Path-to-Freedom (version 1)

(11)

The next morning I was awoken with a bucket of ice cold water. This was a morning routine of ours.

I sat up gasping for air and looked around in frightened terror.

"Get up. I'm leaving." I nodded as he left without another word. 

I'm sure he told Mary that I asked to clean all of the upstairs when she came here.

I stood up and looked at the broken table in one corner, seeing a dish with an apple and half a bottle of water.

I sighed and cleaned myself up before changing the bedsheet I had and the thickest bedsheet I had to dry since he never gave me a blanket. I use old clothes as a pillow. I filled my biggest pair of jeans with old shirts and folded the ends to make them stay in.

The things that he had gotten me were shampoo, bodywash, a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap. He said and I quote, "I don't want a dirty bitch living in my house."

I did my routine, drank the water and went upstairs with the dish and apple in hand.

Upon entering the kitchen, I saw dozens of dishes for me to wash and I knew I wouldn't get them done in time so I hurried and when my mental clock went off, I still had a few. I hurriedly did them before gathering all of the supplies upstairs and took off running.

Cleaning the upstairs took me a lot longer than usual, maybe because I had to do it all by myself. When I went back downstairs, Mary was taking the dish she cooked out of the oven and cutting up the dish to make me a serving to hide and to serve Tony.

I quickly put away the supplies and went to get the serving and ran downstairs to hide it before he came.

I knew he'd be here any second so I ran as fast as possible to get upstairs and to the kitchen to stand beside Mary.

Then I saw the dishes that she used and my eyes widened as fear took root.

I hurriedly washed them and when I was almost finished, Tony came into the kitchen.

He looked at me with an evil look and went on to eat his food while Mary overlaid the report.

Mary had never said anything that got me in trouble, she always said that I did everything correct even if I didn't because he'd never know.

Once Mary left, I gave him his drink and washed his dishes. Right when I turned off the water, I was being yanked back by my hair and thrown to the ground.

"Didn't I give you a time limit to finish bitch?" I nodded and kept an emotionless straight face.

He'd always beat me more if I even showed a sliver of emotion.

"Then why didn't you?!" He yelled, kicking me on my ribs.

I didn't say anything and just kept taking the beating.

In the early days, if I'd ever answered him, he'd hit me even more and even harder.

The beating went on for about twenty minutes. He hit me anywhere and everywhere except the face.

He knew I had to go to school and he also knows that the face is the only part that I can't hide.

"Go. Leave. You have school, you better have done your homework." He spoke bitterly.

Once I forgot my homework at Tony's house and he came to the school and made it seem as if I did it on purpose, which made me get into trouble both at school and at home. I couldn't defend myself so I just took the extra work and the clean ups.

I limped downstairs and went straight to the mattress.