• I felt her hand burning my cheek, tears were spilling down my cheeks uncontrollably.
    "Get a hold of yourself! You think your so damn precious!" Mindi slapped my other cheek, "Go do something useful, you lazy-" my ears were ringing and although she was screaming, I couldn't hear her.
    "Can you hear me?!" she screeched and pulled me from the ground by the roots of my hair, "Are you deaf?! Listen!" she shook me. I was screaming in pain, my scalp was protesting. This whole time Todd was sitting on the couch flipping thorugh the channels on the T.V.
    "I hate you! I"m going out!" she slammed my head into the wall and I yelped in agony.
    Mindi grabbed her coat from a hanger and slammed the door with as much force as possible.
    Tears spilt down my cheeks. The pain was swellind throughout my body, growing. My hands twitched spaztically as I massaged my burning scalp. I shook, my heart racing as I cried quietly, occasionally taking in big breaths. My rib cage felt collasped from when she rammed the table into my gut at supper.
    "Stop crying, dammit!" Todd screamed at me from the T.V. and he turned the volume up.
    I sucked my tears up and crawled to my room, which was in the utility closet towards the back of the house.
    I opened the door with a frail hand. I could barely push the door a quarter of a foot open and I dragged myself inside and latched the door.
    My room was as big as an average closet. My bed was a bath towel and my pillow was a quilt folded up into a square. Those little necessities filled my room almost completely. The rest of the room was made up of a cardboard shoebox filled with a couple pairs of underwear, socks, two ripped, dirty T-shirts, and a pair of shorts that I was forced to wear even in the winter.
    There was only one good in my life. That one good was called the Murrays.
    When I was born, Mindi and Todd couldn't afford any housing. The Murrays, Angela Murray in particular, were family friends. Mindi and Angela had been close in high school but fallen apart when Mindi started drinking and doing drugs. When Mindi called Angela up after nine years of never seeing eachother, and in desperate need for housing, Angela couldn't refuse.
    The Murrays had a little boy a couple months older than me - Chase Murray. Chase was the most adorable little kid you could ever imagine. He had blond curls and bright green eyes. Even as a toddler, he hadn't been so plump. I grew up with Chase. He was my best friend. And, I'm certain, we were destined to marry when we were older.
    I crawled to my cardboard box and pulled out a little compact mirror, opened it, and examined myself. My face was red and blotchy. My right eyebrow had a small gash that was scabbing over. Beneath it, my eye was red and the cheek below that was dark blue. My nose was purple and blood was drying down my lip and chin. My hair was limp and blood was drying at the roots.
    I slowly lifted my shirt half-way. My ribs were purple and blue. They jutted out of my skinny torso. My arms were just as bad. My fingersnails were nubby. I had scratches all up and down my arms from Mindi.
    I was too scared to examine my legs so I shut the mirror and through it against the wall, tears spilling down my haggard cheeks. The mirror shattered and a shard of the mirror scratched my big toe, leaving a paper-cut sized gash.
    I buried my face in my 'pillow'. My heart was pounding. The pain was so unbearable, I wanted to die. This was my life.
    "Emily?" a sweet voice came from outside the door. There was a light rapping on the wood. I immediately got up and unlatched the door, hesitating to open it up. I was afraid it would scare her.
    "Oh, Emily", Mrs. Murray hugged me to her soft body. "What has Mindi-" she stopped short and brushed my hair out of my tear-stained face. She pulled a clean handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at my face frantically. The white napkin pealed off bloody and dirty.
    "Where is your father?" she asked me in a hushed tone.
    "Todd's in the front room", I gasped. Mrs. Murray grabbed my 'pillow' and wrapped me in it.
    "Come, sweetheart", she wrapped her arms around my shivering body and she led me up the stairs to their unit.
    I always felt safe in the Murray's home. This was the only place where I felt Mindi wasn't going to hurt me and where Todd wouldn't harass me.
    The thing that moved me the most was the picture on the mantle-piece. It was a family photo at Christmas-time. Mr. and Mrs. Murray were sitting on the couch with baby Evonna in their arms. Chase was sitting on Mr. Murray's lap snuggling a stuffed teddy bear. They were all smiling. It was a heart wrenching image, in a good way. This was what family was.
    "Emily? You relax, sweetheart, there on the couch, and I'll get you some disinfectant and a glass of water. It's okay, Emily. You can stay here, tonight", Mrs. Murray ushered me onto the couch and tucked the blanket around my twitching body.
    Before she returned, I fell happily asleep.