Speak Now

Prologue

Stop!

Raine threw her arms over her head, screaming into the pain, as the hand came down again and again. A sharp nail cut flesh, with crimson blood spraying from the new wound. Her eyes bled with tears, her throat hoarse from her wails and lack of water.

When he finally backed away, she was nothing more than a sobbing, bleeding mess, her red-marked arms shaking as she held them over her head, her muscles aching.

She tried to croak out a question, but words failed her. Her eyesight grew blurry, her vision fading in and out, growing spotted. She could see him strutting away, pleased with what he'd done to her.

Every inch of her body shivering, Raine dragged herself to her bedroom, collapsing onto her bed as she dragged the covers over her. Her formerly white bedsheet had already been turned permanently red by all the blood.

She weakly reached for her handphone, wanting to call for help, but she bit her own lip, knowing that if her friends knew what her family did to her, she'd lose them in a heartbeat.

Her fingers drifted away from the hospital number, instead straying to Whatsapp. Sighing, she opened the messaging app, seeing hundreds of messages, the most recent right at the top, from Jadelyn.

Jadelyn: Hey, Raine! Wanna go out for lunch together tomorrow?

Raine stared blankly at the message. She wasn't even sure if she drag herself to school, much less go out for lunch.

Raine: Sorry, Jade, I'm feeling a little under the weather, maybe next week?

Jadelyn: Oh, sure, no worries! Get well soon!

How many times could she get away with this? She wasn't sick. Her friends must think her immune system was terribly weak.

Raine pulled herself out of her bed to lock her door. No use closing it only to have her father come in again.

Her gaze drifted to the worst of the wounds. She wiped away the blood with a tissue, examining how deep the cut was. She might've been cut to the bone. With her father's nails? Not likely. He must've been carrying a knife.

She heard a click. Oh no. Where were her room keys? Maybe they were in-

The door opened.

"You can't hide from me, Raine," her father laughed, his voice cold and chilly.

He was drunk, she knew that. But it didn't change anything. It didn't change the fact that she was going to be attacked there and then.

She grabbed the only weapon she could find in her room - a pen. A simple ballpoint pen. She clicked it, feeling the pen tip come out, and pointed it at her father.

He, in turn, removed a large pen knife from the belt at his waste. That knife could probably cut her pen in half.

"Come here, Raine," her father hissed, his voice slithering off his tongue like a snake, the terrifying words wrapping around her.

Her mouth formed the word no, but her tongue couldn't get it out. Her vocal cords seemed twisted together, and she couldn't emit a single word, let alone a cry for help.

He cut her. Over and over, until she was more cuts than skin. And finally, when she was too tired to cry any longer, he stopped. And he threw the knife, its entire blade stained crimson, at her feet. "Defend yourself next time," he snorted and walked away.

Defend herself? Every time he gave her a knife, he got a bigger one and destroyed the one he'd given.

She was Raine, the lost girl who'd once had everything she'd ever wanted, but was now nothing but a lone soul.