Puzzle Pieces

{Puzzle Piece 34} - Fleeing Her Cage

She quickly scanned her room, cautiously making sure that everything looked normal. She was finally going to do it. She was finally going to leave.

She was going to leave him, this home, this life. She had told herself she would stay strong and never look back. This time would be the last time she'd have to try because this time she would succeed. Feeling guilty and remorseful was not an option she couldn't turn back now. The lines had already been crossed too many times to count.

She was standing in the doorway now, one foot out the door hesitant. Then it happened. One moment the door was opening, her fathers' drunken laughs filling up the silent house. The next he was looking directly at her and reaching for the nearest object to throw. Instead he grabbed something better, the shotgun that was displayed on the front table.

Eyes dilating in fear she stole away from the room and house. Trying to keep as much distance as possible between them. Fear and anxiety were creeping up her spine, vertebrae by vertebrae. Almost as if lingering and waiting for something to happen. She was trembling now; her lungs could no longer keep up with her pace. It was getting laborious and her energy was sluggishly seeping away.

A shot rang a bullet was released.

It was flying through the grassy valley. It flashed by the flowers; skillfully weaving it's way through them. The ice-cold bullet hit its target. Crimson blood oozed out of the fresh wound like a waterfall. Marking her shirt and mind forever. Dripping down and coloring the white flowers, she used to play among, a dark but beautiful red.

Her legs and chest were crying out in pain but she brushed off the throbbing and crying pain and pushed forward. Her pale and ashen white face scrunched up in discomfort. The stinging ache she had felt in her side had stretched and was now pulling and yanking at her lungs. Dried blood covered her chest and hands; smearing across her face and hair. Cracking joints and heavy breathes harmonized with her small thuds and the swishing and rustling of the stained flowers and green grass. A rustling and breathing coming from behind her interrupted the music they made.

Her breathing quickened and faltered slightly when another cold metal bullet hit her in the leg, just under her knee. Blood gushed out of the open wound like a waterfall. Dripping onto her shoes and she kept stumbling whilst trying to rip off her shirtsleeve. The ground collided with her face as she tried to hastily wrap up the wound on her leg. She could hear him nearing; getting closer and closer by the second. It took all of her energy to push herself off of the grassy floor and to stand up.

The adrenaline had run away and had been replaced with fear as she stumbled and tripped over the weeds and plants that litter the valley floor. Her heart was racing and was jumping out of her chest as it pumped terror and anxiety through her veins mixing it in with her blood. The tears in her skin were stinging and burning, almost as if the flames she felt in her lungs were spreading across her body, lighting it all on fire. She was trying to stay quiet and hold back the tears but it was getting more and more difficult to not to.

She let out an agonized scream as she felt the bullet penetrate her shoulder, piercing through her skin like a needle and resting inside the ripped skin. Another bullet hit her barely missing her leg but still managing to knick another one of her many open wounds. She could feel the blood leaking through her shirt and the messy bandage that she had hastily wrapped around her leg a few minutes before.

She could feel herself get dizzier and more tired by the second, but she knew that if she didn't run now she wouldn't be able to leave again. She could hear his drunken screams, apologizing for everything that he did. She knew that the minute she fell for his trap that he wouldn't hesitate to hurt her, just like he used to hurt her mother when she was younger. Except her mother chose the easy way out and had left her to be his punching bag.

Finally she stumbled across the old park gate where she was set to meet him. She was almost at the frail, old and rusty park gate 'Just a few more steps' she thought to herself. His grubby hand suddenly grasped her arm harshly his unkempt nails digging into her skin as she let out a cry of pain.

"You're just as worthless as she was, both of you ungrateful brats never appreciated anything I did for you!" He screamed into her ear.

She screamed out as he yanked her hair pulling her head back as he whispered insults into her ear. She didn't say anything because there was a part of her that believed every single word that he said to her. The tears had long stopped rolling down her face as she let him beat her to the pulp.

The blows were repetitive and felt as if they were un-ending. Each one hit her harder than the next. Bruises and marks were forming on her body; dotted all over her arms, face and body.

Suddenly she could hear a distant voice, its familiarity sent a rush of relief through her body and sparked something inside her. He had come to save her from the drunken demon that shadowed over her life.

His happy tone and smile morphed into one of anger as he saw her lying on the floor with her father looming over her bruised body. Her angel came running towards and charged at her drunken father. He knocked him over and punched him until she weakly told him to stop. She saw him stand up and spit on her father in disgust before he walked over to her. His hand gingerly caressed her face as she began to sob, but this time not of pain or anger, but of sadness and grief.

"He's gone Alex, he's gone. I've lost him. I have finally lost my father to the madness and appeal of rage" She said in despair as he embrace her and tried to soother her.

That was the last thing that she could remember doing before her vision got blurry and the world collapsed around her.