Under the Willow Tree
By Rachael Saeva
(c) Copyright 2010
Chapter 1
Flimsy Branches and Dreaded Days
The sky was transitioning from the lightest of the oranges and pinks to the normal pale blue that it would be for the rest of that treacherous day. Through the willow tree's soft, winded branches the light traveled inward shining on Desiree Aylin Roux's fair skinned face. Most people though called her Des for short. She held the tree tightly to her of sleep deprivation fighting to keep her blue grey eyes open. A new day was approaching which she hoped would be better than the last one.
The bruises that leveled from her arms to her back were fading a bit from last night. Their purple color was depleting into a sickening yellow shade that made Desiree flinch when she gazed at herself. Minus the bruises and cuts she gained almost every night, she was a pretty girl. Her reddish, auburn hair fell to a little beyond her bony shoulders which complimented her husky grey eyes that most people mistaken as blue. Her height was shorter than most girls only ranging at five foot one, but didn't help the matter of her much needed self defense.
Desiree was up all night battling with the pain that came from her house, but more accurately her aunt Donna. To her, it was safer to be in the willow tree outside from her bedroom when her aunt was on a rampage. She knew though that sooner or later the screaming would come, and the willow tree would be abandoned for the time being until the next night she was beaten. Des's back was gently laid against the tree's trunk knowing her time was almost up before she had to enter back into her real life.
The one she dreaded the most.
As if on cue her aunt's screeches started throughout the house aimlessly. The sun was just sweeping over the horizon, so it must have been about five in the morning. Des held her head in her tiny, roughened palms. This had been her fifth day without the sleep she needed to process. If the bruises weren't jabbing at her continuously throughout the night then it would have been possible to close her eyelids for at least an hour or two, but her luck wasn't exactly present.
Cautiously, she climbed down from the willow tree carefully sliding down the trunk making sure she didn't batter her ribs. She dropped to the ground with a jolt wincing from the after shock. Holding her side, she ran towards the brick sided house hoping she could climb back into her top window without hurting herself again. Desiree pulled herself up onto the windowsills ledge by the gutter, then easily lifted her body onto the roof and slid through the opened window. She sighed a sign of relief seeing her aunt wasn't in the room already. Not even Desiree could imagine what would happen to her if her aunt was waiting on the bed patiently. It would have been something between torture and death.
Desiree shivered at the thought of it. She didn't want to die in the arms of the bastard that she called her aunt. The shrilling noise was becoming overwhelming, and her mind kept telling her that any minute Donna would come up the creaking stairs
to punish her.
"I'm coming Donna!" Des yelled frantically down the staircase hoping her voice wasn't overpowered by the shrills.
The screaming was muffled, which made it hard to understand what Donna was saying. Though Desiree knew that getting downstairs was not an option. She ran down the staircase into the yellow painted kitchen finding a plump woman facing the little television placed on the counter.
Donna Hutchinson was one of the cruelest women that lived on the planet, and surprisingly she was married before her husband died mysteriously. Desiree was Donna's brother's daughter whom he abandoned ten years ago. Des's mom was dying of leukemia when she begged Donna to take her, being the only family Des had. Her mother, Jade Roux, was never married to Donna's brother Vick Hutchinson, but he supported Jade when she got pregnant with Desiree.
