Adopted by Ash Costello (1)

Release

Release -

Chloe looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and felt an urge to throw it. She agonizingly scrutinised every detail she hated and was left with an amalgamation of shit all adding to a sorry excuse of a human being. She listed her possible assets; her personality (revolting), her appearance (disgusting), her life (repulsive). She was half her mum and half her monster of a dad and yet was a full blown monster herself that seemed to provoke antipathy from everyone she ever encountered. Within the cold grips of self-loathing, music could not offer solace for the teenager. She was too far gone and knew the only thing that would calm her down was the very thing people hated her for. It was a vicious cycle she could not break and hated herself for not being strong enough to do so. She deserved everything she got from people. She was exactly the piece of shit they told her she was.

With tears streaming down her face, Chloe locked the bathroom. She needn't cover her mouth and try to supress the cries as Georgia was not there. With a shaky hand, Chloe held the razor over her skin momentarily wondering if this was the right thing to do. Of course she knew the answer; no, it was not. This did not stop her though as she sliced the razor over her skin. Slowly at first but reaching a stronger pace, each cut provided a new wave of release. She could not control her life in any way at all but she could control this. Where she was forced to listen to Mrs Jones and do her bidding, she decided when she would cut. Whilst forced to share a room with three of her own personal demons, she could control at what pace she administered each cut. Where she was forced to live in the foster home, she could decided how deep each cut would be. This was unhealthy and she was aware but this did not stop her at all. She needed to do it. It was that simple. All the pain, all the words, all the torment Chloe had suffered recently seemed to retreat (even if only temporarily). They retreated and, as they did, had left red lines up and down her arms and legs that oozed with blood. With Chloe's eyes becoming filled and blurry, she looked away but continued cutting at least a dozen more times. Not wanting to see the amount of blood pooling around herself, she closed those eyes and stopped cutting. She sat against the bathroom floor, out of breath and crying softly. The euphoric feeling had now retreated itself while numbness surfaced. Chloe was scared of the numbness but knew the feelings of pain and suffering would return.

BANG

The door had been slammed open and with it, Georgia, Helen and Kara were laughing as they made their way through the room. Chloe, with a feeling of fear permeating throughout her veins, jumped up and grabbed a towel as she tried to hide any evidence of her self-harm.

"What the fuck?" Kara asked, looking as shocked as the other two as they looked around at their room; their clothes, draws and other items had been tossed around while Chloe's remained untouched.

"Oh my fucking god. Where is that freak?!" Georgia practically screamed, turning to the other two but knowing full-well that they had as much of an idea as she did. Chloe tried her best to be quiet as she haphazardly wrapped tissue around her arms to try and stop the bleeding. She knew from past experiences that it would eventually stop but she did not want the others to know that she had recklessly done this again. Chloe knew that this would only entertain the others and they would use it against her.

"Chloe!" Kara shouted, walking over to the bunk bed and shaking it.

"She's not there you idiot. She's obviously gone out" Georgia scolded. Kara walked to the bathroom by the bunk bed and knocked on the door. Chloe, being shocked at the sudden loud rapping at the door, turned around and hit her arm on the door handle. She winced in pain before realising what had happened.

"Oi Freak get out here and clean all this shit up" Georgia demanded, jumping over the mess that littered the floor and then joining Kara in banging on the door. "You might as well make a start in cleaning up" She instructed Helen who then bent down to pick up things from the floor.

"Just one minute. I'm having a piss" Chloe pleaded while frantically running around the bathroom trying to clean everything. She used a towel to wipe down the sink and now was running water over the towel and rubbing it so as to remove the blood. It was a red towel so this made the task easier.

"Hurry up!" Kara bellowed, kicking the door as she did.

Chloe threw the towel in the bath and drew the shower curtain, making a mental note to hide it in the laundry tomorrow. She then delicately pulled her sleeves down, trying not to make a lot of noise as she did so even though she was in pain. Before leaving the small room, Chloe splashed water over her face to reduce redness and then took a deep breath. Hanging her head, she went to quickly pass Georgia and Kara so she could rush to clean the mess. Just as she was doing so, Georgia grabbed her arm which caused Chloe to fall down in agonising pain.

"Ow! Stop! Please!" Chloe cried, trying to carefully remove Georgia's grip from her arm without hurting it further. This proved an impossible task as Georgia held on with a smile spreading across her lips. Chloe could feel the heat coming off her left arm as it was gripped as the pain of hundreds of small needles being stabbed into her arm grew.

"Show us then" Georgia proposed. Kara and Helen looked at Chloe and then her arm, strangely wanting to see.

"No! Please! Let go" Chloe begged. Kara laughed and then Helen followed.

"We will tell Mrs Jones what you have been doing and she'll put it on your profile. She only thinks you self-harm but has no proof. Who would want you with that on your profile? Nobody likes a freak so I suggest you let us see or we will go to Mrs Jones. We have evidence remember. Thanks for creating it" Georgia smirked. Chloe's heart stopped as she felt misery seep through her. They had the upper hand and knew exactly how to play Chloe. She had lost that control that she desperately sought after.

"Fine. Let go then" Chloe surrendered. Georgia let go and Chloe carefully raised the sleeve on her arm. The three girls watched on in anticipation as Chloe removed the tissue that was wrapped around her arm. She looked away, feeling sick and ashamed, while the girls contrastingly looked on with laughter and joy.

"Wow. Some of them are deep" Helen giggled.

"Not deep enough" Georgia sadistically commented loudly enough so that Chloe could hear. She silently allowed tears to roll down her cheeks unnoticed as the girls continued to stare at the blood on her arm. "Put it away now. You've got all the attention you wanted" Georgia said before Chloe pulled her sleeves back down. "We're going to bed. Clean this up"

Chloe started cleaning up the mess and, within forty minutes, the room was clean. With the girls long asleep (indicated by Kara's snoring), Chloe clambered into her bed feeling physically and emotionally exhausted.