Child Of An Addict

Seven

I was just seven years old when my life started falling apart, or at least that's when I can recall it starting too.
December 7th 2007 seemed like a fairly average day, I said goodbye to my stepfather; a tall slim man my mother met a few years prior to my life falling around me. He seemed skeletal to me. Pale,tall,skinny with his deep brown eyes sunken into his head as if he was just skin and bone. His short jet black hair seemed to frame his skeletal like face perfectly.
His demeanour wasn't very pleasant, he seemed angry all the time.
He was taking my mom to an appointment that day;
My mother, she was short, chubby and a little irritable, of course, she was pregnant after all.
She had light blue eyes, but not the type of light blue that hinted at a bubbly life. Her eyes were sickly. Surrounded by acne and freckles.
You could never tell what my mothers natural hair colour was, she dyed it black all the time, so much so that her hair was split and fried, but photos from her childhood hinted that she had long, thick and beautiful ginger hair.
My mother, she seemed distant all the time, as if she was living in her own Little world.
The babysitter ushered my parents out the door assuring them I would get too school on time.
Once the door shut behind them, he would allow me to eat breakfast while watching morning cartoons.
I walked to school that morning and ran into my best friend, she was a few grades ahead of me, and was definitely a lot taller than myself.
The first half of the school day was uneventful, just boring English class, boring French class and an even less eventful recess break.
I returned home for lunch break,
My grilled cheese sandwich was already prepared for me to eat.
My little brother was awake watching spongebob.
He was a cute slim faced kid with freckles lining his nose and his green eyes hiding behind his sleek brown hair, he was afraid of the buzzers my stepfather used so he never allowed anyone near him to cut his hair. He had a cute little button nose and was always a happy cheerful kid.
I never thought much about my relationship with my brother until this very day.
I finished my grill cheese sandwich and grabbed my juice box to go. I had to hurry getting my ski pants and jacket on or I'd be late for school, not like that would matter anyways.
I finished my juice box shortly after I left my house and put on my mittens. My great grandmother made them for me. They were cute, meant to be black bunnies with a little red button nose.
I loved to pretend like they weren't mittens, instead they were bunnies hopping along beside me on my journey too and from school.
I looked up from my bunny daydream to see a man in a beige trench coat walking towards me, he had a balaclava covering his face. I continued on my walk as if he were just another stranger passing.
He wasn't, he stopped me in my tracks with a;
"Excuse me little miss, do you know where the mall is?"
His voice was deep and husky, he sounded almost sinister as if he didn't truly care where the mall was.
"No I don't sorry"
I responded quickly, my mother told me to never talk to strangers but I didn't want to seem impolite.
I assumed a quick no would be enough and I took a step forward to continue my journey to school.
But the stranger had other plans,
"Could you just point me in the right direction?"
I replied with a sharp,
"I really don't know where it is."
He continued on his voice growing more impatient,
"Well at least take me to your house so I can look at the phone book."
My breath began to shake,
"No ones home and my mom told me not to talk to strangers."
I was beginning to shake and I tried to move on to get to school.
I guess the tall stranger didn't care for my answer.
He grabbed me by my shoulders and positioned himself in front of me and continued to demand that I take him to my home.
I started screaming for help, his grip was tight on my shoulders and it hurt.
Neighbours were telling me to shut up as if I was some teenager pulling some kind of sick prank.
He moved his hands up to my tiny neck and squeezed before I could start screaming again.
I was dangling, helplessly flailing attempting to break free,
Until I could no longer fight,
I stopped attempting to from the face of death.
I stared at a white wooden fence in front of me as my vision became blurred and framed.
The sound of my heart beat began to slow.
I could no longer see. The black frame had completely closed in, I was surrounded by pleasant darkness.
My arms went limp.
I guess the strangers did too.
I guess I woke up momentarily while I was over the sinister strangers shoulder.
I remember seeing police, but I was too weak and dazed to call for help.
I guess I passed out again because I woke up in the middle of a snow covered field.
I was freezing, alone and definitely late for school.

I walked my way across the snowy field and found I wasn't far from my school, it was definitely after lunch as I saw the little frail janitor lady cleaning the garbage up from the kids in the schoolyard. I ran to her crying, feeling a sense of security in her presense.
I told her everything that happened, at least what I could remember.
She dismissed me and told me to go to class.

I sighed heavily the tears that were streaming down my face grew cold from the winter wind. I found my teacher Miss.Lee, she was beautiful, I think she could have been Korean, she never talked about family, only math homework, i guess she saw me crying because she immediately took me into her arms and held me, she smelled like a beautiful lavender tree.
I explained why I was crying, my voice shaky, my knees felt weak, I could still feel the sinister mans hands tight around my neck.
Miss. Lee took me to the principals office.
Mr.Biggs, he was kind of tall, with cool blue eyes and maybe dirty blonde hair, or maybe it was just dirty.
I felt like I was on repeat, constantly telling everyone what had happened.
I was sent home, thankfully I ran into my friend on the way out. I felt safe walking with him.
Though I did have a crush on him as well.
He was from a different cultural background, I'm not sure what, but at that age I didn't care. His dark mysterious eyes drew me in every time I saw him. He had curly Black hair, it curled perfectly behind his ears.
We both loved Pokémon.
We would sit together for hours showing each other our card collection.
I told him about what happened, I don't think he believed me because he laughed.
I returned home, my mom and step dad weren't home yet, my brother was laying on his stomach infront of the television watching Scooby Doo. Our babysitter was passed out on the couch. I sat beside my brother and started crying.
He looked up at me and saw the marks around my neck.
I told him with as little detail as I could about what had happened.
He got up and wrapped his tiny arms around me and just held me as tightly as he could.

It was this moment that I realized my brother and I would have a very strong connection.