Chapter 2

I haven’t been in the closet for a while. I slowly opened the door. My closet looked untouched like nothing happened. Tears threatened to spill out of my eyes. I just stood there looking at it with a blank face.

“Hey Bri, are you ready?” Ethan stopped mid-sentence once he saw me. He rushed over to me and closed the door. He then pulled me into his safe arms.

“I promise you nothing will happen when you’re with me.” He paused and pulled away from me a little. “Now, what would you like to wear?” I just stood there, still staring at the now-closed closet. Ethan just looked at me and brought me over to my bed and sat me down. I just sat there, in the same place as he put me. He walked into my closet and grabbed an old Adidas hoodie that was his.

It was black with a white Adidas logo on the front. The white Adidas logo was now all cracked and the black is faded more into a dark gray. He also grabbed some black leggings that were loose on me. He put them on my bed and left me to change. It took me at least 10 minutes before I even moved a muscle.

I finally got up and changed into the outfit that he had picked out for me. I didn’t even bother to mess with my hair. I just put it up in a top knot and called it a day. I never was the type of person to do hair or makeup. It never appealed to me. I just feel like it’s a waste of time and money to buy and do your makeup every day. Anyway, I declared that I was done so I walked back downstairs to see that Ethan was waiting for me by the door. He smiled at me but I didn’t even speak to him.

I am not one to hold things against people but I hate going out. I walked from my cozy home into the harsh world ahead of me. My anxiety hit me like a truck. My heart sounded like a crowd of people clapping all at once. Then they all started to speed up and nobody was at the right tempo. I quickly walked to the car to avoid the outside world as long as I could. I jumped into the front seat and buckled my seatbelt.

Ethan got in and did the same thing. He then started the car and we set out to go to the store. My nerves were getting the best of me. I looked out my window and just took a good look at the world. The city we live in isn’t the best. There are broken windows everywhere. Houses are boarded up with cardboard and people always carry weapons around with them to protect themselves from anyone who would try and attack them. If you went outside alone you were asking for trouble.

This city seems to have millions of liquor stores but only one grocery store. As I was taking everything in I noticed these beautiful flowers that were growing in the field. They were white, with four petals on the flowers. The flowers grew in bunches and looked like half-circles of white tissue paper. I have never seen these before. I used to always go out to the field with my brother when we were little. We would run around and never want to go home.

After my mother died that all changed. My mother was my guardian angel. My dad started to drink really heavily when my mom died. He would always blame me and tell me that it was my fault that my mom died. My mom was healthy all of her life. One day she started to notice that there was a mole on her arm that was never there before. She didn’t think twice about it though.

The mole continued to grow and started to change a different color. She finally talked to the doctor and they told her to come in so they could check her out. She went to a specialist and they told her that she had stage 4 melanoma. She was heartbroken but she knew that she was going to give her all in fighting this war. Month after month, doctor after doctor, she was finally hospitalized for the final time. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

“Honey, can you come up here and sit next to mama?” My mother told the 7-year-old me.

“Yes, mama.” I climbed up on her bed. She looked scary. She was very white and had all of these tubes and wires attached to her.

“Mama is very sick. You know this.” I nodded my head at her and waited for her to continue. “I am gonna have to go to a very special place soon.”

“Can I come mama?” She looked even sadder.

“Sadly no Bri. I’m sorry but you are going to have to stay here while I go. I just want you to know that mommy loves you and that I will always be with you baby girl.” I didn’t understand what she was saying. Just then she started to cough a lot. All of the doctors came rushing in and pulled me off of her.

“Mama! Stop! No! Mommy!” I was screaming while the nurse took me into the waiting room. My dad came running to me and took me from the nurse.

“Bri what happened?”

“Daddy, Mommy was telling me about this place where she was going to go and that we couldn’t go with her. She then started to cough and then they took me away.” My dad looked very mad.

“This is all your fault. My wife is probably dead because of you. You killed her.” That day is when it all started. Ethan wasn’t home that night and had no idea that our mom had died. He was at his friend's house. That night the abuse started and that night was the last night I ever felt safe.