Living With Ian

Chapter 11

Sarah gasped as she looked up at the rough hand that had just yanked her into the alley and she felt her heart stop beating.

It was Chris. Her awful, terrible older brother that had hurt her for so many years had her pinned against a brick wall and was glaring down at her with such an evil looking expression it made Sarah want to cry. But she couldn’t do that. She wasn’t going to be the scared little kid anymore. She wanted him to know that she wasn’t as easily intimidated anymore. It was hard though. Sarah felt herself longing for Ian’s protection but she knew he would never find her in time.

Sarah didn’t know what Chris was planning to do to her but she knew that it would not be good.

“You little bitch!” Chris sneered. Sarah winced at his voice. “Did you really think that mom would let you go that easily? Did you think that we would let you be happy?” Sarah looked down and shook her head. She had known that her newfound freedom and happiness wouldn’t last. She should’ve known that everything was too good to be true. Chris looked her up and down.

“Where’d you get the clothes?” he asked her. “Did your boyfriend buy them for you?”

"He’s not my boyfriend,” Sarah whispered. Any hope that she had of showing Chris that she wasn’t a scared little girl anymore was long gone. She was completely terrified.

Chris reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.

“Did he get you this?” he asked. Sarah nodded. Chris looked at it and Sarah knew he was looking at her lock screen and the picture of her and Ian making funny faces together. “That’s cute. He actually cares about you.” Chris looked down at Sarah.

“I think I’ll keep this,” he said as he held up the phone. “You know, give him something to remember you by.” Sarah gulped. Chris tucked the phone into his pocket. He grabbed Sarah by her hair and pulled her up to where her head was against the wall of the building.

Sarah closed her eyes and waited as she saw Chris bring his fist up. Before she knew it, she was lying on the ground, dazed from the blow she had just taken to her face and feeling the searing pain begin to make an appearance on her cheek. She watched with blurry vision as Chris towered over her.

“I’m not done with you yet,” he sneered. He kicked her hard in her stomach and Sarah felt as if her ribcage had just exploded. She screamed loudly and Chris was quick to shove a piece of dirty cloth into her mouth to muffle the noise. Sarah looked out of the alley and into the street. It seemed as if the entire world around her was clueless as to what was going on. Sarah knew that if she could just take the twenty steps to get onto the sidewalk she would be safe from Chris and his anger but his iron fisted grip on her didn’t falter. Chris could tell that Sarah wanted to run and he wasn’t going to have it. Sarah was sure that her shoulder now had five bruises on it from where his fingers clenched it.

“Mom told me to wait until she had the chance to finish you off herself,” Chris said. “She wanted you alive. But I’m not that patient.” Sarah tried to scream but the rag in her mouth prevented her from doing so.

Chris pulled Sarah up by her hair to where she was looking into his hate filled eyes. He started punching her over and over again until Sarah couldn’t stand. She fell onto the hard concrete and curled up into a tight ball. Her body went into defense mode like it had been forced to do so many times before. Sarah started shutting out everything that was happening to her.

She was vaguely aware of Chris pushing her head into the brick wall and feeling blood start trickling down her face, and she was somewhat conscious to the constant blows her body was taking from Chris’ hands and feet. But even if Chris had given her the opportunity to run or scream for help, she couldn’t. It felt as if her body was paralyzed.

Sarah had felt this way before when she was enduring Chris and her mother’s beatings, but never to this extent. She had never been harmed this badly before.

All of a sudden, Chris stopped. Sarah looked around to see what caused the change of heart from her older brother and she saw that a man had opened a door and walked into the alleyway to throw away some trash. Chris pushed Sarah behind a dumpster so that the old man couldn’t see her battered body.

“This isn’t over,” Chris threatened as he ran off. Sarah groaned and took the piece of cloth out of her mouth. She was too weak to scream now. She watched as the man walked back through the door and disappeared; oblivious as to what had just happened fifteen feet away from him.