Broken But Healed

Chapter Three: Milestone

I walked about ten miles when I finally found a milestone.

550 MILES

BRADFORD

I was still far far away from my destination.

I checked my watch.

8:27 A.M.

So I had been walking continuously for three hours. Not bad.

Not seeing any other bench or anywhere to rest in the area, I sat on the milestone, tired and out of breath.

I decided to give myself a break. If my estimation was right, I still had about fifteen miles till the nearest bus stop.

Long way.

The bus I planned to board was to leave at 4:30 P.M. so I figured I had quite some time.

I took out my bottle of water from the rucksack which had, let me tell you, been killing me since the last two hours.

If you ever plan to run away, I have a piece of advice for you. Not that I recommend you do.

I mean, not unless you have a father like mine who's hobby is to hit his child whenever he's bored and get drunk and...you get the picture.

So, back to my advice.

Don't carry a rucksack as heavy as mine. And if you do, don't forget to take an umbrella along.

I regret not bringing one along. The sun is shining at its fullest. Its almost as if it planned to make this harder for me.

I took out the oats bar I had and started munching on it.

Food really does improve your mood.

I finished it, set my rucksack down and sat cross legged with my back to the milestone, in such a way that I got some shade.

At least as much as I could get from a milestone.

My father, or the beast, as I like to call him, should be up by now.

Last night wasn't my luck. I had hoped he would get drunk as usual so that he would be hungover in the morning, thus sleeping longer than usual.

But unfortunately for me, he didn't get drunk. It was quite unusual, seeing that he gets drunk every night.

I had learnt about genes when I was home schooling from a tutor. We got our genes from our biological parents, so our characters depended on them.

I thought my jeans came from the charity. Biology joke.

I smiled at my own feeble joke.

I couldn't see how I got my genes from the beast. Guess I was more like my mom.

Thinking of my mom made my eyes teary.

She left when I was three.

To be honest, I couldn't blame her.

I mean, I'm running away, aren't I?

But my old neighbour, Miss Nancy, once told me the beast wasn't the beast always. He became a beast after Mom left.

Beast had caught me talking to her. We had moved out the very next day and lived away from the city ever since.

I was angry at my mother.

How dare she leave an infant alone? Didn't she love me?

If she had been there, I wouldn't have had suffered all these years.

If she hadn't left, my dad wouldn't have had been a beast. He wouldn't have had hit me. He wouldn't have had....done what he did.

I wiped the tears furiously. She didn't care. She doesn't deserve these tears.

In fact, no one does.

One thing I learned in my life was that we are born alone, and we die alone.

No one sticks with you apart from yourself.

You're the only resource and the only backup plan you can trust.

And I know, because I learned it the hard way.

I checked the time again.

9:12 A.M.

I had been sitting here too long.

I got up, positioned my rucksack on my shoulders.

I took off once again, hoping for the best.

Author's note

Hey again. I know my story sucks, but hey, I'm trying okay? I hope my story is making sense now. Please go easy on me and point out my errors if there are any. Vote, comment and follow me. Love yall xxx