*R-18 WARNING*

THIS STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE, ABUSE, AND ADULT SITUATIONS INCLUDING SEX. CERTAIN SCENES MAY BE TOO INTENSE FOR SOME READERS AND COULD TRIGGER RESPONSES FOR THE READER. IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 OR HAVE ISSUES WITH TRIGGERS, I SUGGEST THAT YOU DO NOT READ THIS STORY. IF YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE IT AND READ, I APPRECIATE ANY COMMENTS AND APPRECIATE YOUR WILLINGNESS TO GIVE MY STORY A SHOT. THANK YOU.

I'm huddled in a ball, behind the old large wardrobe, clutching my filthy teddy bear, my only friend, trying not to cry too loudly, so he doesn't find me.

The heavy stomping of his boots outside the room, makes me clutch my teddy closer to me and hold my breath as I hear his voice calling out to me.

"KAARRIIEE COME HERE YOU LITTLE BITCH!" The hoarse male shouts out.

I pull my bruised and swollen leg tightly against me, forcing my whimper into my teddy bear. Shaking in terror, I muffle a sob, as he kicks the door to the room open.

'Please don't find me. PLEASE DON'T. Please don't find me.'

I keep repeating it in my head as I hear him stagger into the room. Hiccoughing through his words his deep hoarse, baritone voice calls out to me.

"KARRIEE, Where are you -hic- hiding you little ungrateful shit."

I lay my head down to see under the wardrobe, watching as he pauses looking for me.

"KARRIE!" He walks around the bed and I can see him lift the patched, ratted blankets up to check for me under there.

"KARRIE! You little wench!" He stands up and hits the bed. The rusted, metal springs creaking noisily from the weight.

"When I get my hands on you, you little bitch." Muttering under his breath, he stands up and walks over to the door, but pauses.

I close my eyes in fear, still clutching my bear tightly, trying not to breath for fear he'll find me.

His footsteps move towards the wardrobe, making my eyes snap back open.

My heart beat is all I can hear right now as his boots come nearer.

"KARIE!" He snaps out, before opening up the creaky door of the sparse wardrobe.

"Little bitch." He slams the wardrobe shut and goes to leave the room.

A soft, muffled sob escapes me, making him pause again.

'No.. No.. Please! No!' Is all I can think, seeing that he's not leaving.

"Rakara! Baby! Mommy is home!" The gentle voice of my mommy sings out from the other room making me worry for her instead.

"Heh, heh. Well, well, well.... " He mutters as he sucks his spital back from his open drooling mouth.

"Rakara..." My mommy's voice stops when she sees him standing in the bedroom.

Her voice shakes as she asks.

"Arthur? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work? Where's Rakara?"

I can hear his evil grin as he tells her, " Good question. I wanted to know where the little thief was myself."

"What are you talking about? Rakara is not a thief!" My mommy defends me.

He takes a slow step towards her, making my mommy take a step back from him. "She took my drinking money, I know she did! I had it this morning and now it's gone!"

Mommy is quick to set him straight, "From the smell of you, you probably already drank it. IS that what you've been doing all day? Drinking what little money we do have, instead of working again!"

I hear him push mommy up against the wall, "I'll do as I wish with the my money. Now, where is she you stupid bitch?"

Mommy whimpers, "I don't know, Arthur. I just got home."

He mocks her and slaps her around, "I just got home.... Good. Then you have money from working. Hand it over. Pay back what your daughter took."

"She's your daughter too, Arthur." Mommy reminds him.

'I wish he wasn't my daddy. I wish I had a nice daddy who played with me and was nice to mommy.'

My mommy cries out from daddy hitting her again, making her fall to the floor. She raises her bruised red tear filled eyes and sees me. She quickly mouths to me.

STAY

Then she grunts as daddy lifts her up off the floor by her hair.

"Where's the money!" He shouts as she cries out.

"I don't have any left! I paid our rent before I came home!"

"WHAT! YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING!"

"Arthur, please! I don't have anything! You're hurting me. Please!" She sobs and I hear him slap her around and some struggling.

"STAY STILL! I'm checking your damn pockets!" He yells at her.

He drops her to the ground again and I see she's bleeding from her mouth.

My eyes widen and she shakes her head slightly. She goes to stand back up and daddy stomps hard on her back a few times.

"FUCKING LYING WHORE! I KNEW YOU HAD SOME. Twenty coppers! That'll get me through the next few days. You tell that little bitch when I see her, she'll know what pain is after I'm through with her thieving ass."

