Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Chapter Fourteen

Lucy's perspective
*****************
      It felt like I was being slammed through the floor. Being pushed against the hard wood until my head felt like it would explode from the pressure. I was determined to stay strong though. No more crying, I shouted in my head, I've cried way too long. Even if I can't fight back, I refuse to cry and be a baby. I have to stay strong! I was screaming it in my head like a mantra. Desperate to hold myself together.
But that was my downfall, I was so focused on holding myself up, keeping it together that I didn't look up in time. I didn't notice until the last second. I saw it coming in slow motion, the brown wizzing towards me too quickly. I ducked as fast as possible raising my arms to protect my face. But it wasn't enough. The bat-and God knows where he got it from-smacked against my arm with full force and a crack echoed through the room. I looked up in shock, nothing registering at first. I saw him, eyes gleaming down at me, sneering. And then the pain caught up.
At first I didn't realize what the sound was, it was so loud and painful to even listen to. The screeching never faded. It howled through the house with such power in it that I thought someone was honestly dying. My throat felt raw when the noise finally died out, turning to whimpers, and I realized that it was me. I was the one making the noises. But at the moment I didn't care. My arm was throbbing.
Oh god, oh god-it hurts. It hurts so bad.
My lip wobbled-fat, hot tears threatening to roll down my cheeks. I bit my lip till I tasted blood. I made a promise at the begging of this no more crying. And I plan to keep it. I look up at him, fire radiating off of me. I won't let him win.
He took a step back, surprised at the fierceness that was washing off of me, flowing through the room.
"Oh, so you think your tough now?" He questioned in a sarcastic tone.
"Well then, I guess we'll have to just beat that out of you"
He placed his foot on my chest, pushing me back to the floor. Then quickly swapped his foot to be hovering over my broken arm. I tried to pull it to my chest, stop him from what he was about to do. But then he put the tiniest bit of pressure on it, and a scream ripped out of my throat before I could do anything.
"If you say it now, tell me what I want to hear then I won't do it" he told me.
"No," I whimpered out "I-I won't!" My voice was wavering so much, and forcing the words out of my throat felt like a challenge by itself.
"You know, I don't know where you learned all of this. I don't know who taught you that it was okay to defy me, but they're wrong. And you should never listen to them"
"No," I moaned out, breathless and bracing myself for what I knew would come. I turned my eyes away. Tensing up for the future pain. And then he brought his foot down.

• • •

Pain seemed to surround me as I drifted in blackness, I couldn't seem to escape all of the cuts and bruises. What felt like bashed in organs. All the broken parts of me that only got worse at time went. But soon it started to fade to the background. The pain tapered off somewhere as the darkness seemed heavier. I knew my eyes were opened, despite not being able to see. My head was throbbing from earlier, when something hit it with such force that it knocked me out of my world. Left me floating through nothing. But soon I felt a tugging on my eyes, in my brain. The sticky feeling of blood and suffering that hung in the air seemed to get worse, dizzying me. My eyes started to close and I felt myself losing the ability to move. It felt like I was fading to the background too, floating away from my body.

And maybe for the last time, I thought that maybe I am the ghost, stuck in this house suffering.

Or maybe, I'll become her.