Broken Pieces

CHAPTER {3}

AKARI

Home.

A place where you feel safe and protected. Not a place where you feel imprisoned. A place surrounded by the people you love. Not a place where you feel afraid for standing in the same place for too long.

We had gotten to the house a few moments ago but I was hesitant to go in. Domenico was definitely getting impatient so I opened the door.

I'm immediately hit with the stench of weed, alcohol and blood. I look at the state the house was left in. Dried blood right beneath from where I was standing.

Empty beer bottles everywhere, some broken pieces of glass edged with blood. I was embarrassed that Domenico's first impression of the house was a dirty one.

I turn around to face Domenico and he was looking around with a scrunched up face. Probably because of the strong smell of blood that easily toppled over the weed and the alcohol.

"Do you have a phone?" Domenico asks setting down the wheelchair beside the door. I shake my head, "No, bit there's a landline here, why?" I say and he hands me a card. "Just in case" he says before he leaves closing the door behind him.

I hear the car drive away and I looked down at the card. It was his number. I knew I wouldn't need it but I still set it on the table beside the door.

I need to clean this house. I begin to make my way to my room which was at the back of the house and had most of the cleaning supplies. I passed by the living room and immediate flashes of what happened in it crossed my mind.

"Please stop!" I screamed, looking at my mother for help. All she did was take a drag from her cigarette. Seeing that look on her face made me give up.

My mother was not going to help me.

It had dawned on me and it made me give up. I stopped screaming, I stopped sobbing. I gave up. My once clenched fists turned into an open palm.

Why would she let this happen to me? I was her daughter, wasn't I?

I looked away and continued to make my way to the back of the house. I turned a corner and I had to walk past the kitchen.

She banged my head onto the island. "Do you want me to die because of your bad cooking?" She says as she threw hot food at my face. Then threw the pot onto my already throbbing head and I passed out.

I quickly went past the kitchen. It is as if I'm watching it happen in real life. Right in front of my eyes. I turned to my right and a few feet away from the kitchen where the stairs.

I went behind the stairs and there was a door. My room. I opened it and the strong smell of blood hit my nose. I went in and immediately went into the corner where I kept my stuff. I had a pile of journals, I don't know why but my mother kept empty journals so I took them and started writing my poems in them.

Other than that there was mops, brooms and all the cleaning supplies. I let go of my crutches deciding to just hop on one leg.

I took the stuff and carried them in a way that I could still walk. I look around the room and those flashes come back.

I screamed as she whipped me for the hundredth time and she left. I curled up into a ball and cried. I was naked, it was right after I was taken advantage of. The man had commented on my weight and how fat I looked and mother didn't take that lightly.

I went into the bathroom to get cleaning gloves and to put water in the bucket. The bathroom had a broken mirror with pieces of glass in the sink and some on the floor.