Heartbreaker (Ashton Irwin)

Chapter 34

~Madison Williams~

I managed to bring myself up onto my feet. My shirt was ripped apart and not able to be worn. I slipped myself into the pair of shorts I was wearing earlier. Luckily, I found a sweater hanging on a hook in the changing room. It was probably 10 sizes too big on me but that didn't matter. I threw it on, allowing it to fall just above my knees. I didn't know who the sweater belonged to, but it was nice and warm for me to wear. I found my shoes at the corner of the room and placed them on one by one before attempting once more to open the door. It was unlocked and open after the guys had left. My throat burned as I walked out of the shower room. Now that I was finally able to escape, it was already too late. I walked down the empty halls of the school in the darkness. Not a face was to be seen, not even that of a janitor's, and I wondered what time it was. As I walked, I wondered if anyone was really out there. I wondered if there were actually people down the hall who could hear the sounds of my shrieks. I wondered if they even cared that someone was struggling, that something so cruel, so unjust was happening all because she had loved a man. All because of a lie, someone wasn't seen as a human being anymore. All because of the way she dressed, people didn't hesitate to believe the judgements of others. At the top of all these questions, I wondered, how could human nature be so damn cruel? How could anyone be capable of doing this? I thought maybe it was only a few like Andrew, but seeing how many guys filled the shower room that night, I guess I was wrong. All men are the same. They all want one thing. They're all the same. They all disgust me. I couldn't believe that I had just seen it now, and now that I had, I reminded myself of it as I repeated the same phrase in my head. I had to remind myself constantly of the things men were capable of if they had the chance. It was then that I wanted nothing more but to break them all. I wanted desperately to show them what it felt like to be broken, even if it was only a fraction of the pain I was feeling. They would learn their lesson, and I would be the one to teach them, one way or another.

Stepping one foot out onto the pavement that peeked out from underneath the open door, I took my final glance at the building. I knew that after everything that had happened, there was no way that I could go back.

The streetlights shone some light through the empty sidewalks at three in the morning. Those thin towering poles stood in a straight path, guiding a lost girl home as they competed against the surrounding darkness. The night had only seemed to her as a battle of silence and darkness. She knew that the two would inevitably meet ends and because of their constant collisions, they fought for dominance. Those two elements were always seemingly competing for power over the night and Danika had yet to decide which was more prevalent. Her tear-stained eyes gazed up at the star-filled sky. It was a sight that would always satisfy a young Danika, but now, it only served as a brutal remembrance of life's cruel realities. Age and its new-found wisdom only taught her the impertinence of counting stars. Countless stars scattered the night sky but that didn't matter anymore. The poka-dotted sky only reminded her that no matter how many stars shone their light, the surrounding darkness would always prevail. There would always be light, but no one could see it over the darkness. No one.

That very night, she sat in the corner of her bedroom with wide eyes. She couldn't cry herself to sleep like she did the other times, but she knew nothing she could do would bring things back to the way they were. Her frail, weary body slumped over into a ball as she hugged her knees. She didn't move a muscle, she just sat staring out of her bedroom window watching the night sky and desperately waiting for the sunrise.

Months passed by that Danika's parents had been driving her to school unaware that in fact, she would no longer be attending school. They had simply dropped her off at the front of the building assuming she would go in and feed her bright, sharp mind as she always had. Little did they know that she had been wandering around town or that the only thing in her backpack was a spare outfit for her to wear at the club. She would just simply change in the school washrooms, careless of the judging stares she'd receive from the others. She stepped into the school premises wearing jeans and a tee and would leave wearing low hung tops and corset-resembling dresses. Slut; the phrase just didn't seem to phase her anymore. She had been known as one for a long time and she wondered is she really was all along. Maybe this really was Danika. Maybe they knew it all along but waited for the moment to break the silence. Maybe being a slut was her true identity, because it sure felt like it.