Make it Through

Part 2 Cristal : Whose Fault's whose?

Its night time and I wake up from another nightmare. I was in my bedroom at the cabin. Cody just finished singing to me, he closed the door and I closed my eyes. I felt hands grab me and force me to the floor, I start to cry; it’s Daddy again and I wake up. I look around the tent, there’s no one there. I need Cody. He is usually there for me when I wake up from a nightmare, but he’s not right now, he’s trying to find a way out of the woods. If he were here, he would tell me that everything was alright and it was just a dream. He would sing to me until I fell asleep and I would calm down. He’s only been gone for a day and I already miss him. Emily is taking care of us until he gets back. I hope it’s soon.

I’m glad we left the cabin. Daddy told me that he would be back soon and he scares me. He told me if I tell Cody what he does to me, he would kill him. I believed him because of the way Cody’s punished. Both Uncle Bobby and Daddy come up with all the punishments. I overheard Uncle Bobby talking about Cody’s next punishment for no reason at all; I don’t get it. Uncle Bobby said one thing, and then Daddy said it was already done and that he should do something worse, then Bobby made a horrible punishment. Daddy saw me walking past the room they were talking in, and grabbed me. He told me if I told Cody he would make Cody watch what he does to me.

My nightmares aren’t just about Daddy, they’re also about Cody; him getting hurt by Daddy or Uncle Bobby. I kept my mouth shut and let Cody get punished. It was my fault for all his punishments. Daddy told me if I didn’t do what he said, he’d punish Cody again. Even if I tried my best he still got punished. But it’s what every kid goes through, it’s normal for every family. The girls are supposed to do everything their Daddy tells them to, or someone in the family would be harmed. Cody told me not to trust Uncle Bobby because he’s worse than Daddy, but really, I’m not afraid of Uncle Bobby.

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I calmed down enough to leave the tent. Mia was snoring too loud and I couldn’t sleep after my last nightmare. It was really cold when I stepped out in the long, wet grass. Emily has been up on look out all night, I wish she would sleep. She stared out into the opening, listening for any sounds. I think she is waiting for Cody to come back. I hope nothing happened to him. He’s been longer than he said he would be.  I’m afraid he won’t come back.

I walk up to Emily announcing out loud that it was me because it was procedure here, so we didn’t get hurt by mistake. She turned to me and asked “Is Mia up yet?” This was probably the most she’s said to us since Cody left.

“No, she’s still snoring like a bear. She looked down at me and smiled.

“Okay, do you want to help start the fire?”  I looked at her surprised, Cody would never let me get near a fire let alone make one; he said it was too dangerous.

“Yeah, I’d love to!” I jumped into the air and listened to her instructions. I was being sent out for twigs that would be used as kindling. She told me if I hear anything in the woods, I am to run as fast as I can back to camp and whistle a certain tune. This sounded like a game to me but she made it clear that I was to be all serious. My stomach grumbled and I knew we needed to start the fire fast so Emily could make breakfast.

I ran in the direction she told me to staying on the path. There weren’t very many twigs on the trail so I decided to go off path. The twigs on the ground were too wet, so I decided to climb up a tree to break some twigs off some branches. The tree was way bigger than me, by at least one thousand feet. I tried to place my foot on a small branch hoping it wouldn’t brake; it didn’t. I got to a point where I could see a pasture of grass just beyond a hill. No one’s in sight and I felt safe in this big tree. I began breaking off some twigs and grabbed a handful of leaves; I shoved them into my pockets. When I had enough twigs I threw them on the ground by the tree’s trunk and climbed down.