She's Not Afraid. (Niall Horan)

Chapter 25.

Marina's POV

It was happening again, the same scene played out and there was nothing I could do.

Sitting up in my bed surrounded by pink bed sheets and stuffed animals I could hear screaming, shouting, wails of pain from inside the house. Being only eight I was petrified yet stupidly curious. The closest thing to my child hands was my stuffed bear named Garfield, I was neither imaginative nor smart at that age and watched too many animated films. I held the bear in my arms, hugging it close, my nose slightly nuzzled in between its ears as I pulled the covers away from my body. My cliché princess pyjamas had risen up to my knees but soon fell as I shuffled my feet across the carpet of my very pink room. I wasn't your typical 'girly girl' I was your typical 'Barbie child'; hard to believe that when you look at me now.

Once I left my room and tiptoed across the landing I pressed my face between the banister bars almost like a jail cell. The shouting was even louder, the screams were even more distressing but I didn't hide. I dragged my sleepy juvenile body towards the stairs where I started to descend, I got half way down before my mother called my named.

"Marina, go back to bed, please." Her voice was raspy, tired and desperate – I'd never heard my mum speak that way and even being only eight I knew something was wrong.

"Mummy what's wrong?" I asked, rubbing my eyes as I held Garfield in my other hand, dragging on the stairs behind me.

"Nothing sweetie, go back to bed."

"Why are you and daddy shouting?"

"MARINA GO BACK TO BED!" My dad yelled so loud I could feel the wooden bars of the stairs shake against my hand. I had tears falling down my innocent face, he was alarmingly angry. "Marina, for fuck sake stop crying and go back to bed!" He yelled again but I didn't move which I think angered him more. He shot towards the stairs, his left arm raised well above his head as if he was going to smack me. I stood wide-eyed looking at the man who played 'horsey' or 'stuck in the mud' with me, the man in front of me couldn't be the same person. "Fine, if you won't go to bed you can stay and watch."

"NO!" My mother screamed. My father ignored her cries and yanked me from the stairs pulling my body down them with no care in the world. I screamed out in pain but he blanked out everything other than his anger. He literally threw me onto the armchair but not before ripping Garfield from my grasp. Immediately I screamed out for my only companion right now but it was no use. My own father tore of the limbs of my bear in front of my eyes whilst he sat and watched me cry rivers down my face.

"This will be a good lesson for her," he snapped at my mum. I was too scared to move, I was frozen in my place. My mother tried to reach out to me but he slapped her hard across the face leaving her stumbling around the room.

"Teach her a lesson of what exactly? That you can't control your anger? You just jump straight to false conclusions?"

"Shut up woman," he screamed in her face before slapping her again.

"Mummy," I managed to mumble through my tears but this only angered him more and chose to slap her again.

"Please don't let her see this, I'm begging. It will haunt her for the rest of her life."

"She's only fucking eight, she won't remember this night." He screeched as he stomped over towards me, he crouched down at eye level. His eyes were dark and truly terrifying. His strong, hard laboured hands gripped my upper arms so tight purple bruises were already seeping through my skin. "Your mummy was a bad girl and you know what happens to bad girls? They need to be punished." He spat harshly in my face. This was the man who had brought my mum breakfast in my bed this morning and made cupcakes with me this afternoon and now this man was becoming violent and I couldn't control my trembling. I was shaking so much he slapped me to stop but it only made it worse.