~~
Star
~~
My dream seemed to stretch on forever. I just kept reliving my entire life memory after memory. Granted I didn't have many outside this room so they blended into each other.
It was hard for me to separate any of what I was seeing by specific things, unless I saw other people in the memories. I tried to focus on my memories of Bailey and Reed. Those memories were the only ones that brought me happiness, well most of them anyway. I missed them so much but they weren't allowed at the house that much anymore. Uncle Howard had limited their access to me because he thought they would try to take me away.
When I woke up I was still lying on the ground. That meant that no one had come to move me in my sleep. That actually made me feel better.
There were only a few times that I had woken up to find that I had been placed in my sorry excuse for a bed. It was always after I had been beaten so bad that I literally passed out on the floor from the pain or a particularly hard blow to the head. But, I hated every time that I realized I had been moved. I had a sinking suspicion that it was Uncle Howard who had moved me and I didn't want to even think about him having touched me.
I felt like I had been trampled by something that was big and slow. It took its time as it stomped slowly across my abused body.
Wincing in pain I sat up as gingerly as I could. My shoulder seemed to be the worst of it right now, having been the last injury I received before blacking out. My left leg and foot, which I had hurt as I broke down the door to escape last night were healing, though slowly. My hair no longer felt like I had been scalped, it had thankfully stayed attached and my head was not burning as much anymore.
The cuts and scrapes from the trip on my back across the forest floor had bled, but not much and they were all closed now, there were still lines here and there where the cuts had been. Those lines would last at most two day, based on the depth of them all.
The worse my injuries were the longer it took to heal, that was obvious, but I didn't know what was normal for being a werewolf and what wasn't. All I know is the rate at which I healed most things, and that if I wasn't able to heal fast like that I would have died a very long time ago.
As I tried to stand up so I could at least sit on my bed I winced again and nearly cried out in pain. I bit my tongue though and managed to not make a sound. I take back what I thought earlier, my leg was the worst. Or was it my foot? I couldn't tell the difference. The pain was just shooting through me so intensely that I wanted nothing more but to scream. Yet I wouldn't do that. I couldn't do that.
I had done my very best to keep my family from ever hearing me make a sound over the last several years. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of hearing me cry out in pain, scream in terror, or sob from any of the numerous reasons why I would have to cry.
No, they weren't worth my voice. That was something I could choose to keep to myself, and dammit, I would keep it.
It was all I could do to hobble and sit down on the bed so I wasn't crouched on the floor.
'Damn, this isn't good.' I thought as I tried to think of a way to run when I couldn't run. As Uncle Howard pointed out last night, I didn't have long before I turned eighteen and then I would become nothing more than a toy, a tool, for my vile family to use as they see fit.
Fuck that. I would rather die than let that happen. Unless I was paralyzed, or dead, I would run away. I would run, and run, and run some more. Everyday until I was free.
I think it was mid day when I woke up and I needed to wait until tonight to make my move. Until then, I would just bide my time.
Waiting for time to pass had gotten me really good at math. Nothing elaborate but it was how I had perfected my counting skills, and then addition and multiplication. I learned about them after reading dictionaries and other odd books that my cousins brought me.
After six thousand eight hundred and thirty-two seconds of waiting, nearly two hours, I heard the tell tale sound of the door opening at the top of the stairs. Huh, that's strange, I hadn't expected them to feed me today. Oh well, the food would help me to heal faster.
"Oh, look who's finally up." I heard my Aunt Tina's voice sneer at me when she reached the bottom of the stairs. I just ignored her as she walked closer to me, my eyes closed to block out her face. She was a vile woman in more ways than one.
Tina was ugly, that was the only way to describe her. Her hair was so curly that it looked ratted instead of curled and it was the color of dried dirt. But it was slowly losing its color and turning the same shade of gray as the stone walls around me. And her eyes were a nasty mustard yellow.
I hated looking at her, mostly because she hated me. I was pretty, or so Uncle Howard had told me repeatedly over the last five years, and I guess that made Tina jealous. The look that I had always seen in Tina's eyes had seemed jealous and envious, what did she have to envy me for?
