Tortured Love

Chapter 2 - Clearly Fate

The day moved by quickly and soon enough, the dismissal bell rang and Pepper was making her way outside without another Daison sighting. Pepper's life at home was certainly not the best. Mr. Granger was abusive to both Pepper and her mother. But, they weren't the only members of the family. Pepper had an older sister, Poppy. However, she committed suicide two years ago when Mr. Granger had beaten her until she bled.

The Grangers did not have a memorial service. Why? Her father said she was a disgrace to the Granger name and so they threw her body down the hill. Pepper's family lived on a snowy slope on the border line of North Dakota. Well, it was snowy during this part of the year. No one really populated that area. It was just the Grangers and Mr. Hilinson but at age 97, who knew how long it would stay that way.

Beside their slope was a scarce forest that barely  held any animals but it was a short distance from Pepper's hut-of-a-house. Their house was dilapidated. Again, why? Because Mr. Granger gambled away the few dollars he gained a week so they barely got food on the table, much less home improvement projects. 

Pepper wasn't allowed to speak to her father unless he spoke to her and if he beat her or verbally abused her, she was expected to stand there and take it. As for her mother, they didn't talk much either since nowadays she was usually busy arguing with her father, icing her bruises or sulking miserably. Which is why Pepper made it a routine to come home late enough to miss the evening fight, grab something from the fridge and run up to her room where she would stay for the rest of the night. Weekends were especially hard since she had no excuse to leave and so she was never fortunate enough to skip the morning arguments, use friends to  fill the emptiness of the afternoon silence or miss the evening fights. However, every single day of the week, she was kept up by the midnight tantrums from her father, including glass shattering and wood breaking.

Her friends never knew about her home life because she was persistent in lying. Lucky for her father, Poppy was a loner and didn't make a single friend so when she committed suicide no one asked. Except Pepper's friends, who she had lied to again, saying Poppy moved away.

Pepper continued to trudge up the slope to her hut-house. She walked up the snowy hill, alone, drowning in the depression of thoughts revolving her once happy and lively sister. Suddenly, as Pepper began to close in on her house, she heard a feminine, blood-curdling scream. The immediate thought struck her like lightning through a grey, dying sky. The scream, so close, so scared, so... Familiar. Mom, she heard herself whisper. 

In effort to race to her weak mother's rescue, Pepper slipped on on wet snow and tumbled backwards, down the side of the hill. At the bottom of this steep slope was a fast-flowing river (the same one Poppy once floated down) leading to a waterfall which seemed to be made of more rocks than water. She slid down the cold snow, on her back, with her head aiming for the waters. As her eye caught sight of a small, weak branch, she knew the opportunity was practically throwing itself at her. Even though it was unlikely to be able to hold her weight, it was her only option. Well that and certain death. Fear flooded in as she realized that this may very well be the end of Pepper Granger. Maybe that would be okay, considering it had to be better than going home.

And just then Pepper decided to decline the branch's offer. Another ear-splitting scream escaped the lungs of her vulnerable mother. No, Pepper had to live. For her mother. As the chance nearly vanished, Pepper frantically clutched at the branch, stopping her own horrid fate. Thorns engulfed the tree branch and stabbed at her fingers but she ignored the sharp pain and gushing blood, too numb from fear. She screamed out for help but of course, no one responded because no one could hear her, because she was beyond alone.

She refused to give up though, determination driving her to scream until her throat ached. But it was pointless. Several minutes had gone past, her feet tried to scramble up the snow, her muscles grew soar with the attempts to survive yet, no one came to her rescue. She couldn't go down without a fight though, but maybe she had put up enough of a battle because it was about to become a war; to her dismay the blood from her hands was making it hard to hold on any longer.