Stronger

Prologue

"Keep your mouth shut and don't move! If you move, people are gonna find you. And if they find you, you will be in big trouble with me. Don't tell anyone!" My father slung me by my hair into a corner of the attic, and then he left.

I started my silent tears. I heard people banging frantically on the door. I could vaguely make out words.

"Mr. Caughvester! Open up! It's just a few seatbelt tickets!" Someone was saying. I sat as still as I possibly could, hugging my knees to my chest, tears rolling down my face.

In the next instant, I heard a big crash. I'd heard the sound before, it sounded like the time daddy couldn't get into my room and had gotten mad, so he kicked in my door.

The people from downstairs were in the house now, and the footsteps were getting closer.

I glanced towards the tiny window in the attic, and caught the gaze of a person in a black outfit leaning on this thing with colored lights and round things. I think it's called a car.

My breath caught in my throat, he'd seen me. I saw the man running towards the house, and in a few moments, I heard yelling.

"Attic! There's a girl in the attic!" They screamed. I knew they were going to find me.

I frantically grabbed the blanket near me and threw it over every part of me except my head. I was choking back sobs at this point.

The door flew open. A man looked around, and spotted me. He climbed down the ladder to the attic, and I thought everything was okay, he wasn't going to come back up.

But instead, a woman climbed up the ladder, and towards me.

I cried harder. Daddy is going to be so mad at me! He'll probably be so mad... He'll do game night.

The lady kept crawling closer, within touching distance. She reached her hand out. I knew she was going to hit me. Or hurt me. All touches hurt. Don't they?

Nice touches are only in stories.

She started to talk.

"Hi sweet heart. I'm officer Katey. I'm going to pick you up and carry you to an ambulance, and then we'll take you to a place where some nice people will look to see if you're okay. Alright?" The lady said to me.

Waves of panic washed over me. I shook my head frantically. But then she put an arm under my knees and an arm behind my back. She looked into my eyes sympathetically.

"It's okay sweetie, I won't hurt you." She said. But it did hurt. All over. My bruises were being pressed on.

"You're probably pretty cold, huh?" She asked, keeping the blanket over me.

Even though I could barely think straight, I was cold. Very cold. All I was in was underwear.

I tried to kick, but it hurt because I was so weak. I barely was able to keep my head up for more than 5 minutes.

The lady climbed down the ladder with me. I was so scared. Daddy was going to hurt me bad, he'd do game night.

I hated game night. It was always late at night, scary, and I never won.

We were at the bottom of the ladder now, and I saw daddy glaring at me. I suddenly realized I'd rather be with a stranger than him.

My grip on the lady tightened, and so did her's on me. We walked towards the door.

That scared me.

Daddy said their were things that would hurt me worse than he did out there. And the things would only hurt me.....I couldn't imagine pain like that.

My heart started to race.

The door was already open.

I tried to scream but no sound came out. I saw a new car, one that looked like a box. There were doors on the back, and someone came out with a bed on wheels. I cried harder. Beds meant game night.

"No! Please! I promise I'll be good Miss Katey! Not a game night please!" I said, almost screaming as I was placed on the bed.

I cried as hard as my weak body allowed.                                

"NOOOOO! Please! No!" Officer Katey looked into my eyes and said words I didn't hear over my screaming.

People wheeled me into the boxy car, and Officer Katey followed me in. I think she tried to tell me something, but finally gave up.

People swarmed around me, with all of these weird looking things. I don't like when people touch me at all. But they did.

They wrapped something around my arm, and I vaguely remember them saying something about blood and pressure.

I was the scaredest I had ever been. I'd never seen so many people. My sobs were so loud, they took all the energy I had.

People were everywhere. And then I couldn't open eyes. The last thing I heard was that I was passing out.