"Here, take your food, you piece of shit." She snapped as she threw the bottle of water at me and followed that up with throwing a sandwich at my head next. It was wrapped in plastic, which was all that kept it from falling apart and scattering on the floor as it flew through the air.
I hated eating food that had fallen off the floor, but trust me, you get desperate enough to eat just about anything when you haven't eaten anything for almost a week. So I was really glad that the food was not currently spread out like a pathetic excuse for a smorgasbord.
"You better appreciate that. Howie bought that himself." I didn't move, I didn't so much as flinch. I hadn't moved a muscle since she came in, I just sat there counting off the seconds she was in the room with me.
'Three hundred, forty-nine. Three hundred fifty.' My mental count helped me to deal with moments like this when I couldn't move or defend myself in any way.
"Why won't you look at me, huh? You worthless omega." She threw the words at me like they were some vile curse, like I was supposed to fawn all over her for being stronger than me.
'Four hundred seventeen.'
"I don't know what Howie sees in you. We should have killed you a long time ago." She was laughing now. "Ugh, this is pointless. You probably just climbed to that bed and passed out again, you were out cold all day yesterday anyway, what's another day of me not having to deal with you?"
I nearly broke my cover, and I almost lost count, when she told me that I was out cold yesterday. That's why I was getting food today, they had skipped my meal yesterday but had at least checked to see if I was alive.
'Great.' I sighed into my mind. I had been so injured that I was unconscious for more than a whole day. It had been that long and my leg was still hurting this bad, I must really have broken something in it. And my shoulder was bad too, even after so long. Was my healing getting weaker? I hoped not. I needed to get myself back on track and get out of here.
Maybe if I managed to keep this food down I can get a little strength back to heal more.
Through my counting I was able to remain motionless and not move when Aunt Tina came back to check on me again. She seemed satisfied that I was unconscious and hurt, this time she only scoffed at me before leaving again.
"So fucking weak." Those were the words she scoffed before she stomped back up the stairs. I had still been sitting there in the same spot, leaning back against the wall like I was the time before. Maybe she thought I was dead.
'Thirty-six thousand six hundred forty-five.' I was still counting in my head. It had been several hours and I hoped it was the dead of night. There wasn't a sound coming from upstairs. No one was walking around, I hoped that meant that everyone was asleep. I needed this time to make my next big escape. I had to make this attempt as silent as possible. If I was too loud I would alert them right away, just like I had done the other night.
Quickly, I ate the sandwich that I had left untouched all day. My empty stomach tried to reject the food rather than take sustenance from it. That often happened when I had gone so long without eating, but after a few minutes I could feel the energy spreading through me and the healing begin to work a little faster.
It still hurt like hell to move. I could barely walk but I did my best to push past it, I wouldn't miss a single opportunity to run away. As quietly as I could I climbed up the stairs, it was more of a crawl really since walking was a chore and I didn't want to tire myself out too much yet.
I don't know exactly how I planned on getting through the door really. I was planning to try and break the lock, desperate times called for desperate measures after all. I reached for the door handle and was prepared for a long, silent fight with the lock, but the handle turned easily. How was that possible?
I had many thoughts run through my head when the door opened. Was this a set up? Was this negligence on Tina's part because she thought I was too weak, too hurt, to try and escape? Would I be walking right into an ambush?
I didn't care if it was a setup, negligence or a gift from the Gods, I was going to take my chance and run.
I pushed the door open slowly and silently. I couldn't smell anyone on the other side. Good. I walked gingerly, nearly dragging my left leg as I moved to escape. I wasn't even five steps from the door when I heard a loud crashing bang and thud come from the opposite side of the house.
'Dammit! They did set me up!' I thought to myself. 'Oh well, I'm still running.'
I ran now ignoring the pain. I had reached the outer door, I could almost smell the air outside. I flung the door open and smelled someone right in front of me. I couldn't stop my trajectory though, I was moving too fast and slammed right into someone, again.
This someone was just as hard and immovable as the last one. But where the last person had smelled like mint and calming herbs, this person's scent was spicy, exotic, intoxicating, and frightening. It wasn't a scent I recognized at all. Who was he? What was he? And what was he going to do to me?