Other Worlds - The Wilds

Chapter 4

   Toni awoke in complete darkness.

  She sat bolt upright in a panic as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Eyes darting around the room she took in the surroundings which were gradually becoming familiar. How people managed to fall asleep in the day and not wake up entirely disoriented was a wonder. It felt like six in the morning but the small digital clock on her bedside told her otherwise; the little red numbers displaying 7:45pm. She switched on her bedroom lamp and rubbed her tired eyes.

  Obnoxious, raucous laugher reached her, echoing through the house. Great, Carol had guests. This meant one of two things based on past experience; she would either be locked in her room until they left or she would be called out to be at their beck and call. The latter was arguably worse than the former, especially with the amount of homework she had.

  Heavy, uneven footsteps pounded down the hallway rapidly approaching Toni's door. Her heart leapt up to her throat and she held her breath. She desperately wished that her door had a lock, but that was not how Carol ran her house. The door swung open, the doorknob cracking against her the wall, probably adding to the massive hole that was there before she arrived.

  Toni blindly grabbed for the book on her bedside table and opened it to the middle. Hopefully Carol was drunk enough to think it was a school book and that she was studying. Though, it was very unlikely that schoolwork was going to deter her from using Toni as her personal lackey.

  "This isn't the bathroom," a deep, gruff and quite evidently drunk voice said.

  Trying to hide her fear Toni replied, "No, it's not." She kept her head buried in the book hoping he would see that she was not interested in any interaction.

  "Maybe you could come show me where it is then."

  Luck was so rarely on her side.

  She glanced up then. The man standing in her doorway could only only be described as greasy. His thin ginger hair was slicked back with what she could only assume was sweat based on the glistening film of grease coating his face. He looked like the male version of Carol, even down to the the wispy hairs above his lip.

  Looking at his predatory smile made Toni feel very trapped. She couldn't say that she ever felt safe in this house but she had never felt as defenceless as she did now. So she did the only thing that she thought might erase that feeling.

  The man's smile grew, exposing more tainted teeth as she got off of her bed and walked up to him. She clearly had the element of surprise considering the man blatantly thought this was going in a different direction, based on the way his eyes scanned her body.

  "Damn," he grunted, "I thought I'd have to convince-"

  She cut him off with a swift punch to his jaw.

  He collapsed against the doorframe. Toni quickly grabbed her coat and backpack before he had the chance to recover. She pushed past him, breaking into a run as she fled the house, taking the back door to avoid Carol and her disgusting friends.

  She ran for a few minutes with her bag in one hand and her coat in the other. Miraculously, she didn't fall over despite the icy pavements. She slowed to a walk once her mind cleared enough to register that Carol was hardly going to chase after her in the dark after a few drinks.

  It was still snowing but the impromptu exercise had warmed Toni up. She put her coat on anyway and her hands in her pocket feeling the small ring her mother had left in there back when it was her coat. She was pretty sure that the ring was an engagement ring or a family heirloom. She didn't want to think that the only things left of her family was an old oversized coat and some piece of crap ring. She would rather think she was left with something special.