It hurt.
It hurt like hell. The one person in this house who I had thought I could trust had folded under the pressure - leaving me to take the fall.
After she had told him, I’d hidden in the bathroom and locked the door... but I couldn’t stay in there forever.
The bruises I had received when I eventually came out wouldn’t start to show a few hours yet, but the angry red spots on my arms and ribs showed every fist-mark for and punch.
Chris had told me he would put a lock on my door and bar the window, and I had no doubt that he would go through with his threats.
But it didn’t matter - if he got mad again I’d just run out the front door, or go through the bathroom window. He always forgot that I could fit out the tiny hole if I removed the slats.
He really wasn’t very clever, but it didn’t make him any less frightening... which I guess was why Mum caved in.
Before he beat the truth from my mother, he hadn’t known that each time I locked my room I left the house - he still didn’t know where I went, thank god, but he was angry enough that I left his dungeon.
If he even found out that I had friends, people I could turn to, I doubt I would be able to move much afterwards - his beatings were usually brief, and he only ever hit me where it wouldn’t be seen; but he never held back, and I feared for my life sometimes.
That’s why I started running off - I just needed a couple of hours now and then when I wasn’t being abused or bashed.
I guess I was lucky, though - I had somewhere to go. All I had to do was escape the house, then take the bus down to Riverside, cross the park and I was there.
It wasn’t a stately sanctuary by any means, and the suburb of Riverside was nowhere near as grand as its name, but it was far better than my own neighbourhood, and the closest thing to home that I had.
The modest house that I escaped to belonged to my best friend Jessie and her family - her mother and various friends in similar situations to mine.
It was the place I went to when I needed a break from life.
So, 10pm that night, I had just made the journey from my house to Riverside.
I walked under the trees in the dark, making my way across the park and up the third street on the right.
The lights shining from inside felt peaceful and I began to calm down as soon as I saw the familiar façade of my refuge.
Scratching gently on the door, I heard footsteps from inside, and eventually the door opened.
It was Jessie’s mum, looking at me first in puzzlement, then concern. She didn’t know exactly why I came to stay with Jessie, but she did know it wasn’t good.
“Oh, it’s you, Angie - come in, come in.”
“Thanks, Mrs. James.” I smiled at her and stepped inside the door, as she turned and called back down the hallway.
“Jessie? Angie’s here.”
I heard a noise from one of the rooms further down the corridor - presumably Jessie replying - and started walking towards it.
After a second she bounced (yes, bounced) out of the third room to my left - the living room, I recalled.
“Hey, Angel,” she grinned and gave me hug. “Bad day?”
