Saving Lily

The Basement

*Warning* This chapter contains depictions of abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

Grace reached down and grabbed the front of my collar in her fist, standing me up to face her.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" She snapped.

"I..I was just playing." I stammered.

She looked over at Mason who stood wide eyed a few feet away from me.

"Go home Mason!" She snapped, still holding my collar in her fist.

"Yes ma'am...bye Lily." He said sadly, picking up his ball.

Before I could respond she dragged me across the patio and into the house.

"You think you can just go outside whenever you want?" she yelled, dragging me by the arm toward the basement.

"I'll teach you!" she continued.

"Please, I'm sorry." I pleaded.

"I won't do it again." Although I wasn't too sure what I had done that was so wrong in the first place.

William and Sophia watched with smirks as she shoved me down the basement stairs.

"Robert!" she called as we made our way down the last few steps.

I heard his footsteps coming down the stairs and my heart pounded at what would happen next. "Robert!" she called again.

"What is it, Grace?" he answered, his face growing angry once he saw me.

"I caught her outside running around like a wild dog." she said.

"I told you bringing her here was a bad idea." She continued.

"You know why we had to." He said to her as he walked over to me slowly .

Robert looked at me with anger in his eyes. "Who told you you could go outside?" he asked coldly.

I looked up at William, who was glaring at me from the top of the stairs, knowing he  was the one who told me that Grace had said I could go play.

"Answer me dammit!" He demanded, slapping my face causing me to fall to the floor.

"I...I" I whimpered, not knowing what to say.

"Get me the strap." he said to grace.

I sat there on the floor frozen, knowing that if I protested or tried to run it would just make it worse.

"When I ask you a question I expect an answer!" He said coldly.

"I-I'm sorry sir." I cried.

"You're an an ungrateful little brat." He said angrily as he hit me across the back with the strap.

"Ungrateful. Little. Bitch." He seethed with each swing.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face as he hit me across the back with the strap until I passed out.

" Lily." I heard my mothers voice call as I opened my eyes.

"I will always be with you my flower." she said, as I lay there on the cold cement floor of the basement.

I squinted my eyes as the light emerged from someone opening the door.

"From now on, this is where you'll stay." Grace informed me.

I sat up to look at her, blinking as she stood at the top of the stairs.

"I will have your things brought down. You are to report to the kitchen every morning. When you are not needed there you will return back here until you are needed for something else. Is that clear?" she said.

I nodded.

"Yes ma'am."

"And I better not catch you outside of this house again. Except for school. She said, turning and slamming the door behind her.

As time went on I had gotten used to having my own little space away from Robert and Grace and their demon spawns. I had cleaned it up a little bit and there was no longer spider webs everywhere.

They couldn't be bothered with bringing my bed down here so I had to make due with an old ratty mattress in the corner. There was a toilet and sink built in under neath the stairs and all I had to wash with was a bucket. But I didn't mind. It was my own personal space and I enjoyed being left alone.

I attended the local public school and even though I didn't have many friends, I looked forward to being out of that house for a little while.

Mason went to the private school in town, where all of the privileged rich kids got to go. The same one William and Sophia went to. He and William were the same age and in the same grade, so they knew each other well. I wasn't sure if they had been friends or not.

A few days a week Mason would come over and help me sneak out of my window. We would run down to the creek behind my house and talk for hours. I told him about my moms pearls and he taught me how to fish.

I loved spending time with him. It was the only time I could let loose and be myself without the worry of being yelled at or hit. He was my best friend, my only friend.

One of the memories that stand out to me most was the summer I turned thirteen. I woke up and went to the bathroom as usual. I screamed in horror as I saw the red streaked toilet paper. No one had taken the time to tell me what would happen to my body as I got older.

My heart pounded as I ran to the only one in the house who had ever shown me any kindness. Miss Clara, the cook. She explained puberty and everything that would happen to me as I got older, assuring me that I was not dying but just growing up.