"Straight"

words can hurt more than actions

"Daniel? What the hell are you doing here?! Oh great, now the one place I go to have a break from you and your stupid mum is exploited! You little shit! I'm gonna make you wish that you never set foot out of the house!" 

Seeing my dad makes me freeze up in fear, heart pounding in my ears. Before I can react, he slaps me across the face and grabs my arm, pulling me into the car with him. The intensity of his slap was enough to make me slightly dazed.

I snap out of it once my body slams against the leather seat, and I suddenly realize the horrible situation I've gotten myself into. My dad puts the child lock on the doors and windows, trapping me in the car with him. 

I'm a goner. 

My dad doesn't even say anything, he just speeds off in the direction he came from. 

"You and your mother are going to pay for the misery you've put my through. I'll make you wish you were never born," he grumbles, mostly to himself. 

I don't know what to do. There's no way out of this. I've angered the beast and I'm about to pay dearly. 

And then I hear something that sounds almost like angels singing. 

It's a police siren. 

Thank the sweet lord. 

My dad slows down and the cop gets out of his car, strolling up to the window as my dad rolls down the window. 

"Sir, you were driving fifteen over the speed limit. I'm going to have to give you a ticket," the lanky cop says, peering through the window. My father grunts in acknowledgement. 

The cop meets my eyes and I silently plead with him to help me. 

"Is that your kid? Is he alright? He doesn't look too good, and he's got a big mark on his cheek. Is there something going on here?" the officer asks suspiciously.

My dad takes a moment to send a chilling glance at me before responding with, "Oh he just got in a little fight with some kid, but I'm gonna take care of him." 

I grimace at how easily he lied about the situation. Unfortunately, the cop nods understandingly and walks back to his car to get a ticket, which my father begrudgingly accepts.

Once we are finally let off the hook, my dad gives me another slap for good measure before driving the rest of the way home. I'm not quite sure what he's planning on doing, but it's definitely not good.

When we pull up to our house, I wonder if he'll let me out of the car, or if he's planning on keeping me stuck in here. Thankfully, he drags me out of the car with him as he marches up to the front door and kicks it open. 

I find myself being shoved to the ground and hear the door being shut and locked. I feel my hair being gripped in my fathers fist as I'm dragged along with him up the stairs. He yanks my head up and knees me in the gut, then throws me to the floor and kicks my ribs multiple times. 

Pain explodes from my abdomen and I can't seem to catch my breath. As I'm pulled back up and slugged in the face, I wonder where my mum is hiding right now. Does she know that her son is, once again, being beaten to a pulp by her husband? She saved me earlier when he was whipping me, but maybe that was only a one time thing. 

I feel warm blood crawling down the side of my face and more of it spilling from my nose. Everything looks blurry and all I am barely aware of the fact that my dad stopped hitting me.

Now he's picked me up and is carrying me over to the small closet in the hallway, opening it up and throwing me inside. The door slams shut, and not long later I hear the lock clicking into place. 

Everything is black. The only source of light comes from the small crack under the door.

I'm too weak to get up or move around, not that there's much space in here anyway. I'm pretty sure my dad cracked a few of my ribs or something because every breath brings a new burst of fresh pain. One of my eyes is swelling from a black eye and I know that I've gotta get out of here before I lose too much blood from the gash in my head. 

I scream for help once, but that's all it takes for me to almost black out from the pain in my ribs. My eyes are blurry from a mixture of tears and blood, and I briefly wonder if I'll end up dying in this closet. 

Something inside me wishes that I will.