Chapter 4: Ember's Past Story

(Ember's POV)

Triggering scenes ahead:

"So, I guess I should start from the beginning.", I say more to myself

"Well, I guess you could say it all started when I was around 3.", I tell them remembering everything. I've had a really good memory since for as long as I could remember which was around 3 so.

"My mom and father would always get into fights. It was about the simplest things like, my mom forgetting to do the dishes or not doing what my father said, I mean she's only one person and she had to take care of me too.", I tell them taking a deep breath.

"If you were to actually meet my mom you'd think that she never went through anything to harmful but, she did and so did I. There was this one day that my mom and father got into this huge fight cause she was trying to take care of me instead of doing what he told her to do which was clean the house. I was around 4 years old when this happened, I didn't understand what was going on until I saw my dad slap my mom across her face.", I say taking a few deep breaths I look up towards the roof blinking a few times to prevent my tears from falling then I continued.

"My mom fell to the ground but she got back up immediately. She went to hit my father back but he caught her hand and practically threw her into a wall. She looked up and saw me and you could see how worried she was just by looking at me. She told me to run, but when I was about to run I felt somebody grab me by my hair and slung back into the room.", I say tracing one of the scars I got from that day.

"I ended flying across the living room and landed on our coffee table with full force. It ended up breaking and cutting my stomach pretty deep.", I say closing my eyes and wincing at the memory.

"He walked over to grabbed by my throat and held me against a wal by my throat.", I say still having my eyes closed I grabbed my throat with one of my hands and continued.

"He had a knife in his hand he was gonna cut me before he could my mom hit him in the back of the with a frying pan and that caused him to be knocked out.", I say and open my eyes back up as I feel tears roll down my cheeks I wipe them away quickly and took a few deep and slow breaths and continued.

"We ran away from him but, after 2 years he found us again, he said he wanted a divorce and he wanted full custody over me. My mom agreed with the divorce part but not him getting full custody over me.", I say to them closing my eyes.

"After a few months of going to court and what not my father won full custody over me. It was like I had a one way ticket to hell and I had no other choice but to go.", I say keeping my eyes shut.

"The first day that I started to live with him is when he started hurting me. Then over the years he'd cut me, burn me, try to drown me, starve me for days at a time, he wouldn't let me drink anything, he'd beat me till I was unconscious and then some.", I say squeezing my eyes shut even tighter.

"When I turned 7 be said he had a suprise for me, it was my birthday when he told me that, he never had gotten me anything and I was such a gullible child. He handed me a thin tank top he had bought for me, he told me to put it on then meet him down in the basement. I knew that the basement was where he'd keep his torturing supplies for me but I was to stupid to think about that, I thought he was actually gonna be nice but as usual, I was wrong. I was looking around for him down there when somebody grabbed me from behind placed me in the middle of the room and chained me to chains that where in the middle of the room. I looked around and saw my father I looked up at him and he had an evil smile on his face, that's when I knew I screwed up.", I say laying back up against the wall shaking my head not wanting to remember any of this.

"He had a leather whip in his hands. I didn't know what he was gonna do with it until he started to whip me on my back. I screamed and cried in pain, after 7 hits he said to me that he'd be doing the same thing each year except to my age, the next year it was 8 hits, the next 9, then 10, and so on.", I say sitting back up

"9 years. I had to deal with that asshole for 9 fucking years until the cops finally got off their asses and started looking for me. I was MIA the whole time I was with him, never went to school except maybe one year but that was online. After that nothing, I wasn't allowed outside, I wasn't even allowed to look outside the windows or else I was punished.", I say to them and looked down at the ground

"The time that I was 10 not only was I whiped or anything like it but I-I was also.....", I trail off unable to say it I just stopped and started to bawl. I felt a pair of arms wrap around me but I pushed them away instantly and went to the corner of my bed. I hugged my stuffed animal. I bet you're wondering, how my mom got me a stuffed animal on my 9th birthday now.

Well, that's a story for another time, let's resume from where we left off.

"Don't touch me.", I say curling up in ball I place my head against the wall and shook my head violently.

I took a deep breath after a while wiped my tears away and looked up at all of them. I pushed all my emotions to the side and smiled a small smile.

"After I went through of that hell I started getting nightmares every night. I didn't tell my mom, I was closed off I built walls up so high that nobody could knock it down, I turned to self harming, and no didn't use a blade more so my nails. I'd scratch at one spot on my arm until it was burned then I'd do over and over and over again. I knew what I was doing it was so hard to stop, I've been clean of self harm for almost a half of a year.", I say and and I still smile but this time it was sad.

"I'm just glad I'm still here breathing and alive, I'm glad I have my mom and some pretty okay people to hang out with.", I say smiling brightly.

I look out the window and realize the sun is setting.

"I'm gonna go on a walk.", I say and they nod. I see Yasmine at the foot of my bed and I can already tell what she's gonna ask.

"No.", I tell and she looks at me confused.

"No, you are not walking with me, I need some time to think to myself.", I say and she puts her head down.

"Maybe next time.", I say before putting on my Adidas slides and walking out of the room.