Love Me And Don't You Dare Ever Go

Chapter 17

Skyler's P.O.V

It's been endless days and nights. So much darkness, so much beatings. Zack gives me beatings, but he doesn't give Mom any or Dad any. Though, he does bring Dad upstairs sometimes and I can hear screaming. But I never know what they're doing. Danny always comes back downstairs, his face pale and eyes bloodshot, but otherwise he looks somewhat okay. Sophie gets more food than I do, but she gives mostly all of it to Carly. Carly is oblivious to what's going on, and right now I would kill to be a little kid. I wouldn't understand, and maybe that's best.

"Mom," I whimper. My thigh has a cut in it, from my last beating. It hasn't stopped bleeding for I don't know how long, but it seems like an hour. It's been tiny drops, but it's been dripping forever. It's hard to tell time down here in the dark.

"Still bleeding?" she asks, giving me a worried glance.

"Yeah." I bite my lip, almost ready to cry. But I cry too much. Mom rips off the bottom of her shirt and hands it to me. I take it gratefully and press it against the cut.

I hear the door from upstairs open. "Sophie." Zack calls.

Mom stays still. He hasn't called her up yet since we've been here. She recovers, not wanting to make him mad, and stands. Before she leaves, I reach up and squeeze her hand. She smiles down at me, though it's hard to make out in the dark, and starts walking to the staircase. I look away as she climbs up. I don't want to think about what will happen to her once she gets upstairs.

"Son," Danny says in an adoring voice. Distracted from my previous thoughts, I look up at him and grunt. "Sophie will be ok," he adds. "She'll be fine," But he sounds like he's trying to convince himself rather than me.

I hear noises from upstairs. Yelling. First, Zack, but then a female It sounds a little different than my Mom's voice. I frown. It might be Macy. But then it keeps happeneing, and it gets louder and louder. I don't like it. Curious, I climb the stairs. Danny lets me, probably not noticing. He's too busy worrying about Sophie.

I climb on my hands and knees up the stairs, and look under the narrow slit that seperates the door from the floor. I see shadows pass the door. Then a loud bang comes upon the door. Scared, I let out a little noise. I retreat a little, and then I hear her.

"Sky! I'm so sorry this happened!" It's Ari. "I didn't know about anything!" She's crying. "I didn't -"

Her voice is muffled now, and I hear a man grunt at her. Zack must have stopped her. I sigh. I did love her. Love. I remember when I thought having her around as a popular girl was the worst of my troubles. I don't even know how things ended up like this.

I crawl silently back down the wooden steps. They're cold against my bare feet. As I get to the bottom of the steps, the basement door comes flying open and someone comes stomping down the stairs. The person flings themselves into my arms, and cries hard. I look down at the brown haired girl at my chest and realize it's Ari.

But she's not alone. 

Zack comes down the stairs as well, with a murderous look on his face. "That damn boy is all you want!" He yells. He grabs a fist full of Ari's hair and tugs her away from me. I can see her face now, and it's bruised and dried with tears.

He has a knife in his hand, I suddenly realize, but it's too late. He brings it up, and then crashing down into the middle of my chest. I faintly hear screaming, and I feel way too much. Too much pain. The screaming gets louder and I realize with a start that it's me screaming. My vision fades, my feeling fades, and eventually, everything else does with that too.

Then I wake up.

I sit up in bed, my hair a mess, and my blanets drenched with sweat. I shouldn't be having nightmares anymore. Nightmares are for children anyway, and I'm already 13.

I call Danny. He always helps with the nightmares. He says I can call whenever I have one. The phone rings, and someone picks up. "Hello?" I hear the voice of my Danny, and instantly calm down.

"I had another nightmare."

"Oh lord. What was this one about?"

"Well, I was 17 years old and you were dead, and you had cancer or something ..."

The End.