Welcome to the City of Lancaster

Chapter Two

I waved as Kaiden drove off, I paused staring up at the place I did not consider a home but as a place that I just lived in temporarily. It was a shitty townhouse connected to other homes in one line and the owner did not overly care about the state people living here keep it in so long as they get paid the rent that is owed. I reluctantly walk up the gate, it creaked loudly when I opened it and continued walking, I noticed that the old woman living next door was watching me when we made eye contact she was quick to look away. I roll my eyes, people were so nosy and when they are met with contact, they pretend they want nothing to do with you. It would not surprise me if they knew almost everything that went on in this house.
I swung my bag around to collect the key from the small pocket and opened the door, the scent of the house was disgusting like it has not been cleaned in months which is why I stopped inviting Kaiden here. But today, it looked like Aunt Bev cleaned up. I wasn't stepping over dirty laundry or random things on the floor.
"Hey Aunt Bev," I say entering the kitchen.
"Hi sweetie," she smiles. The smile doesn't reach her eyes as it once did, I looked away as my heart sank. "How was your day at school?"
I opened the fridge looking inside for something to snack on but there wasn't much.
"Pretty good," I closed the fridge. "Looks like we need to do a bit of shopping."
Aunt Bev's face dropped a little but was quick to cover it up but I already noticed. "Crap, I knew there was something I forgot to do today," she grabs her wallet and looks inside, I watched her face pale a little and she swallowed closing her wallet. "I guess we'll wait for Shawn to come home."
Feeling my own fear starting to kick in. "Oh, okay... I'll just head up to my room," I tried to keep my voice as normal as possible. "You know, to study."
Aunt Bev nods moving around the kitchen while I tried to remain composed when I went to go upstairs but no matter how hard I tried, I could not stop trembling. If Aunt Bev asks for money, Shawn would lose his shit but if she doesn't, we go without food while she will cook whatever we have for Shawn. I reached my room, I closed the door but leaving it open a little just in case he loses his shit and won't accuse me of doing unspeakable things behind closed doors.

"Why the fuck is your door closed?"
Shawn came barging through my door, I looked up from reading one of the chapters from my History textbook alarmed at his sudden outburst.
Before I could even get a single word out to explain myself, he grabs my arm and roughly pulls me up from my chair and pushes me against the wall. I heard glass shattering as he grabs me once more and throws me to the other side of the room, I hit the tallboy in an odd angle as the pain exploded in my elbow and lower back.
"I wasn't doing anything," I cried trying my best to ignore the pain as I moved back from him.
"Only dirty girls keep their doors closed. Only dirty girls want privacy. Only dirty girls do disgusting things in their room with the doors closed."
"But I wasn't," I felt the tears threatening to spill but I refused to give him the satisfaction. "I just wanted to get my homework done."

He ended up leaving me alone after that but without leaving the door wide open, I did not end up going to school the next two days because of that incident and when I did, Kaiden hugged me tightly and that was how he found out about the bruises.
I went over to my wardrobe and sat in there needing a little bit of time to regain my composure and prepare for what may or may not happen.
"Everything will be okay," I whispered. "It will be okay," it was difficult believing in such words that were not true.
"You're a dirty girl," his voice rang through my head.
"This is your fault," words he shouted at both Aunt Bev and me at times.
"You're the reason we never have any money, fucking piece of shit."
"Just looking at you disgusts me."
"What the fuck do I care if you starve? You need to lose the fucking weight, you fat bitch."
I cringed so much covering my ears wanting that voice gone from my head, I don't want this anymore. Aunt Bev and I needed help, we needed to get out of this place... but the problem was, we were afraid.
Fear was trapping us here.
"Everything will be okay," my voice cracked a little.
I inhaled deeply and exhaled turning my thoughts to other things before I felt like I would be okay, I crept out of the wardrobe and stood up feeling a lot calmer than before. Instead of picking up my bag and getting a move on with my school work, instead, I looked out the window.
Freedom, the word danced across my mind.
I undid the latch and opened the window, and climbed out. I glanced down taking a deep breath and began the climb towards the roof. It has been a very long time since I had done this but today I just needed to feel the wind against my skin and the birds singing.
I reached the top and sat with my legs dangling over, a laugh escapes my lips as I look over towards the sun setting, I wish I had Kaiden's camera to capture the moment. The assignment was about 'me' and I thought the feelings I felt at this moment would be perfect.
For a moment, I sat here feeling all my worries slipping away and felt on top of the world. Like no one or nothing can hurt me whilst being up here and the sun setting... well, I guess I never really took much notice in its beauty before. Its beauty is something that I wish I had, not on the outside but on the inside.
I snorted at how ridiculous I was sounding.
I stayed up on the roof for a few more minutes, the thought of returning to my bedroom in that house made the feeling I had before vanquished and replacing it felt like I was suffocating, being dragged underwater and no matter how hard I was fighting, I could never escape nor reach the surface for air.
The choice ended up being made for me as soon as I heard a black car rolling up, I stood up recognising the sound of Shawn's voice yelling words that were not making sense, fear froze me for a moment as I remembered that we have hardly any food and that Aunt Bev may or may not ask him for money, the door slammed breaking me out of my frozen state and I managed to quickly yet carefully climb back down and slip through the window just in time to hear Shawn yelling.
"What the fuck is this?" Shawn shouts.
I flinched even though it was not directed at me.
"Where is my fucking food? I fucking provide for this family and what do I fucking get in return? Shit?"
I could hear Aunt Bev's soft voice trying to calm him down but he continued to shout.
"You're fucking hopeless, without me, you would be dead in some fucking ditch," I could hear him stomping and was making his way upstairs, he was also muttering about Aunt Bev and there were a lot of swear words in the mix. Next thing I knew, he bursts through the room, his eyes were red and crazy as they were set right on me.
"I bet you were the one who fucking ate all the food," he shouts. "You fat bitch."
"I didn't-" I went to protest but he was quick and grabs me but the shoulder roughly and moved around to push against my door. I cried out in pain as my lower back hits the handle of the door.

His breath reeked of alcohol, I almost felt like vomiting.
"You touch my food ever again," Shawn whispers in my ear causing the air on my arms to rise. "And I'll fucking kill you, you got that?"
I nodded. Shawn pulls me away before slamming me against the door again, I screamed in pain.
"Answer me you little shit," he shouts, spit being sprayed on my face.
"Yes-s, I un-understand," I say.
"Good," he throws me to the ground. I stayed on the ground expecting to be hit or kicked or anything but nothing happened, he walked away and slammed the bedroom door shut. My eyes burned with tears flowing down my face, I lifted my head slowly and had to blink a few times to clear my vision. My aunt stood by the steps looking down at the door waiting for him to come back out screaming but when he did not, she turned to me.
"I'm so sorry," she whispers walking over to me, she bends down to help me to stand but I just said, 'don't touch me', she pulls away. It was a struggle but I managed to push myself up to my feet, I did stumble almost falling over but I used the wall as my support as I slowly walked over to my bed, I carefully laid on my stomach when I reached my bed. I closed my eyes wishing for the darkness to take me far away from this place.