He stomps off, stepping on mommy's hand, making her cry out in agony before he slams the door to our little rickety shanty, leaving us alone for the rest of the day as he goes to drink even more.

"Momma?" Sobbing my eyes out, I bring Teddy and myself out from behind the wardrobe.

"Baby? Rakara? Did he hurt you again?" Mommy asks still laying on the ground looking at me as I limp to her.

"No momma, not since last night. I didn't take anything momma. I promise." I sit next to her on the ground, dabbing the blood off her face with the hem of my skirt.

"I know baby. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such an amazing daughter like you. You're a good girl." She shakily gets up off the floor groaning, and crying, clutching her side and back.

"I believe he's broken my ribs this time, love." Mommy says clutching her side. "Help me stand, Rakara."

I go to the other side of her, so I don't hurt her anymore and help her up. Mommy cries and grits her teeth in agony but she stands up and gently hugs me.

"Come Rakara, let's clean each other up and eat some dinner. I'm going to see if Mrs. Vathy will let you stay the night. I don't want you here when your father comes home later."

"But momma, you shouldn't be here either. I don't want you to leave me there. Stay with me too Momma. PLEASE?" I beg, sobs still breaking free, due to the pit of terror and concern for my already seriously injured mother being the receiver of my father's wrath.

"I'll think about it love. Now, come on. We must be clean for supper." Mommy runs her hand through my dark curly waves, smiling even through her pain.

"Yes, momma."

I helped my momma cut up the few thin vegetables we had, stirring them in the pot with a few broken chicken bones and a dash of salt to flavor the broth. I cut the hard, stale end of bread we had in half, brushing the crumbs into the broth, not wasting a drop.

We sat at our splintered, wobbling table, with the chair's turned into stools because of daddy breaking them. We had used the splintered fragments of wood to add to the kitchen stove to start the coal, that still gave off a meager amount of heat to the small room. I loved placing the bits of wood into the flame and playing with the flames, before momma tells me to put the wood in the stove and leave the flames alone.

As we started to eat the thin, pale, vegetable soup, momma started to cry silently.

"Does it hurt really bad, momma?" I ask her, "You want me to kiss it?"

Her sobs only intensify, as her face pinches and she tries to wipe her eyes with the corner of sleeves.

"Oh Rakara, you deserve so much better, my baby. Promise me, you will grow up to be strong and not fall in love with someone just because they can say sweet words to you. Make sure they will treat you right baby. Don't be stupid like me."

"I don't think you're stupid momma." I stand, wincing from the pain in my leg and pat her back softly trying to soothe my mommy's tears.

"I love you, Rakara. The only thing your father has ever given me, is my one joy in life."

"What's that momma?" I inquire looking around. I didn't know he had ever given her anything other than his fists and fury.

"You, baby. He gave me you." She cradles my face in the palm of her hand, looking at me with a bloodshot and swollen black eye.. Even with her bruised face, and split lip that threatens to crack back open with her slight smile, she's the most beautiful woman I know in this world.

"I love you, momma." I wrap my arms around her neck and give her a soft hug, trying not to make her move to much.

"I love you too, Rakara. Now, sit down before dinner gets cold. It tastes wonderful, you're such a good cook my girl." She pats the table and picks her spoon up, slowly drinking the broth.

We enjoy our meager meal together before she has me gather my clothes and blankets from my bed.

"Why am I bringing so much mommy?" I realized that all my belongings were gathered in my blankets, my two sets of spare clothes, my sewing needle and thread, Teddy, the comb my mommy carved for me, my scarf, everything, including my set of dishes.

Glancing at my mommy, hearing her groan in pain as she lifts up a floor board, pulling a small box decorated in gears, out from underneath the house. She's grown paler since dinner, her eyes duller than before.

"Just in case baby. Daddy might need a few days before he calms down enough for us to stay here again. Come here baby."

I watch as she pulls on one of the metal gears and turns it. My eyes widen in awe as the gears start moving on their own, making the lid slide open. She pulls out a small necklace with a clear stone that sparkled like fire and encased in copper, silver, and black wires. It was beautiful and organic.

"Momma! It's beautiful!" I look at it closely, before she puts it back away in the box and under the floorboard.

"Rakara, I want you to remember where that is. Okay. It's important you remember what I'm about to tell you. You are NEVER to sell it. Only ever wear it if you are truly alone and have no one in this world. Do you understand?"

