"Andrea!!! Where is my beer?!!! Andrea!!!" Cole, my stepfather shouted from the living room. It's almost 2 in the morning, I was studying and trying to make sense of these numbers from our homework when I was startled by the bellowing and shouts of my stepfather who just got home from drinking. I can already tell that he reeks of smoke and liquor even with my room door closed. I closed the book that I was reading and silently turn off the light and traipse towards my bed. Very slowly and quietly. I got into my bed and duck under the covers.
Silence.
There is only silence.
Then,
BANNGG!!
I stood up very quickly, nerves wracking and my blood pumping. I see him there in the threshold, Cole, my stepfather. Homicidal.
Murderous. Violent. I fear for my dear life. My mom is working the night shift in the hospital as a nurse practitioner. It's just me and Cole.
I yearn for my father, so much to show up one day and save me and my mother from Cole.
I know what's going to happen next, and I dread for it.
My father left us when I was born.
Said I was a mistake and flew to a different state and forget about us. Until mom met Cole and took us in. The biggest mistake of her life. 2 months after he took us in, my mother has become his personal human punching bag. Cole is sweet and loving to my mother when he is not drunk. When he is yet to transform to the beast that he really is. My mother would cry every night in silence.
When I turned 16, that's when it all started to me. He's used me over and over.
Something died inside of me when he first did it. What little hope I had was taken from me. What little light I had was stolen on the night of my 16th birthday.
He has threatened to kill my mom if I would fight it. He has threatened to hunt and kill us, should we try to leave and escape from the fiend that he is. He's got connections in the police and friends from the cartel that he is working for. He has people.
We have noone.
"Come here you BIIITTTCCHHH!!!!" he shouted with gritted teeth.
"Please Cole, No..." I whispered. No, beseeching him to leave me be. But he's got other things in mind.
Im shaking. No, quivering in fear. Of what is to come. "No, please..." I whimpered.
"You don't get to tell me what to do, maybe you are forgetting who the B-O-S-S is?"
He said while stepping close to me.
Four steps more and he will be standing right next to me. I refuse to be used, again. I dont want him any closer to me
I summoned every strength that I have and when he got two steps closer to me, I kicked his crotch and run. Run. Run.
I am running barefoot and in pajamas.
My tears keep flowing and is blurring my vision. But my feet knows where to go. I fear to look back. To see what's behind me.
Out of the house, about three blocks away from the hell that I was in, I bumped into someone and got knocked back.
There I see him.
Like a knight in shining armor. Someone who could help me. About two years older than me, sporting a black leather jacket, denim and boots. With eyes sharp and dominating, a guy whose black hair shines in the dark, held his hand to help me up.
Diego.