The Good Girls Secret

Chapter One- Before You Found Me

"I'm sorry for dinner hun. I wish we could leave here but you know how that goes. When we left last time he found us, if we try again who knows what will happen. The good thing is that we still have each other." She tells me and I wrap my arms around her and try to hold in my tears.

"I love you mom." I say into her ear and she squeezes me tighter.

"I love you too sweetie." She replies and we both sleep in my room that night.

I feel a sharp pain in my side and it rips me out of my dream.

"I said wake up!" My father growls at me, his face red with anger.

Quickly, I scramble to the corner and huddle in a ball. He is so mad. Usually I'm always awake before my dad gets home. It must have been because I was dreaming of my mom. She was such a wonderful person, every time she was with me my dad wouldn't hurt me as badly. Whenever she left the punishments would get worse.

A punch to my nose snaps me out of my thoughts and I wince. "Do you think you can just ignore me now?"

My eyes go wide and I shake my head. "No sir."

"That's what I thought. Now, why weren't you awake when I got home?" He yells and I cower in my seat.

"I-I didn't try to." I respond and his eyes darken. Oh no, I definitely should not have said that.

"So now you think that talking back is acceptable? You know, I've come up with a new punishment that I think should go well with talking back." He says revealing the blade of a knife sticking out of his waistband.

My eyes widen to the size of golf balls. Recently the torture has been getting worse, but I never though he would cut me.

A rag is stuffed into my mouth to muffle my screams. I feel the cool tip of the metal touch my skin and clench my fists for the pain that is about to come. The blade pierces my skin and is dragged all the way down my thigh. Luckily the cut is only about an eighth inch deep, but it still hurts like hell. I let out a scream and use what little strength I have to try and push him away from me. Of course he doesn't move a muscle and I just realized I made an extremely stupid mistake.

"Did you just try and push me?" He snarls dragging the knife up my stomach and stopping at my shoulder.

I let out a blood curdling scream and look down to see the tip of the knife completely buried in my skin. Swiftly it's pulled out and put back into the sheath. Without a word my father gets up and slams the door to my room.

The tears I was holding in start to fall freely now and I sob into my hands. Showing my father I am weak is something that will never happen.

You are strong, you can get through this. My mothers words flow through my mind and I wipe away the tears.

I examine my thigh only to find that the gash is probably four inches long and bleeding very badly. This definitely requires some sort of tourniquet especially because I am so malnourished. My body won't be able to heal as quickly because the amount of protein that I'm producing is extremely low.

I rip off a piece of my shirt and tie it around my leg then move on to my shoulder. This is more of a hole than a gash so I bunch up some cloth and shove it in. A small scream escapes my mouth, but I stifle it with my hand so he doesn't come back down. After I tend to both wounds my head starts to feel dizzy so I lay back and doze off into a sleep.

I don't know how long I've been out, but when I wake up and try to move a sharp pain shoots through me and I remember everything that happened last night. The kicking, punching and knife. A shiver shoots down my spine and it isn't because of the cold.

Slowly, I sit up and look around to see if he left me food anywhere. There isn't anything that I can see, but my eyes do land on something else. A stream of light is coming through the side of the door. That can only mean one thing, he forgot to lock it.

Adrenaline courses through my body as I try to stand up and have success. Pain is everywhere but at this point all I'm focused on is getting out. Slowly, I ease the door open and peer around the outside room. It looks very similar to the room I was just in, but has a tattered couch with a blanket, TV and desk sitting in it. Since luck is never on my side the other door in this room is locked.

Feeling helpless I slide down the wall and sob until my eyes land on something that may seem like nothing to most people, but is everything to me. A half eaten bagel and two donuts with almost a full glass of orange juice.

My eyes widen and I quickly scramble over to the desk and snatch the food off the plate. I collapse onto the couch and shove it all into my mouth. The bagel is gone within seconds and I start on the donuts, letting out smalls cries as I eat them. After all the food is gone I gulp down the orange juice and sigh when I'm finished. That's the most food I've had in years, the best too.

I let my body sink into the couch, pull the blanket around me and flick on the TV. The news is on showing that it's 11:00 p.m on Thursday. No wonder my father hasn't come down to punish me, I've been unconscious the whole day. Hopefully he's already in bed and I can relax for a little while.

A headline at the bottom of the screen catches my eye. There was a fourteen year old girl who was kidnapped, but is now reunited with her family. I so badly wish that I could be her, but nobody even knows that I exist. My father always forbid me to go to school so my mom taught me from home. That's how I know that I'm stuck here forever unless a miracle happens.

I flick off the TV and close my eyes almost immediately falling asleep.

The next morning I wake up to footsteps coming down the stairs and shoot up immediately. I grab the blanket from the couch and rush into my old room and fully close the door. He can't know that I left or he'll kill me, at least I have a new blanket that doesn't suck. The door cracks open and I throw myself down, pretending to sleep.

"Why was the door unlocked?" My father barks and I shoot upright.

"I-I don't know." I answer, not meeting his eyes.

"Don't lie to me! If you don't know then where did you get this?" He asks holding up the blanket. Shit. I just had to bring it with me.

"Um, I-I," no words leave my mouth and my father looks angrier than I've ever seen him before.

"I'm done with you!" He shouts and something in his eyes snaps.

Quickly he reaches into his waistband and pulls out the same knife from yesterday.

"No! Please, please not again!" I beg him, but he continues to walk towards me.

"Sorry little girl." A sneer appears on his face as he stabs the knife into my stomach.

The loudest scream I've ever made escapes my mouth and I puke due to the extreme pain. He turns his back on me and walks out leaving the doors open. I'm going to die and he knows it, there's to much blood loss.

I'm laying there preparing for death when I hear someone shouting my name.

"Stay with us Ryan. We're going to get you out of here." There's an unfamiliar figure leaning over me and before I know it I'm being carried away.

Someone finally finds me and I'm going to die before I can even experience freedom. I hear shouting all around me but things are starting to become one big blur.

Out of nowhere I'm placed in the back of a truck and we start moving.

"Don't worry, you're safe now." A voice reassures me and then everything goes black.