Nodding my head, I look at momma's serious expression. "Yes, momma. Never sell it, only wear it if I'm alone in the world. But momma? Why would I be alone? You're not going to leave me right?"

Fear begins to consume me as I look at my mommy's pale face and tired eyes that start to fill with tears.

"No, baby. I'm not going to leave you, ever." She takes and cups my cheek with her palm kissing me on the forehead, as warm, salty tears drip onto my skin from her. "Now, let's get you over to Mrs. Vathy's house."

Mrs. Vathy was only four shanties down from us, technically. If the roadways had been made and planned out like the middle class and upper class societal homes were. Here in the filthy, lurid, and  foul vapors of the slums, nicknamed the undercarriage of Langford, nothing had been made properly. What would take a normal person less than a a minute or two, took us ten to walk down far enough to turn down the street that connected to Mrs. Vathy's.

Momma, knocked, breathing heavy and clutching her side as she waited at Mrs. Vathy's door.

The woman was in her fifties, but moved like a much older woman the way her hands shook and her faced was lined with hardships. Her back was always curved, like an old crones, but that was only because her husband used to beat her up as well.

Her husband was dead though. Momma told me he drank a bottle of poison thinking it was booze. Mrs, Vathy said she told him it was booze. The law doesn't care to figure out the truth when it comes to death's in the undercarriage, so Mrs. Vathy was not concerned.

I think that's the reason momma likes her so much. Mrs. Vathy is brave and will make sure daddy doesn't come in her house to try and hurt us.

"Dear merciful elements, Abigale Langridge! He's done a number on you this time! Come in, Come in." She hurries us inside instructing my mother to sit so she can look her over.

"Rakara, can you go and set your pallet up on the floor in my room, love? Go ahead and set your things up nice and neat how you want them to be, while I take care of your momma." She smiles at me nodding for me to go ahead as she helps my mommy undress to look at her ribs.

Setting up my stuff did not take long, so I stood by the door to hear them talk.

"Oh.. Abigale... this is not good love." Mrs. Vathy whispers to my mommy. I can't hear what my mommy says before Mrs. Vathy replies.

"Of course, Abigale. You should stay...." Mommy whispers something to Mrs. Vathy and I hear Mrs. Vathy sigh heavily.

"I think it's better you don't do that love. You should enjoy every second with your girl.  I'll do my best, she can help me with doing the laundry, maybe I can take on a little more to pay for her food. Aye? Please Abigale, stay here, let me wrap this and call on Ol' Barnaby to have a look, he used to be a doctor. He'd probably know something better than I would."

Mommy grunts, "No, I don't have a way to pay him."

"Ol' Barnaby won't charge you love. He'll charge me. Alright? I got a few pennies saved up that I can please the old codger with. So just stay here. In fact, have Rakara come take off your boots and I'll help you to my bed to rest and wait while I fetch him. You two can just relax together."

Mommy sounded exhausted, "I don't think I have a choice anymore about it now do I?"

I open the door and join them at the table, slowly taking mommy's boots off.

"So you were listening, Rakara." I blush guilty up at momma and nod.

"You're her mother, she's concerned about you. Now don't be trying to correct her right now and let's get you into the bed." Mrs. Vathy walks over to her to help her pull her dresses top back up and that when I see the swollen giant dark bruising on her side from daddy earlier. They're both quick to cover it up, before we lay her down in the bed.

"Now, Rakara. Take good care of your mother dear, while I am gone. I'll be back as soon as I am able." She pats my head and heads out. "Rakara, lock the door behind me. Make sure you slide the wood over all the way love. You'll need to pay attention and listen for when we come back though."

"Yes, Mrs. Vathy."

I make sure I do as instructed and go climb in the bed with momma.

"I love you, momma. Ol' Dr. Barnaby is the skinny one with the crooked nose and mole on his chin?" I ask her.

"Yes, love. The same one who helped reset your broken arm.. last year." Momma is weak and tired looking, fighting to keep her eyes open.

"Oh, I like him. He's nice, he'll take good care of you momma." I reassure her holding her arm tightly, as I use her shoulder as my pillow.

"Rakara, I love you, baby. You are truly a gift, don't ever forget that." Momma says weakly.

"I love you too, Momma. You can sleep now, I'll wake you up when Mrs. Vathy comes back with the doc." I kiss her and give her another squeeze, not realizing when she fell asleep, that would be the last thing we ever said to each other.