One

Two years back..

The whip came across my back one last time.

"Losing consciousness already?" my brother, John asked me.

My hands were hung up from the chains dangling from the ceiling. They were hurting, but what hurt the most was my back, burning from the new scars. My Auburn brown hair was a mess reaching down my hips, covered in sweat and blood.

I opened my empty black eyes up to my brother who was looking at me with the hatred that would even burn the heaven, "Please....I'm sorry, it won't happen again.....I swear...Please."

Tears, my constant companion, began streaming down my cheeks.

A blow came down on my already bruised cheek, "I hate tears, stop crying this instant or you will never see the Sun again."

At once I stopped crying even though my heart and the pain the back was telling me to shed more tears.

My brother left and then came with the keys and unlocked the chains that were holding up my hands.

Blood was running down my hands and staining the the half sleeved red top I wore.

My brother came and grabbed my bruised cheek in his hand. "My friends are coming within half an hour, clean up and start preparing meal for them."

I nodded my head.

"And this is my last warning to you 'beloved little sister'." He sneered, "If you break another piece of crockery, I will break every little bone in that puny body of yours, Understood?"

I nodded my head again and he left the basement specially designed for the punishments and torture I receive.

***

I cleaned up and bandaged my wounds as neatly as possible. I came out of bathroom in a white towel and took out a dark pink top with full sleeves, so that it can hide my wounds and scars and a long skirt that came to my toes, not showing a hint of my legs.

I came downstairs and started preparing dinner for my brother and his friends. His friends were already in his bedroom joking and laughing. I took five glasses of water in tray to serve them.

As I came to John's bedroom I stopped when I heard the muffled voices.

"Come on, John. Please! I want her for one night. Is it too much to ask from a friend?" John's best friend Henry asked.

John laughed. "Alright, you can have her. But only for tonight."

Henry boomed, "Yay!! in which room shall I carry out the deed?"

At first I didn't understand what they were talking about but then it struck my mind and it shook me to the core of my being.

Oh my God! they were gonna rape me.

I dropped the tray of glasses I was holding and ran to the kitchen. John came bursting in the kitchen and slapped me twice on my cheek.

"How long does it take to understand one simple thing? I told you not to break any crockery and you defied me yet again." He yelled

"How could you do that to me?" I asked in a small voice

He grabbed me and pushed me to the ground. "You will go in that room with Henry and I will forgive you this deed one last time." With that he hauled me up by my upper arm and dragged me to the room but not before I grabbed the can of pepper and hid it in the plaids of my skirt.

I kept screaming and trashing but to no avail.

"Please don't...I'm your sister, how could you do this to me?"

He pushed me in the room and locked the door behind him.

He was not the brother I once knew, caring and loving when my parents were...

The bedroom door opened to reveal a boy older than me by eight years with red hair, oak green eyes and muscular build.

I opened the lid of my pepper bottle slowly waiting for the opportunity.

He grinned wickedly at me and started walking towards me. I tightened the hold on my pepper can.

"Hello, darling. Don't be scared of me-" Just two more steps, "- I will not hurt you-" one more step. He laughed, "- well not much. But if-" I threw the pepper in his eyes and dashed towards the window at the end of the room.

He began screaming and crying as I opened the window and looked down to measure the distance before jumping. I was on the first floor of the house and it was really a great distance down and I-

Suddenly the door burst open and my brother came in not believing the scene in front his eyes. His eyes landed on mine, filled with rage and without thinking...

I jumped.

I felt the whipping air of December and landed hard on my back. Without second thought I started running ignoring the burning pain in my back.

I was a very bad runner. I stumbled every few steps, clumsy as I was. I was panting, alone at the night, with the cold air slapping against my body.

I fell once more after losing the count of how many times I fell, when I heard them closing in.

If they caught me, I can't even imagine what they would do to me and at the speed I was running at, I was sure gonna find it out.

I got up and came to a diversion. To my left were the woods that would bring nightmares even to the strongest of minds. It was said that once anybody went in that woods they would never come back alive.

To my right was a highway where no cars scurried at the night time. I knew if I went towards the highway they would catch me.

So I did what I never thought I would do and started running towards the woods.

It was my only option. The woods were better than the Hell I lived in. I would die first before they touched me.

With that thought in my mind I pushed myself forward, Running scared.

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