Hope.

Broken

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CHAPTER 1

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Charlie and I always ate dinner quietly , at least since he had adopted me eight years ago; Dessert, well that was a different story, being that I was always dessert.

Every time after dinner, I followed the river that passed by Charlie's house and sat by one of the ponds that formed along its way.

The pond's edge was oulined with stone, bright green grass grew all around it. On the water, swam the leaves of the tree that stood a couple of yards away. The grass touched my elbows when I sat by the pond, it felt as soft as the gentle wind that made the leaves fly into the water. The moss that formed in the inside was almost as green as the grass. Only there, I felt safe and peaceful. It was my little piece of heaven. From time to time, I'd get lucky and I'd spend hours there without Charlie shouting my lovely name in his love-filled tone.

When I first came with him, he made me believe that he had bought me. That he owned me and that I had to do what he said, as he said. That fucker. I had though of leaving a countless myriad of times. But... I knew no one. I knew nothing outside of the hell that I called home, what if the rest of the world was the same? I had never known otherwise. But my cup was past being full, I couldn't take it anymore. All the home abortions, his friends being over.  My eighteenth birthday was the next day, not that it meant anything to Charlie, I don't think that he even knew or cared to know, but it gave me hope. Hope... what a joke.

"Hope! What the fuck you doin' outside!" I heard him scream from the porch on the house that covered the sinking sun behind the darkening hills in the orange sky, "get in here you little bitch!" His hair was brown like that of the earth, and his eyes blue like the sky. His soul, however, I imagined would be black like ash. He wore an old white T-shirt and blue denim jeans. He was tall and was around his mid-forties. His skin had turned to a darker shade due to his exposure to the sun. Strands of uncombed hair fell by the side of his cheeks.

I sat by the pond and looked at my reflection in the water with pity. My brown hair looked like brown wires, my cheeks with too much of the purple make-up that Charlie put with his fists. My green eyes filled with tears that would fall and make ripples which would deform my reflection in the pond. Sometimes I'd wonder if my tears had filled the pond more than the water from the little river that passed by it. I heard a shot from a shotgun, I turned and saw Charlie holding his double barrel up. I got up, but it was too late he was already walking my way. We met half way. It was a love scene gone wrong.

I was fool enough to think that he would only punch me, he grabbed his shotgun with both hands and hit with its butt making sure that it wasn't anywhere visible. As he pulled me by my hair and walked towards the house he said, "Can't you fuckin' hear me?" Once I was close enough to look inside the house I knew why he was so angry. "You know I hate makin' them nice folks wait," He pushed me letting my hair go, "you little whore," Now directing his lovely smile to his highly important customer. "Sorry 'bout the shot, I thought I saw one of those coyotes lurkin' round" They went into one of the rooms, sat, and talked for hours. After they laughed, talked, and drank, Charlie called me over.

The man Charlie was speaking with was somewhat overweight, he wore a gray suit with white stripes going upwards. His bald head still had remnants of his silk-white hair. His sweaty forehead looked like the rippled pond. Over his blue eyes hung his long, thick, and white eyebrows. He ran a handkerchief over his forehead. I noticed the golden, expensive-looking watch that he was wearing. "So a hundred dollars, if I've heard right, is it?" He asked in a trembling tone, he was nervous, "and she's fine with it, right?"