The Rainy City

Introduction

The bottle flew by Rainy's head, smashing to a million pieces on the wall just behind her back. Glass shards exploded off of the wall hitting her in many different places, making Rainy fall to the ground, landing in a pile of used up cigarettes, many still lit with an ember, burning her already calloused knees. She let out a pained wail, too weak to fight back.

"Oh come on get up, I didn't even hit you!" Her father concluded, looking less than concerned.

He then scolded her, slashing her back 4 then 5 times with his leather belt, that Rainy now only knew as a Whip. Tears stung her eyes, but she knew that if she let go and let them fall, it would make her look weak, only making him want to hurt her more.

She could take it, this one last time, before leaving for good once he fell into a sleepy, drunk state. The drunk stages that he would constantly go through after returning home were as follows: Goofy dizzy, angry, angry abusive, tired, then he would finally fall asleep, leaving Rainy to clean up the mess he would create.

If you were to see this girl on the street you wouldn't give her a second glance. She was perfectly ordinary, despite the fact that even in the summer she wore longsleeves, and long pants that would cover thousands of fading cigarette burns left by her "loving" father. He was a drunk, a user, and an abuser Rainy had come to find in the past 6 years that she'd known him, or at least this side of him.

The past few weeks Rainy had been toying with the idea of running away. Gathering all the supplies she would need, she even got herself a fake ID, to hide more effectively. Since his drug years began her father had for the most part been about as dumb as a doornail, making it pretty simple to go behind his back and create such a plan.

Despite Rainy looking about as thin as a crack in a floorboard, she was respectively strong. Every night, like clockwork, she would carry her short but plump father into his room, to lay him down to sleep. You would think a girl who had built up thighs like hers like hers would be able to defend herself against a man who was a little less than a foot shorter than her, but despite his abusive state, he was once a good man, Rainy knew that for a fact. Drugs had ruined him from the inside out, starting with his relationships. He used to read Rainy bedtime stories back when her mother was still around, but since her leaving his personality had soured.

The night started earlier than usual, leaving Rainy with more time than expected to gather her belongings and head for the door. Rainy had gathered her things in her trusty leather backpack, along with some rain boots she had gotten not long ago, speckled with rubberducks, bringing a light and giddy mood to the otherwise somber one.

Tiptoeing to the front door, she grabbed a picture of her once happy family, kissed it, and then placed it safely into her backpack with the rest of her belongings.

*Click* She unlocked the door with an ever shaking hand. Her futile attempts to escape were cut short when she heard a door knob twist, then click only a few feet behind her.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing young lady?" Her father shouted, still groggy from his drunken nap. It took his eyes a few seconds to readjust before realizing just what she thought she was doing. Despite just waking up he was already halfway done with a lit cigarette. He ran at her, pounding his fist through the wall just beside her head. His cigarette was singeing Rainy's hair, the flame threatened to overrun her entire head. However her father's angry and powerful breathe quickly put the flame out, but not before a few locks fell to the ground.

They stood there for a moment, Rainy thought for only a slight fraction of a moment, maybe he would back away before inflicting more damage upon her. Rainy was quite wrong. The cigarette was still in hand as he grabbed her throat cutting off any remnant of oxygen she was able to suck in beforehand. A sudden strength in her father frightened her, She started to float ever so slowly up the wall. Her toes were only grazing the floor. She fought for the air she knew she deserved to breath, to no prevail. Rainy was still alive, but breathe was not coming easily as her father crushed her throat similar to that of crushing up dried leaves, and just as easy.

She reached for a knife, a plate, an empty bottle to smash over his head, she never would have cleaned the kitchen if she knew this would happen, if she hadn't maybe she could protect herself. A reflective knife she must have missed sat staring at her from underneath the dish cloth, just a foot or so out of reach. She willed the knife to come to her, even willed her arm to dislocate itself so maybe she could fling it over to the knife, and maybe drop it on his toe, but nothing would work.

She could feel her eyes slowly drifting to a close and consciousness wavering in and then back out again. But before her pulse slowed and she would've fallen into an everlasting sleep, she felt a cold metal stinging her dry and cracked hands. The knife that had just seconds ago been out of her reach sat, looking up with her with a sly and evil glint. Rainy briskly grabbed it from the counter, and after receiving what seemed to be a surge of energy and strength plunged the blade deep into the chest of her once happy, alive, and loving father. She was immediately dropped to the ground with a thud, and quickly lost all consciousness she had been holding onto so well.

Rainy awoke to find her sitting in a puddle of her father's blood. It pooled around her, covering nearly every inch of the white tile floor. Tears welled up under her eyes when she had realized just what it was that she had done. The only person left on earth that loved her, dead beside her, no not dead, just barely hanging on to life. She couldn't stay there much longer or else she would be arrested for either the murder, or the attempted murder of her father. She shook as she stood, making the blood ripple and quake beneath her toes. She took the phone off the hook placing it in her father's still twitching hand. Rainy gave her father's hand a quick squeeze before locking the door behind her.