Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry
Name: Dream-Chan
Challenge(s): Vanilla #15 (Inhospitable Lodgings), Chocolate #19 (Solitude), Strawberry #4 (Sunrise/Sunset)
Story: Snapshots
Title: Cruel Games
Characters: Christiana (age 15)
Word Count: 683
Rating: PG-13, for implicated abuse of minors
Summary: Christiana hides in the shadows and thinks about her family and friends and which of them brings her more joy. Set at the end of the same day as Back Again.
The sun was setting.
She could just glimpse it through the blinds that covered her window. Bloody light that deepened the shadows that she was trying to hide in. She curled tighter into herself, wincing slightly at the pain the movement caused her
"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!"
The sudden scream, that no muffling could block out, made her jump and clench her eyes shut. She wanted it all to end, she wanted it to be quiet. But it wasn't, not in this house.
Trembling, she wondered if the shadowy corner she had planted herself in was safe enough. If mother decided that she needed to be punished too could she find her in the shadows.
'Maybe I should hide in the closet'
This idea was pondered over, but fear of the complete darkness in her closet and fear of not being able to prepare if she couldn't see that her mother had entered her room froze her to the floor. Unable to move.
The screams were getting hoarser. Mother liked to play this game with them, hurt them till they couldn't scream anymore, couldn't fight. Then she reminded them that they were hers, every scar marked them as hers and they couldn't disobey her, couldn't fight her, couldn't leave her.
No matter how much they wanted to.
She should have gone to school today. It was the first day of the year and she and her best friend Isabelle were going to go to school together for the first time in several years. Unfortunately she broke a few of the plates when she was washing the dishes two days ago and the bruises haven't faded enough for mother to let her leave the house.
Thinking about Isabelle was comforting though even if they had been separated in middle school, and she had been mostly alone until the few times that they could see each other outside of school with mother's permission.
School without Isabelle was hard though. Known to the other students as that 'weird quiet kid' she would have been a target for bullies if not for the fact that Kevin, Isabelle's childhood friend and somewhat antagonist, had defended her. She was lucky that he did that for her.
She knew it was only because he felt sorry for her and he knew her enough to want to do something about it. But she didn't care. He helped and kept her from being completely alone in school. She's not sure if their friends or not and it didn't matter anyway. As long as he was there and paying some kind of attention to her, it didn't matter what kind of attention she got, she was content.
'The screaming has stopped,' she realized, dropping out of her daze with a bump. Carefully moving her hands from their pressing grasp over her ears in a futile attempt to block it all out she listened for any sounds that meant that her brother's punishment had ended.
'Mother always likes it when she can punish him.'
It was always harder for her to make him beg, make him scream. She was too weak to hold out and her sister wasn't any better. He was stronger than them though and so her games always became more cruel, more complicated. Just to break him.
Nothing. Mother must have stopped. The rapidly fading light of the sunset made her room even darker, but despite the silence she didn't dare leave her corner. She didn't dare leave the shadows. Mother could punish her if she left her room while she was in one of her moods. It's happened before.
So despite the pain that told her body to change positions, despite the worry for her older brother, despite the pangs in her stomach demanding food, and despite the dryness in her throat aching for water she stayed where she was.
'I hope mother lets me go to school tomorrow. I'd like to go with Isabelle and be happy for a little while.'
After all in this house there was no happiness. The closest she could get was when she was alone.
Challenge(s): Vanilla #15 (Inhospitable Lodgings), Chocolate #19 (Solitude), Strawberry #4 (Sunrise/Sunset)
Story: Snapshots
Title: Cruel Games
Characters: Christiana (age 15)
Word Count: 683
Rating: PG-13, for implicated abuse of minors
Summary: Christiana hides in the shadows and thinks about her family and friends and which of them brings her more joy. Set at the end of the same day as Back Again.
The sun was setting.
She could just glimpse it through the blinds that covered her window. Bloody light that deepened the shadows that she was trying to hide in. She curled tighter into herself, wincing slightly at the pain the movement caused her
"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!"
The sudden scream, that no muffling could block out, made her jump and clench her eyes shut. She wanted it all to end, she wanted it to be quiet. But it wasn't, not in this house.
Trembling, she wondered if the shadowy corner she had planted herself in was safe enough. If mother decided that she needed to be punished too could she find her in the shadows.
'Maybe I should hide in the closet'
This idea was pondered over, but fear of the complete darkness in her closet and fear of not being able to prepare if she couldn't see that her mother had entered her room froze her to the floor. Unable to move.
The screams were getting hoarser. Mother liked to play this game with them, hurt them till they couldn't scream anymore, couldn't fight. Then she reminded them that they were hers, every scar marked them as hers and they couldn't disobey her, couldn't fight her, couldn't leave her.
No matter how much they wanted to.
She should have gone to school today. It was the first day of the year and she and her best friend Isabelle were going to go to school together for the first time in several years. Unfortunately she broke a few of the plates when she was washing the dishes two days ago and the bruises haven't faded enough for mother to let her leave the house.
Thinking about Isabelle was comforting though even if they had been separated in middle school, and she had been mostly alone until the few times that they could see each other outside of school with mother's permission.
School without Isabelle was hard though. Known to the other students as that 'weird quiet kid' she would have been a target for bullies if not for the fact that Kevin, Isabelle's childhood friend and somewhat antagonist, had defended her. She was lucky that he did that for her.
She knew it was only because he felt sorry for her and he knew her enough to want to do something about it. But she didn't care. He helped and kept her from being completely alone in school. She's not sure if their friends or not and it didn't matter anyway. As long as he was there and paying some kind of attention to her, it didn't matter what kind of attention she got, she was content.
'The screaming has stopped,' she realized, dropping out of her daze with a bump. Carefully moving her hands from their pressing grasp over her ears in a futile attempt to block it all out she listened for any sounds that meant that her brother's punishment had ended.
'Mother always likes it when she can punish him.'
It was always harder for her to make him beg, make him scream. She was too weak to hold out and her sister wasn't any better. He was stronger than them though and so her games always became more cruel, more complicated. Just to break him.
Nothing. Mother must have stopped. The rapidly fading light of the sunset made her room even darker, but despite the silence she didn't dare leave her corner. She didn't dare leave the shadows. Mother could punish her if she left her room while she was in one of her moods. It's happened before.
So despite the pain that told her body to change positions, despite the worry for her older brother, despite the pangs in her stomach demanding food, and despite the dryness in her throat aching for water she stayed where she was.
'I hope mother lets me go to school tomorrow. I'd like to go with Isabelle and be happy for a little while.'
After all in this house there was no happiness. The closest she could get was when she was alone.