Chapter One: How it all began
I was ten when it all began.
I didn't have a dad... or really a mom for that fact either. My mom was there but yet she wasn't. My dad died in a car crash on the way to the emergency room when I was born. To this day... my mom still cries every night, and I join her too. Every day I could sense her sadness, how much stronger it became. About a year ago, she started bringing strange men to the house and never sees them again. Before it was rare, but then it became almost every night.
Soon the whole neighborhood knew about her, and then it traveled throughout the school. Some kids were scared to come near me, they thought I had a disease or something; others just made fun of me for it. They kept shouting, “You're going to be just like your mom!”. For some reason though, I protected her. I knew what she was doing was wrong. I don't want to be like her but just others making fun of her problems made me furious.
It was a Saturday afternoon; I sat on the driveway drawing with chalk. I drew what any normal kid would draw- butterflies, rainbows, and flowers, all of that girl type of stuff. A group of boys walked towards me, three of them and sadly, I knew them. One in the middle was Kevin; he's the tallest of the group with dark brown hair and matching brown eyes. Shortly behind him were Justin and Jake, the backup boys. They only came near me just to make fun of me as usual, though it didn't bother me as much since I'm used to it.
“So what's the little munchkin doing today?” Kevin asked with his hands on his hips and a big smirk on his face.
“What does it look like, I'm drawing.” I replied dryly.
“Woah! Alice seems feisty today.” Justin announced.
I let out a big sigh and continued to draw as I did before. “Can you just get it over with already, I'd like to draw in peace.”
Jake kicked the chalk out of my hand, I gave no expression. I tried to hide the fact my hand was hurting, but they saw right through me.
They all laughed at me, I saw nothing to laugh about. No one cracked out a joke or anything, so was was so amusing to them?
“Looks like she wants to be 'Mighty Tough Alice' today!” Kevin cackled with this hands in the air, a huge smile on his face that you would see when a little kid would get some candy. I turned my body around; about to stand up until Justin made a comment.
“Look at her! She's running back to her whore of a mom!”
My body froze, my heart pounding louder and louder and louder with each passing second. A small rock sat next to me at the time so I secretly grabbed it, luckily they didnt see. I slowly rose to my feet like a ghost rising from the grave, then turned around to face my group of tormenters. I glared at them with anger burning in my eyes as they glare back with an intimidating look. Quickly I raised my arm and threw it directly at Kevin's head.
Blood immediately ran down his face, he tried to hold down the wound with his hand but he soon realized that there was no point to put pressure on it.
I ran.
They ran after me, they instantly caught up with me. Jake tackled me to the ground screaming out, “I got her!” Kevin and all of them circled around me, well more of a triangle. I tried diving out of the triangle but it didn't work.
“Get outta my way!” I cried out.
“No! You really think I'd let you get away with throwing a rock at my head? You're crazy, just like your mom!” Kevin shouted.
Tears silently ran down my face. For some reason that was amusing to them. What's wrong with people these days? I asked myself.
Kevin walked up to me.
“I'll show you how this feels,” he said, tightening his fist, and throwing a very painful punch at me. After one little laugh from him, Jake and Justin joined in on the beating as well.
I don't know how long that was... to me, it felt like hours of excruciating pain. To them, it was probably five minutes of fun and excitement. When I stopped making noise, that's when they got bored.
Why... why
did that have to happen? Yeah like I threw a rock at him but they always picked on me... and that was, that was the only time I lost my cool! Ever since that day they have been beating my up almost every day to about twice a week. Every day was Hell... I wish I had someone to talk to about it.
Four Years later.
It was another hellish like nightmare, except I had been awake for it. Kevin and his group were after me once again, and of course they caught up with me. When Justin got me down, it numbed my face, the snow froze my face. When they lifted my head off the ground, half of my face was red. Today though, it turned out to be completely different from all of the rest. They
decided to tie me down to a tree and throw snowballs at me with small rocks in the middle.
They pelted me with rock snowballs, I had bruises all over my body. Every time I got hit, I yelped, no matter how hard I tried not to. Kevin smiled a smile that probably turned bigger than his face.
“This one's coming for you!” Kevin mocked me. He threw the snowball, and it came straight for my face. It hit my right eye. Blood poured down my face, I screamed and cried. The pain was the worth I felt from them by far.
I didn't hear them laugh nor could I see their faces but I could already tell they were shocked by what just happened. I tilted my head down, blood still dripping. I mumbled,”Please... stop... please.” There was no response.
“Hey! What do you guys think you're doing?!” Someone yelled.
Everyone was yelling back and forth. I couldn't comprehend what they said. I heard punches being thrown. Then I passed out.
“Alice...”
Beep. Beep. Beep. That sound is so annoying, I thought to myself. I could hear little conversations in the background but everything to me was black. I began to panic, not a huge one, I started to hyperventilate, my heart raced. Suddenly I felt someone grab my hand. I started to calm down.
“Mom?” I asked whimpering.
“No. I'm sorry, I'm not your mom... but you should open your eyes so I can introduce myself.” Some boy said to me.
I opened my eyes only half way, but I could already tell there was someone I didn't know, haven't seen before, but he was absolutely perfect.
“Who're you?” I asked.
“I'm Zaine.” he introduced himself. “I happened to be walking by and saw what those boys were doing to you. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing so I stepped in and kicked their happy asses back home.”
When Zaine said that I silently cried but also laughed. He gave me such a warm feeling inside. He easily made me smile.
“Hey Alice, if anyone at the hospital asks, I'm your brother, okay?” He told me in a small voice.
“Okay,” I replied. “W-wait, how did you know what my name was?”
“You mumbled it when you were out.” Zaine said with a sad look on his face. That look reminded me of... well, me.
I looked down, my face expression just like his.. I turned my head back up and forced a smile upon my face. “Thanks for everything, but you don't have to stay if you don't want to....” I trailed off. Zaine looked shocked by what I said, his eyes wide and his mouth about to drop.
“No,” he whispered.
“What?”
“No... no.”
“Zaine?”
Zaine jumped out of his seat, he seemed angry but sad too. “I'm not leaving a friend at a time like this? After his outburst he put on a little smile. “Besides, I'm your brother after all.” He closed his eyes and began to laugh. That's when I began to love that smile of his.
Two years, present time...
