Zero

Chapter 1

Zero: Chapter 1//
Thomas-
It was too late. I was destined to die.

"THOMAS BLAKE, THIS TIME YOU'RE REALLY FUCKING GONNA GET IT!" my sister began to screech, her shrill, toxic voice bellowing with rage as I delicately rested my trembling, diminished spine against the decaying plasterboard in terror. Hardly even pausing for a single second, she scarcely had the chance to breathe between her sentences. "YOU SHOULD FUCKING DIE! BE ERASED FROM EXISTENCE LIKE OUR CUNT OF A FATHER! I HATE YOU!" She proceeded, the peeling walls of the room now shaking all around us. Penetrating my heart like bullets, her brutal words forced my fragile eyes to begin to water, their agony powerfully firing through my veins at full pressure, causing me to quake. Jade hadn't always been like this. She was once gentle and loving, but things shortly changed for the worst.

Ever since mother had slaughtered our father in front of our very eyes, she had turned violent and cold - exactly like a psychopath. She was beyond insane. The only emotion that ever echoed across her face was anger. Often, she would strive to harm me in any way possible, purely due to the fact I was so alike to him. It hurt her to see me, giving her all the reason to cause me pain. I may as well have been a carbon-copy of my father, due to our endless similarities. We had both shared the same golden hair and sparkling sapphire eyes. The same radioactive energy had bounced from both of our souls. His smile, naturally, was also the same: not that I smiled much anymore. But all of this had just provided more reasons for her to try and put an end to my existence. To my mother, I was nothing but a punch-bag, a simple tool to be used and beat when she felt as if it was necessary. And to my sister, I was merely a rejected dolly, destined to be discarded and destroyed after satisfactory use. Either by chance or design, I was a mistake destined to be neglected for eternity.

Now lifting her hand above my head, she soon acted on her thoughts. Grasping my thin, withered neck with her own muscular hand, she didn't at all hesitate to dig her sharp nails into my soft flesh, causing the warm blood to ooze out painfully. Yelping loudly with shock, I shook my head aggressively in an attempt to knock her away from me. Failing to do so, I felt myself slip into an extremely high level of panic. Growling hungrily, almost as if she was a starved tiger, her grip tightened, causing my breathing to deepen significantly. "Jade, please.." I felt myself gasp breathlessly, before being yanked up from my feet by solely my throat. Our heads were now at equal levels, meaning that I had no choice but to look the monster in the eyes as I choked on my saliva, trying my best to break free.

"JADE STOP!" I managed to scream with agony, my face heavily reddening from the lack of oxygen entering my lungs. Grinning, with zero emotion reflecting in her eyes, she slammed my body against the wall with all of her power. As her devilish grin turned into a smirk of pleasure, I felt her swing me around with pride, as if she was a training huntsman, who had just received her first prize. Dropping me to my feet without warning, she rammed her first into my back with satisfaction and then dunked my face into the sink, already pre-filled with murky, cold water. Submerging my face completely into the liquid, I pathetically attempted to fight back for a brief moment, then instantly gave up on the idea, already knowing fine well that I would never win the dispute. Completely out of suggestions, I permitted her to continue as she chuckled, her dazzled face somehow lit with amusement. What was the point in trying to survive if I had no reason to live? Soon enough, my mind was no longer processing the current events and was focusing on numerous other thoughts. I could just let her end my life for me, rather than doing it myself one day. Death wasn't the best choice, but it sure as hell would have ended the misery. Feeling my body struggle for air, at that point, my idea had seemed highly sensible in my mind. Without a stable headset to make good decisions, I found myself quickly deciding to go with my heart's hopes and aspirations.

Sensing my time of breathing finally coming to an end, I relaxingly loosened my frail muscles. For the first time in two years, I had felt at peace, somehow. My time was over. I was free! Or so I had thought. When I least expected it, my younger sister, Allison, had already interfered. She chose to save me from my fate. To my very disappointment, she had caught sight of the actions that my sister was performing towards me. She was only of the age four at that time, however, she had seen more than enough pain occur around her to know that it wasn't a good thing. Being too young to know how to solve the situation effectively, she had fled out of the pathetic excuse for a room, to where our home phone was situated and then begun dialling a number. Forming a conversation with the operator on the other end of the phone, Jade halted her cackling and screaming to listen. Fully releasing me from her grasp in both panic and surprise, she glared at me, her blood clearly thickening. For a short, tense moment, she remained glued to the spot, debating on whether to proceed with my assassination or to punish our little sister for what she had done. Once she had eventually made up her mind, she fled into the living room and snatched Alice by both wrists, causing the phone to drop fall to the ground, making its fragile plastic shatter into many, raw, vicious shards.

Allison, now shrieking in pain, booted Jade in the stomach, resulting in her instinctively releasing Al from her grasp. As an unbearable amount of anger now filled my elder sister's face, I held my arms out protectively, urging my younger one to run away for her safety. Jade, now approaching me with a raised fist, blew my face full strength with her knuckles, causing my cheek to swell with the impact almost immediately. As she withdrew her hand, I noticed her eyes had somehow darkened a little more than before, developing into a bloodthirsty red. "I will get you back for this, Thomas Blake. I WILL END YOU!" she screeched, fuming out of the room, just as if she was a warrior of some kind, hoping her actions would commit to a good deed. Faintly and hesitantly dropping to my knees with both weakness and fear, I buried my throbbing face into my hands and begun sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn't deal with it any longer, I just didn't want to live any further. Choking on my salted, bitter tears, I jumped at the tender sensation of two small hands reaching up and wiping the water away from my eyes.

"It's okay Tommy, it will be okay! The good police people will come! You're my big brother and I will look after you!" came a gentle, innocent voice. Gazing up at me, were the sweet, gracious eyes of my younger sister, looking into mine with a lot of concern. Suddenly embracing her into a tight hug, I wrapped my arms around her thin structure whilst sniffling. Her body, frail yet comforting, somehow made me feel human again.

"Al.. You're my whole world. You really do deserve so much better than this life, you know.. You know what?" I managed to crack out nervously, my voice hushing into a faded whisper as her dreamy, yet damaged eyes remained fixated onto me. "Me and you will leave this place together. Don't say anything to anyone okay? I'll plan our escape. We can't stay here, I don't want you to get hurt from this life. You deserve the best." I mumbled, brushing my trembling fingers through her knotted, platinum hair. Allison, nodding at me, smiled a little then slowly released me from our hug. Crawling away on all fours, she stated that she best get back to her room so 'Mommy wouldn't hurt her arm again'.

Nodding at her anxiously, I waited for her to leave safely, then curled up tightly on the floor, feeling shamefully hungry, despite knowing there was no chance of me having anything for several days. I also had no clue how we could escape without being caught, but there had to be a way, there must have been, it wasn't impossible. Delicately rubbing my newly-formed black eye, I felt myself leak out another ice-cold tear before falling into a light sleep, unable to keep myself awake any longer from the dizziness. The impacts of the abuse had gotten too much. I was weak, I couldn't go on any further. But even still, the cold tiles of the grimey bathroom floor kept me warmer than I had ever been in years.