Read Meadows Academy :: Flashback

I’m dying. I haven’t had anything to eat for three days, but doesn’t water count? It helps a little, but still not enough, because the body needs nutrients. I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting here, but it feels like I’ve been sitting here for thousands of years. Water is dripping from the roof outside, the window is broken, so it’s quite cold down here. Plop, plop, plop. A pattern in the water. It’s evening now and the sun is setting. I’m freezing. I think it’s starting to get to be winter, I’ve been seeing snowflakes and snow lately. I don’t have much clothes on either, so that doesn’t help. A dirty t-shirt and a pair of shorts, so that’s not enough to keep me warm. It also doesn't help that the walls are made of concrete, which keeps the cold in and doesn't let the heat in when the sun is actually shining.

I look out the small window of the basement, where the whole sky is a mix of orange and pink. Which makes a nice magenta glow through the window and onto the floor and wall. I feel a cold breeze hit my face. It's refreshing but also sickly cold, so I start to freeze more than I did before, and it makes me shiver. I go to the corner of the basement where there's a small, uncomfortable mattress. Some of the springs have popped out of it and it's very dirty. It's not the best bed, but it's better than the floor, which is colder than the water from the fucking Titanic. My dad sees it sometimes, he says to himself "Even I won't be able to survive that cold" like he's a hero or something. And that is something he isn’t. I also have a small pillow made of some red fabric with glitter in it, so it's also super uncomfortable. Luckily, only one side has glitter on it, the other side is very soft, so I just turn the pillow to the other side.

I lie down on the mattress and stare at the wall. My eyes slowly begin to close…

I wake up with a bang as my dad yells. “FUCKING HELL!”

“What is it, old man?” Fuck, did I say that out loud?

He comes in and looks down at me with murder in his eyes. I look up at him, my eyes widening. He grabs me by the collar and holds me against the wall so I can’t breathe.

“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, KID, HAVE A LITTLE RESPECT FOR YOUR ELDERS!” he yells in my head. I grab his wrist in an attempt to loosen his grip on my neck. I’m running out of air. I gasp for air, he lets go of my collar so I fall to the ground, he starts to kick me. I close my eyes and just wait for it. The burning sensation cuts into my skin, he pulls his foot to him and walks up the stairs, the door slams behind him and I hear the crashing sound of the door locking. I sit for a while before I open my eyes and pull up my shirt so I can see how bad it is, it's worse than I thought, there's a huge bruise and a couple of deep cuts. Blood is running down my stomach, I also think I've broken a couple of ribs because it's sticking in my chest and I'm having trouble breathing. My breathing is getting more and more erratic.I reach for the mattress, where I have a roll of bandages that I have started to use a lot because of my father’s abuse. I hold the mattress up with one hand and take the bandage with the other. I put the mattress down, go to the window and find a branch that I need and start putting the bandage on. I put the branch on the side of my torso and put the bandage on. Start it below my ribs, wrap it around a few times. Start going up until I reach my shoulder and wrap it over it a few times. And it ends there. I take my flashlight, I take the stool at the corner of the basement and climb up and out the window. My upper body was out the window when I heard the door open. My father had come into the basement.

“What the hell are you doing, kid?!” He runs towards the window, but I manage to get my legs out of the window before that happens. I start running as fast as I can into the woods. I just have to get out of this hell. The last thing I hear before I'm in the woods is my dad yelling: "COME BACK KID! I'LL FIND YOU!"...