Hurt and Abused

Prologue

It wasn’t always like this you know. I could go ask dad for money and he’d simply hand it over. I could have friends and go outside when I felt like it. Sometimes, he’d even tell me to buy us ice cream from the ice cream truck and not get upset when I bought him the kind that I liked just because I wanted two. Then it all changed.

    I was ten, I had just gotten home from playing with my friends, still giggling from the game that we had been playing. Dad heard me and came out of the front room,beer bottle in hand.

    “Where the hell have you been?” he said, downing the rest of his beer and throwing the bottle to the ground, where it broke into a million little pieces. I jumped and backed towards the door.

    “Outside with Jenna and Abbey.” I mumbled too scared to even speak above a whisper. He burped and picked up a piece of glass, moving closer to me.

“Who said you could go outside?” He grabbed my hair, forcing me to look up at him and pointing the shard of glass at my cheek. I hissed, sucking air in between my teeth.

“Nobody.” I said, trying to keep calm but my hands were shaking. I grabbed my dress between my fingers, trying not to look at him.

Gripping my hair tighter, he burped then smiled and moved the glass over my right eye. I squeezed my eye shut, but that didn’t stop him. He dragged the glass down from my eyebrow over my eye lid and down to my cheekbone. I screamed and went limp only being held up by my hair.

His grin widened and he dropped the glass, reaching up to smack me. I fell to my knees and curled into a ball trying to make the punches and kicks hurt less. My little body couldn’t handle it though. I passed out and stayed that way for a while. When I woke up there were so many new rules. Don’t let anybody see my scars or tell anybody about what happens at home. I could no longer see my friends and my clothes went from bright, colorful dresses to dark long sleeves that covered my scars and an eyepatch to cover my eye and while the cuts on my skin healed most of the time. The one in my heart never did.