Not Just Another Girl

Showers and Nightmares

Rhun opened carefully the back kitchen door. She didn’t think that Mira would be happy if she woke her. Deciding not to care-Mira could be so lazy sometimes-she slammed closed the door and stomped over to the fridge to see if there was any way she could put her milk in here instead of having it upstairs in the cooler.

“Hey, do you think she would notice if I went and bought groceries? She forgot your cereal and the marshmallows that you like to roast in the fireplace,” Rhun yelled to her sister who was walking across the living room and the kitchen to stand behind her. Rhun turned to see not her sister but the woman who had made her life a living hell and continued to do so even after she had been thrown out.

Her mother.

“Mom?” Miranda’s voice echoed around the large house as she came down the grand staircase. “What are you doing here? I thought you still had work.”

“I came early to see you, because you were running a temperature in the morning when I come in and find this wh0re here raiding the refrigerator,” Althea looked at her blonde daughter in disgust as she raised the heavy poker iron in her hand. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right here and now?”

“I-I-I,” Rhun stuttered as her mother raised the poker. “I don’t know,” she whispered, defeated.

“Exactly,” Althea looked at the girl in disgust as she let the stick fall.

Rhun crashed to the ground as the poker struck her shoulder, and her mother raised the poker to hit her again and again. Rhun cried out with pain as the blows struck her ribcage and she felt the bones break.

Her mother raised the poker to hit her daughter again but found that she was exhausted. She let it fall and started kicking her daughter. Althea was so angry that she heard a clean snap, when her daughters’ already weakened thigh bone broke. She kicked Rhun in the face many times.

Until finally, gratefully she stopped.

She walked over to a table that stood off to the side and opened the drawer with a key from around her neck. She drew something out that was long and black. A gun.

And she pointed it straight at Rhun. “I’ve been waiting to do this a long time.”

And Althea pulled the trigger to kill her 15 year old daughter.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh!!!!!” Rhun screamed as she woke from the nightmare. Even after three months, she still had recurring nightmares from her mothers’ attempt on her life. 

“SHUT THE H3LL UP IN THERE!!!!” Crying sounded out as the woman next door hit the wall. “Keep your wh0rish yells to yourself!”

Wh0re. B!tch. Slut.

Rhun held her knees and rocked herself as her tears slid down her face.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep. Her alarm wouldn’t shut up, even though she had pressed snooze more than five times. Groaning she dragged herself up to look at the clock. 

6:30 am, glowed the red digits. Rhun groaned and stood up from her bed only to fall face first on the rug.

Catching herself at the last minute she did ten pushups and then rolled over to do thirty curl-ups. Hurriedly getting up, she grabbed her thick woolen towel and her shampoo and headed to the bathroom hoping to be the first in there.

No such luck. Already there was a line of ten people and seven people were already going down the stairs giving them a head start.

Rhun sighed and climbed onto the bannister, held her weight until she was in a comfortable position and . . . let go.

She zoomed passed the first five, but the last two were running down the stairs two at a time when she passed them. She hopped into place when the line moved up two, a man and his wife both going in, one for the shower, another for the toilet, sink and toothbrush.

Ten minutes later . . .

Rhun shivered underneath the ice cold water. Her hair was already lathered and all that she needed was to wash her hair out. When the pounding on the door started again.

She had only been inside for twenty seconds when the person who had been behind her started hitting the door and yelling at her to get out already.

Rhun sighed as the water seeped into her hair and started rinsing out her blonde tresses. She ran her fingers through her hair as she swept the water over the blonde fringe.

“If you don’t get out of that bathroom in-“the man yelled and was abruptly cut off as the manager started yelling at him.

“Shut the h3ll up! Can’t you f**king tell that my f**king wife is trying to f**king sleep!! Next time you knock on that f**king door I’ma cut your sh** hand off, and kick you and your b!tch wife and your f**king brats out on the f**king street!” The manager screamed, this voice clearly loud enough to wake the children on the fourth floor, who started screaming. “God4mm!t!! Can’t I get f**king peace in this place!?!”

Rhun finished washing her hair and was drying herself with her thick towel when the manager left. She dressed and was out the door in ten seconds.

The man after was still looking down sheepishly when she opened the door. However he still managed to glare at her as he swept into the bathroom.

Rhun sighed and began the long climb back up to the tenth floor.

Twenty minutes later . . .

Rhun pulled herself up the last few stairs and breathed heavily. For some reason, instead of getting into shape, Rhun was getting more and more tired, as if from obesity. She sighed and opened the door to her apartment, almost falling over her suitcase and the tiny puppy that she had.

Rhun had found a dog on the railroad tracks and had taken it to the vet. The vet had been skeptical about whether or not the animal would live, but three months later, the dog had been healthy.

Not to mention a little bit fat. But the weight around her stomach wasn’t fat. It was a litter of puppies, and since Rhun had saved the mother, the vet had let her take one of the puppies home. And as a nice bonus had even given the puppy free vaccinations.

The vet had given Rhun the option of getting the biggest puppy, but instead Rhun chose the runt of the litter. The little dog was smaller than a Chihuahua pup, and was clumsy, falling over its long tail, and stumbling over its’ paws. But Rhun had not wanted a pup that was perfect. She wanted one that was like her.

Someone who didn’t belong. Either at home or out in the real world. And Rhun and the pup got along fabulously. She continuously nuzzled her, while the pup always made sure to bark loudly whenever a drunk would try her door. Not only that, but the pup was tremendously warm, perfect for when the heater stopped working in the middle of winter.

It had been two years ago that Rhun had saved the dog on the railroad tracks, and yet the pup had not grown larger than she already was. But Rhun didn’t mind. She loved her dog. The only problem was that the dog had no name.

Rhun picked up her tiny yet ferocious dog, which was showing her ferocity by licking Rhuns’ face with gusto. Rhun cuddled her briefly before setting the dog down and putting her in a carrier and picking up her small suitcase.

Today was her first day of work and she was going to be spending most of it on an airplane. Good thing that she had just started reading Game of Thrones.

Rhun sighed, gave the apartment one last look, packed her towel, dirty clothes and shampoo, grabbed her coat and swept out of the apartment.