My Will To Live

CHAPTER 13-Strange Happenings

I suppose they say that sometimes in life, strange, unpredictable things happen with people you least expect to. And I guess they're kind of right, aren't they?

Today's happenings were strange, to say the least. I never saw my mom, not once. And my father didn't come home either. So all that was left was me, even though I was certain my mom was inside the room. As for my father? I was sure he was out drinking. So there I was, shocked that no one was bothering me at all this fine morning. Of course, I definitely wasn't complaining. My body ached all over, so I just stayed in my bed listening to Taylor on repeat.

And that's when my dad entered, and all hell broke loose.

"What are you doing huh, you stupid girl? Just sitting in the room? Good for nothing! Get out here now!" He screams at me. I shove my iPod hastily into my secret box and run out, afraid of what my father would do to me. The next thing he does shocks me. He screams out my mother's name, and the way he says it seems like he is almost disgusted with her or something.

"Patricia! Get out here now!" (A/N: I can't remember if I gave the mother a name or a different one, so alert me if I did)

And out comes my mother, not looking like the strong woman I always thought she was, but more like a timid mouse or a servant about to be punished by their master. My father mumbles something about how he is always surrounded by useless people.

Then he kicks me. Hard.

And my mother? She jumps in front of me. To protect me.

What?

"I've had it with you! I'm sick of you and always listening to you and your stupid orders! I'm sick of you abusing our daughter, and I've put up with you long enough!" My mother screams.

Orders? Putting up with him? This is a new side of my mother I've never seen. Was it all pretend, then? Did she abuse me just so she would avoid getting scolded by my dad? Selfish as that would seem, at the very least there seemed to be a reason as to why she abused me. My dad? It was simple. He lost his job. He snapped. Then came the abuse. The end. But perhaps now I would finally find out the mysteries as of why my mother always abused me.

"How dare you?" He thunders. He raises his glass, and then he smashes it. For a second they catch the light, and they remind me of the time he smashed a glass on my head, and everything spins into a whirl wind of memories.

My head hurting. The car incident. The nightmares. The hospital. Trying to run away. And-

Taylor.

Was she really there when I was in the hospital? I believed that it was a figment of my imagination, but I doubt hallucinations were that real. Surely it hadn't been painkiller induced, either. Had I met my one reason to live and not known it? Had I actually been so stupid?

I'm so dazed, my mother's sudden push brings me back into reality.

My father just keeps hitting her, and I've never seen him so mad before. His face is a shade of red, and he keeps hitting her, and what do I do? I stand there, dazed and shocked and rooted to the spot. That is, until my mother gives me a push, and I land in the broken glass, but I have no time to feel the pain as she yells at me to run. Why? Because he's coming towards us. With a knife.

Holy shit.

I want to take my mother with me. Sure, she hasn't been a good mother, but at least now she's trying to protect me. There's no time now. I flip up on my back and ignore the throbbing pain in my knee as I run upstairs.

There's one more thing I need to take. The box.

Then I'm out the door. I don't know where I'm going, all I know is that I need to get away. Go somewhere. Somewhere far. I keep running. And I don't stop. As I run, it dawns on me that it's dark. I've been so preoccupied with what happened at home, I failed to notice the passage of time.