"Oh my God, you are a fucking disgrace to this family!" His words cut into my heart like a red-hot knife. It always did. I tried to hold in my tears as he screamed at me from the other side of my room, the door broken behind him from shoving it open forcefully. I probably wouldn't have a functional door for a while..
"I never should have adopted you and your brother!"
I'd heard those words from him before, too. It still hurt. I tried to not show it.
"Don't even bother coming down for dinner."
And then, Ryan was gone.
I knew I wanted to cry. My body wouldn't let me. I was cold, but it barely mattered; the only thing I really felt was a pained numbness that had now become my life.
I had broken one of the good ceramic bowls when he had me help with dinner, and basically flew into a rage. When I tried to apologize and offer to pay him back, it only made things worse. My hands still hurt from the jagged pieces when I tried to pick up my mess and throw it away, cutting into my skin from how on edge I was.
I barely noticed my body still shaking when I gingerly grabbed my phone, pulling up my brother's contact. For a few minutes, I contemplated telling him what happened.
He already has enough to worry about. He's probably asleep anyways.
Instead, I found my fingers pulling up YouTube, clicking on one of the many playlists I've created over the years. Quickly, soft music started playing from the speakers, taking away a little bit of the numbness in my heart.
School the next day was hardly better. Whatever sleep I got the night before was fitful at best, and mostly riddled with bizarre dreams or straight up nightmares.
I yawned yet again, my head heavy from the poor sleep I had the night prior, and I could barely focus on the history lesson. I'd never really cared for history, but at least today's lesson was short, and this class was the last one of the day.
I pulled at my sleeves of my jacket absentmindedly. Even in Jasper, Nevada, our "precious" small town, the schools were cold this time of year.
Precious. Yeah, right.
It wasn't long until school was out, and I was free to leave the school. This was really the only time I felt truly free, since after school I usually worked at a pet shop. Ryan, my adoptive father, didn't know I worked there, believing that I had tutoring most days of the school week.
By the time I walked into the pet store, my breath seemed to come easier. This was my only safe place anymore.
"Mika! About time you got here, I was beginning to worry! How was school today?"
The shop owner, Donovan, smiled brightly as I walked through the door. I felt my lips curling into a small, genuine smile at his greeting. He was a middle-aged man, balding, but he was certainly quite handsome in his own rights.
"Long and boring, as usual," I quietly sighed, walking behind the front counter where he stood, shoving my backpack into one of the small cubbies under the counter. "Glad to be here."
"So am I," he agreed. "Help is hard to come by these days, and you're one of the few that's actually cared."
"You always tell me that," I sighed, rolling my eyes at him. "The usual today?"
Donovan nodded. "We're supposed to get another shipment tonight. You think you'll be able to stay a little later today to help me with it? Rachel called off today."
I was already nodding. Anything to keep from being home.
It was late by the time I finally got off work, but at least my belly was happily full, and I was exhausted. With any luck, I'd be able to just sleep once I got home.
Well, where I lived. It certainly wasn't home.
My feet felt heavier with every step, however. My backpack felt dangerously heavy, but with the mostly setting sun, I worried about getting home before dark. My feet moved a bit faster at my thoughts, hiking my backpack up higher on my shoulders.
It especially wouldn't do me any good if I got home at an unreasonable time. Lord knows Ryan wouldn't tolerate it. Last time I did that, he was forced to call the school and tell them I had lice as cover.
For the most part, I largely ignored the occasional cars that passed by me. The sound of a motorcycle, however, surprisingly caught my attention as it neared me. I hadn't seen one in Jasper in forever. No one really had anything flashy here. Instinctively, I turned to look for the vehicle.
To my utter horror, the motorcycle was heading towards me.
Before I could try to run, the rider stopped a couple feet away. My hands shook, ready to either run or possibly fight them off. It wouldn't do me good to run now, the motorcycle was much faster than I ever could.
"Mika!" The muffled voice from under the helmet sounded familiar, and when he pulled off his helmet, I sighed in relief. It was Jack. I mentored him when I could on some of his classes.
"Jack," I breathed in relief. "You scared me!"
His sheepish smile was endearing. "Sorry. I just saw you walking alone and thought I'd say hi." He seemed a little nervous, but then again, he was always like that around me. It seemed his nature to be like that around people.
"Are you heading home?"
His question brought me out of my thoughts. I gave him a small nod. "Yeah. Just finished working."
"Do you want a ride home? I-It's getting dark.."
His offer, however innocent, made my body go rigid. No one knew where I lived, no one knew anything about what went on. No one was allowed there. If Ryan saw me with anyone anywhere near our house-
The thought alone terrified me.
"I-I don't know, my dad-"
Jack was frantically moving his hands. "If you're worried about him seeing me, I could drop you off at the end of your street?"
While his responses seemed frantic, possibly, I wasn't sure, I passed it off as concern. It was getting dark, and nothing good happened then. Plus, the sooner I got home, the more likely Ryan would be in a better mood despite me being out later.
I let out a quiet sigh, hiking my backpack higher on my back. It felt far too heavy. "Okay."
A couple awkward moments later, I was finally situated behind him on his motorcycle, arms securely around him to keep me on. It took a lot of effort to get me to do that.
The wind whipped my hair around, despite my hastily made ponytail, which annoyed me a bit. Still, the annoyance paled in comparison to just how free I felt. I'd never ridden with anyone in a car other than Ryan and my older brother, and the latter hadn't happened in a couple years. I didn't even know how to drive. This was the first time I'd ever been on a motorcycle.
"Turn right at this light!" I yelled to him, realizing almost too late that we were going to pass the next turn. He shouted an affirmation to me, and began to turn.
The blinding headlights waiting for us from behind a building as we passed, however, and the nearly instant gunned engines, however, changed the whole situation completely.
"Shit!"
Jack's swear caught me completely off-guard, but the sudden lurch of power from his motorcycle nearly knocked me clean off. I barely managed to hold onto him, panicking.
"What the hell?!"
"Hold on to me!!" He didn't try to elaborate, doing his absolute best to dodge the two identical cars that now chased us. I heard him start speaking again, but I couldn't completely make out what he was saying.
"Jack, they're chasing us!!"
"I know!"
My heart pounded in my chest as I desperately clung to his frame. This was insane, what the hell was going on?! Who would even follow two high school kids on a motorcycle?!
And then, they weren't entirely cars anymore. The two cars now had massive guns emerging from them, red pulses of energy from them dangerously close to hitting us. I was pretty sure I was screaming.
Despite our best efforts, one of the blasts hit the motorcycle's back tire as we swerved, making us go out of control. Jack and I were sent flying, my screams about the only thing I heard at this point.
I couldn't see anything, but the screeching of metal and a yell of terror filled the air, and something caught me before I hit the ground.
"Arcee..!"
I could barely see, my mind dangerously close to unconsciousness. My blurred vision made no sense to me, but the yell of terror from Jack, and a huge yellow blur slammed into- something. It was getting too hard to see.
"Mika..!"
How am I going to get home now...? That last thought followed darkness.
Hi everyone! It's Rainblade here. I decided it was definitely time to rewrite this story, and it desperately needed it. The revised version will be updated here, but you can check out the original work over on my Quotev account. Meanwhile, enjoy this rewritten, revised version of Mika's story!