Breaking Eden - (rough draft)

2 - The Magic Trick (Not Edited)

The following chapter is a flash back that involves child abuse. There are some topics discussed within the next few chapters that may be triggering to some readers. 

Please note that this hasn't been edited yet. It's a raw draft. Feel free to rip it apart. Tell me what you like or hate. I want to make BE the best book it can possibly be so honest feedback is always welcome. Thanks for reading! :0)

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2 – The Magic Trick

**** Flash Back****

Even at five years old, Eden knew life was filled with terrible people, her parents and brother being some of the worst. She sat alone in the hallway closet, tiny body crammed between a broken shoe rack and vacuum cleaner. Above her hung the family's coats, some thick and full for winter, and others thin and dangly with hems that tickled the top of her head as she couched beneath them.

Her parents had left early that morning for work and left her in the care of her brother Keelan. As with every morning, Eden would wake up and sit in front of the tv with a bowl of store brand cereal in hand. She'd silently pray that Keelan would sleep late, past her parents leaving for the day.

Some days, Eden would be graced with two hours of uninterrupted bliss. She was able to relax and laugh at the cartoons character. But it ended the moment Keelan's bedroom door opened.

He'd stumble out of his room in his boxers and a white t-shirt and immediately open the hallway closet. Without a word, Eden knew what to do. She'd turned the channel to MTV and deposit her bowl and spoon in the sink, even if she wasn't finished eating and was still hungry.

She'd then crawl into her usual spot on top of a worn pair of work boots which were tucked between the shabby shoe rack and a dusty vacuum. She wouldn't say a word. She wouldn't cry. For if she did, she knew what would happen.

Eden would stare silently up at Keelan from behind her drawn up knees and watched as he shut the door, sealing her in the darkness within.

If she screamed, Keelan would only turn the sound of the TV up to drowned out her cries.

But this morning was different.

From within her closet, Eden heard the sound of the shower starting up. The water rushing through the pipes behind the back wall of the closet drowned out the music from the tv. When the water stopped, she waited for something to happen.

The closet door opened, blinding Eden momentarily. Keelan stood before her, naked as the day he was born with a towel draped around his slim 10-year-old shoulders.

"Out." Was the only thing he said. "I want to show you something."

When she wasn't fast enough, he grabbed her upper arm and yanked her to her feet. He dragged her toward his room without another word.

The space was a cluttered mess of dirty clothes and left-over dishes waiting to be taken to the kitchen. He shut the door behind them and locked it.

This wasn't normally what happened. Keelan didn't let her out of the closet until midafternoon, right before her parents returned home. He'd deliver his normal threat of violence if she told them she wasn't having fun during the day.

He sat Eden down next to him on the bed and was oddly quiet, which was another difference. Normally he'd be wired, talking a mile a minute. But now he sat there with his hands on his thighs as though he were thinking.

Eden's gaze dropped to his lap, to the small fleshy thing between his thighs. She hadn't a clue what it was.

She watched in question as Keelan's hand touched it, pulled it with his fingers. He caught her staring at it.