Bad Company

Chapter 1: (Intro)

Today is my twenty first birthday, and it also just so happens to be the day that I died. 

Well... let me rephrase that. Today is the day that scared, weak, and abused Amber died. Today I turned 21, and I was reborn. Courage had finally set in, and I finally left my abusive, soon to be ex boyfriend, Shane. However, be that as it may... leaving Shane wasn't as simple as I thought it was going to be.

You see, Shane had forgotten that today was my 21st birthday. So when he came home early to see that a male coworker of mine was on the doorstep of Shane's shitty and small house with flowers in his hand - Shane instantly went into a rage, assuming that I was cheating on him when in reality, my boss sent this male coworker over to give me flowers from all of my coworkers for my 21st birthday. This was simply a nice gesture from my coworkers... and I don't even remember the name of the male coworker who had dropped the flowers off me. 

But did Shane believe me? believe that they were just a birthday present from my work and that I wasn't cheating on him? Of course not.

Instead of listening to me and celebrating my birthday with me like a normal couple... Shane decided that he had had enough of my "cheating" and was going to kill me.

"I ain't done with you yet!" Shane hollered as he threw me down to the floor before storming out of the bedroom and stomping down the hallway.

A small gasp escaped from my mouth as I landed on my already bruised ribs. Wincing, I pulled my knees to my chest and curled into a ball. The sound of Shane digging through the kitchen drawers  made my head jolt up towards the door. Fear coursed through my veins as I had a quick mental discussion with myself to get up and get out of there as fast as I could. Reluctantly, I forced myself to get on all fours and crawl over to the nightstand where I would find Shane's pocket knife in the drawer.

"You fucking whore!" Shane yelled again, this stomping charging down the hallway.

My heart thumped against my chest as I grabbed the knife and pressed the button on the knife, the blade springing out instantly. My head shot in both directions, looking for somewhere to hide before my eyes laid upon the small space behind the bedroom door. Shane's footsteps were getting closer and I had no choice but to move quickly and get behind the bedroom door. Wincing, I laid on my side and waited for the bedroom door to swing open.

"AMBER!" Shane screamed as he flew the bedroom door open. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

A long pause happened as I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and slowly stared up at the back of Shane's body, moving my eyes from the back of his head to all the way down to his left hand that was holding a kitchen knife and then all the way down to his ankles. My eyes landed on the back of his ankle. Knowing I didn't have much time and that Shane was possibly going to kill me, I acted fast. Clamping my eyes shut tight, I swung the blade at the back of Shane's heel, unfortunately missing the ankle and slicing open the back of his calve. It was still enough to make Shane cry out in pain and fall forward, hitting his head against the nightstand as he did so and knocking himself out cold.

I whimpered out in fear as I dropped the bloody blade and jumped up to my feet, running over to Shane's unconscious body. Crouching down beside him, I placed my finger above his nose, making sure that he was still breathing and that he hadn't killed himself. Luckily... well lucky for him, he was in fact still a live, just knocked out cold.

I wasn't going to wait around to see how long he was passed out for. Instead, I stood back up and rushed over to the closet where I grabbed my suitcase and tossed it on the unmade bed before rushing over to the dresser and pulling out whatever clothes of mine that I could find and shoving them into the suitcase. Once my suitcase was full, I stepped over Shane's unconscious body and pulled my cellphone's charger out from the wall and then shoved it into the suitcase before grabbing the suitcase and swinging it carelessly out into the hallway.

"I'm sorry Shane... goodbye." I said dully as I crouched down and pulled Shane's wallet out of his jean's pocket and pulled out what cash he had. quickly I counted the money and sighed in relief, there was enough to get me a bus ticket to get out of town and head to the only place that I knew I could go as I've been talking about it forever but never did as I was always to afraid to leave Shane.. until today.

Currently I'm on the greyhound bus, staring out the window at the outskirts of the city of Boston, squinting as the light from the morning sunrise was shining directly in my eyes. The sound of Kenny Loggin's "Highway to the Danger zone" echoed through my earphones as I sighed, slouching back in my seat and pulling my phone out to text my best friend, Christy. Christy moved to Boston a year ago, around the time I first started dating Shane. She knew from the get go that there was something off about Shane, his temper, his everything... but I was too blind to see it... until the abuse started. Naturally, I told Christy immediately. She's been trying to convince me to leave him and move here to Boston with her ever since. Now, I finally am.

Why didn't I leave before? Where would I go? Beside's Christy's? I'm the black sheep of my family... the middle child. They haven't even called me to see how I've been for months. Some "family". The only family I consider myself having is Christy.

Well... here I am. Boston.