Silent

Chapter 2

- Mara's POV -

"Mara! Oh my- Mara"

I was abruptly shaken awake by someone. I open my eyes to find the warm comforting face of Ms. Reese.

She's married to the preacher here and I've known her for my entire life. My sister Ashley would always make me come here every day at 4:30 for the past six months... It was always right before my dad got home.

She would come and get me around 6:30 everyday and I would come home and meet my father. He acted like a normal father, he asked me how my day was and if I had any homework left. Then he would just go to his office and do his work.

Now I know why Ashley never let me be at home when dad was. The thing was though is that he never drank and when I came home he was always sober.

"Mara why are you here? Did something happen? Where's Ashley?"

"Sh-she's-shes dead"

Suddenly her green eyes opened wide while mine filled with tears.

"It was your dad wasn't it. I knew he would kill her someday. I always told her that she needed to stay here with us but she never listened."

She paused for a brief moment trying to hold back the tears. I knew that this was hard for her because she was moms best friend. She practically helped raise me sister.

"Look Mara you need to get out of here. I won't let your dad hurt you. You can go stay with my brother but he lives in North Carolina. He used take in teens with drug addictions but they always stole his money and ran away. He told me that if anyone from the church ever needed a home that he would be delighted to have them. You can go there. I know it's far but I will give you money for a train and you can take that there. He can meet you when you arrive. I can call him right now. Just stay here."

And with that she grabbed her phone and left the room.

My thought cluttered my head and I couldn't find a way around it. What if people there don't like me. What if they find out about my dad and sister and bully me. What if my father comes and finds me. I don't want to die. I'm only 14.

My long blonde hair clung to the back of my neck, still wet from last night. My head still ached and my back felt like it was twisted in a knot.

I pulled out my phone and turned on my front camera only to see how absolutely horrifying I looked.

My hair had little strands sticking up everywhere and my once icy blue eyes now were bloodshot. I had dark circles under my eyes and all my mascara had run down my face. My cheeks were red from where the tears had stained them the night before.

My father had just killed my sister. Just like he did my mother. Now he was going to find me.

Ms. Reese came back in to the room with a half smile on her face, "He said that he will be ready for you at the train station. There's a train that leaves at 8am and it's 7 right now so you should be fine. I will drive you there and pay for your ticket. We have to do something with your appearance though because your father would be able to recognize you in a second if he saw you. We can go back to my house and I'll fix you up."

She grabbed my hand and we walked to the front entrance of the church. We checked to make sure my dad wasn't outside and sure enough his truck was gone and he was at work. We ran to her house and locked the door.

"Ok. I have some dark brown hair dye and we can cut your hair a little bit. We can't really change your eyes but you should be fine."

She pulled me into her bathroom and grabbed the box of dye.

"You ready?"

I nodded my head in approval. She sat me down in the chair and slathered the dye on my hair. We waited for the dye to soak in then I hopped in the shower. I rinsed all the dye out and stepped out.

I looked in the mirror to find a different person staring back at me. Surprisingly she looked older, tougher and no longer fragile.

"You look good" Ms. Reese said, "much more mature."

I just stared at my reflection. I couldn't bring myself to do anything else. I looked so different.

"Ok in going to cut you hair. Not a lot just a little bit."

In the end she had cut off about 5 inches and gave me side bangs. I looked like a completely different person. Surprisingly I liked the new look better.

"Ok we have to go now, the train leaves in 30 min."

We got in her car and drove off.

The entire ride neither of us said a single word. The only noise was Human by Christina Perri playing softly in the background.

We arrived at the station and walked inside to purchase the ticket.

"Ok here's your ticket. I just want you to know that I will always watch out for you. Please call me every once and a while to tell me how you are. I won't let him kill anyone else. Take care okay?"

She pulled me into a bear hug and the tears started slipping from my eyes again. I'm going to miss her so much. She helped me with everything.

I pulled away not wanting to miss the train, "okay."

I turned and headed towards the bus.

It's funny how much you like can change in 8 months. And knowing that you really only have one person left that your leaving to stay safe. It's hard and I know that crying doesn't help but that's all I can seem to do right now.

The train slowly started to pull away from the station and I took one more glance back to see Ms. Reese walking back to her car crying.

-- A/N --

Hey guys!

I tried to make that chapter interesting but it didn't really work... Oh well... I'll update again tomorrow

-Keely