he has a very apparent slur in his voice.

It is going to be worse than usual, I can tell he has drank more alcohol tonight than ever. I can smell him, he reeks of alcohol and sweat. This makes me have to breathe through my mouth, or otherwise - I will most likely throw up all over. It is too much for my senses to handle.

I close my eyes and slide into the corner of my room, I am trying to get mentally prepared for what is coming. I already know that this is not going to help me, so I think about good memories, I tell myself I will soon escape this life of abusive foster homes in one more day- one more day. 

Tomorrow is my eighteen birthday, that's when I become a legal adult. That way I can hit the road from this terrible place. I smile slightly to myself, knowing my one dream in life was coming true, just one more day. I can do it. 

See - life hadn't always been like this. There was a time where I didn't fear every night for my own safety.

I had parents who loved me, cared about me, then they were murdered.

Their bodies were found, but unrecognizable.

Their bodies, they were mutilated.

That night my world was shattered; I tried to act strong - but I was breaking slowly inside.