Freedom.

Chapter One

"You're nothing but a worthless little s**t!" He screamed at me as I dodged the shattered beer bottle being thrown my way. "You're just like your mother!" 

"There isn't anything wrong with my mother.. nothing!" I screamed back, my head throbbing.

"She's a s**t, a dirty little s**t! You are exactly like her!" His words were full of venom as he took a threatening step towards me. I took a step back, causing my back to be pushed against the wall. 

"Please daddy.. please." I whispered, the tears running down my cheeks. "Please stop hurting mum, hurt me, do it." 

"Your mother deserves all the pain she gets! She's a cow! An ugly fat cow! Just like you. Like mother, like daughter after all." The words are being spat from his mouth. 

"No! She isn't! She's a beautiful, loving woman who deserves a much better husband than you!" I yelled, but instantly regretted it as soon as the words rolled off my tongue. 

"Get to your f**king room! Right now! I'll deal with you after I finish your mother off." He growled as he turned to face my now unconscious mother. 

"Leave her alone, please leave her alone." I whispered as I stepped infront of her. "Hurt me, but don't lay another finger on her." 

 "Get out of my f**king way." he spat as he shoved me out of the way. But I got right back up. I wasn't going to let him lay another finger on her, ever. 

"No. Please just hurt me. I'll do whatever you want.." I sobbed, there was a high chance that I would still be shoved out of the way. 

"Come on then, s**t." He growled, his patience had been lost. He grabbed my hair and yanked me towards my bedroom. No matter how much I screamed and cried, he wouldn't let go of my hair. It felt as if it was being ripped out of my head. 

"Please let go." I begged, trying to slap his hands away, but it was no use. He was stronger than me. 

"Either I hurt you, or your mother, your f**king choice." He said as he yanked my hair harder. He knew what my choice would be. "Now move." 

"I'm sorry!" I screamed as I was thrown up against a wall, desperately trying to dodge the punches and kicks that were being directed at me, but to no avail. 

"If you and your mother weren't so ugly, fat and stupid maybe this family would be liked! Maybe this family would be able to find a job that could support us all!" He yelled, but you see, this is where he was wrong. 

"Maybe if you didn't spend all the money we did receive on booze and cigarettes, we could have enough food to feed us all." I whispered, my voice barely audible. But he heard me. I received a slap to the face. 

"Shut the f**k up!" he yelled. I knew that I had gone too far. I should have never mentioned that, but I thought he wouldn't hear me. He only heard me when he wanted to hear me. 

"I'm so sorry dad," I pleaded, my voice cracking as tears escaped from my eyes. 

"I'm done with you. Go to bed." He growled, not accepting the thousandth apology I had given that day.

"I'm sorry.." I whispered to myself as the door was slammed shut behind him. I didn't know what we had done to deserve such a life like this. If only he hadn't started drinking. Maybe it would all be okay, maybe we would have enough money to keep enough food on the table, maybe my mother and I wouldn't be beaten each day and night, maybe we would be good enough for him 

"Alexis?" I heard a voice whisper from the hall. My mothers voice. I jumped up immediately, running to open the door. 

"Mum! I'm sorry I couldn't help you, I'm so sorry." I cried, wrapping my arms around her and embracing her in a tight hug.

"You did more than enough, but we need to hurry." She said, causing me to calm down a bit. What did she mean by we had to hurry?

"What do you mean?" I asked, full of curiosity. 

"Your father, he left to buy more alcohol I think.. but he left the door unlocked. Pack your stuff, now, we're catching the first bus out of here." My mother hurriedly explained. 

"Do we have enough money for the bus though?" I asked, but at the same time I grabbed the suitcase that I had, and started shoving the small amount of possessions that I actually had into the suitcase. 

"I saved up some money just incase this day did ever come around, it's enough to get us out of this town, and get some food as well." My mum said "I'm going to pack some of my stuff, be ready in 2 minutes because your father could be home at anytime." 

"Okay, love you mum." I said as I zipped up my suitcase, hurrying to the kitchen and grabbing some of the food that we had, just some bread and peanut butter. It wasn't long before my mum joined me. She had 2 handbags full of her things, she has less stuff than what I did.

"We have to go now, sweetie." my mum said, her tears had dried, leaving her with a red, puffy face. 

"Quickly." I whispered as I started walking out the door. I was finally going to leave all of this behind. My mother wasn't going to have to suffer anymore, and neither was I. 

We hurried out the door, our bare feet hitting the hard road as we ran. We ran and we didn't turn back. This was our only chance to be free, and we were taking it. We ran, and ran until we saw the bus stop, then we came to a sudden halt. The bus wouldn't be here for at least 15 minutes. Crap. 

"What if dad drives past and sees us?" I whisper, my voice full of fear. 

"We'll hide in those bushes until the bus shows up. It might hurt though." My mum said, she was trying to be brave for me but I could tell that she was scared of what would happen as well.

I didn't speak as we hid in the bushes. None of us did. We stayed silent, barely moving, barely even breathing incase he saw us. We stayed like this for the next 10 minutes, we didn't look at each other once.

"Mum, its the bus!" I practically yelled as I saw the bus coming down the road. I jumped up quickly, pulling her with me as I ran to stand in front of the stop. 

"2 tickets please, to Adelaide." My mum said, pulling out the money that she had saved up.

"Are you two women okay?" The bus driver asked, it was then that I had realised that we didn't wash ourselves before we left. We were covered in our own dry blood, we had scars, and our hair was knotty and all over the place. 

"Yes, but please can we just go." My mum practically begged as she gave the bus driver $500. 

"Okay." The bus driver said, but even I could tell that he wasn't convinced. He gave us our 2 tickets, and we practically ran to the first seats we could see. We got a few sympathetic looks from people, and some dirty looks from others. 

"We're free.." My mother said, her voice cracked, and I thought she was going to cry. When I looked over, she was. But instead of her usual sobbing over my father, she had the biggest smile on her face. For the first time that I had seen, she was crying from happiness. I couldn't help but to embrace her, and I let her cry on my shoulder. She had been so brave for so long, she went through everything. I'm not even overexaggerating. She went through the beatings, the verbal arguments, all to protect me. 

"Yeah mum, we are. We don't have to ever go back there again." I whispered into her shoulder as we held each other. I was trying to be the brave one and not cry, but it didn't work. The tears had to keep falling. 

"I love you, and I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect you from the beatings." My mum whispered, I barely heard her. 

"I love you too mum, and you did everything you could." I whispered back. "You did everything you could."