Next Project Teaser

TEASER: What If...?

Hey, ya'll! I decided to do a full-on teaser for my next story (to be released after Kate). So lemme know what ya'll think, and without a further ado, here it is!

Tears burned her cheeks as she lay on the floor in agony. Her ragged breath and racing heartbeat were the only sounds filling the room, but she could still hear the door slamming against the wall as it flew open. It was a sound she hadn't heard since she was very young, and for a while, she began to think that those long-passed memories were the results of nightmares and nothing more. That she could really trust him not to hurt her anymore. 

But that fantasy was gone. It had died all over again, along with what was left of her hope that it would ever change. After all, if her birth parents didn't care enough to keep her, then why would her adoptive ones? 

She squeezed her eyes shut and let the realization sink in. All her life, she just wanted to make her parents proud. She just wanted to be loved by them. But she knew that couldn't happen now. Not after this. Not after her pseudo father left her on the floor of her bedroom, bruised and bleeding at the cause of his own hand. No, it would never happen. 

But she wasn't going to give up. She was going to escape if it killed her. 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

His hands shook as he slipped the matchbook out of his pocket. Was he really doing this? Had it really come to this? To be so desperate to escape that he was going to make them believe he and his brother had died? 

Yes, it had. And it terrified him. 

He glanced back up at the house before him. All of the lights were off. His dad and aunt were asleep. Good. They could never know what happened on that driveway that night. Never. Or else they'd be back where they started, back in that prison with a man they used to call dad. They couldn't live like that. He had to give his younger brother a chance to be free. 

And that led him back to the matches. 

He slowly slid out a single match. He knew he had to hurry- his brother was waiting eagerly for him in a new and thus untraceable car. Waiting for his future. Their future. Together. Together and free. 

He struck the match on the asphalt and glanced back up at the house as if afraid the non-existent sound had awakened someone. When no light flickered to life, he turned to stare at the small flame in his hands. The moment he threw it at the gasoline-soaked car, it would go up in flames, and nobody would so much as speculate if they were alive. And with those strings cut, they'd be released into a new life, one where they didn't live in fear. 

So he tossed the match. And he ran.