Alone

Chapter 2

I sat by the water's edge with my head resting on my knees watching the waves as they gently rolled in across the sand before heading back out to sea. My mind was racing as my dad's last words kept playing over and over in my head, I let out a long heavy sigh relieving some of the heaviness that I felt in my chest. I closed my eyes trying to hold back tears to ashamed to let them fall as I remembered how he harshly he yanked his hand from my grasp and used it shove me away as hard as he could from him. When I tried to reach for his hand again, he pulled it away and raised it high ready to strike. I quickly used my arms to shield my face from any in coming attacks all while wondering why does he treated me the way that he does? 'You are nothing more than an accident, a mistake, a burden!' His voice echoed over and over in my head "No one will ever want you around!"

"Burden," I whispered to myself as I hugged my knees even closer to my body letting a couple tears finally fall from my eyes. Then came the memory of when we first arrived on the island started replaying itself in my mind. I remember I had such difficult time learning to do things out of the water the first time, especially when I tried getting up and walking for the very first time. My legs began to shake under my weight the moment I stood up. Being on land was a lot different than swimming weightless in the water. I swallowed before attempting to take my first steps on land, but my legs decided that they had a mind of their own and gave out. I landed on face first on the ground with a mouth full of sand.

I could see the look of disappointment written on my dad's face when he turned around and saw me laying on the ground. "Sorry Papa," I whispered feeling ashamed that he saw me like that. I inhaled deeply before slowly got to my feet again. He waited until after I was back on my feet before he showed me how just how upset he really was with me. Reaching out he grabbed ahold of my arm and used all his strength to pull me so hard towards him that I swear he was trying to pull my arm from my body. "Why can't you do anything right!" he hissed as I stumbled forward.

"Dad, you're hurting me," I tried explaining to him but all he did was dig his fingertips deeper into my arm, no doubt wanting to leave tiny bruises. "Worthless," I heard him grumbled before shoving me forward as hard as he possibly could causing me to land on the ground on my hands and knees. I blinked back a couple tears not sure why he was acting the way he was with me; I was trying my hardest to please him. "I'm sorry," I whispered turning to sit up and looking up at the exact moment his fist came crashing into the left side of my face, mainly my eye.

"WHY CAN'T YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT!" he yelled along with a few other colorful words to my face. When I did not answer him, he quickly raised his hand again, this time causing me to flinch back and cover my face. "You're not even worth my time," he said coldly before he stood up straight and walked away leaving me all alone on the beach to fail a couple more times until I finally got the hang of walking like a human.

I let out another long sigh shaking that memory out of my head and looking back out at the sea. I remained there until the sun went to sleep and fish came out, slowly making my way back to the tower. Once inside I picked up a tiny rock and added another mark to the wall "74," I say out loud feeling my heart sink thinking about what those marks meant. 'He'll be back,' I try telling myself everyday he was gone 'He always comes back and then I'll be in trouble for who know what this time.'

The sound of something moving outside caught my attention, and my heart began to race with fear and excitement. I thought that he changed his mind and had come back. Sadly, I knew that some way he would find a way to punish me even when I had done nothing wrong, just so he could hurt me. I walked to the edge and peeked over the side but saw nothing, I shrugged it off as maybe it was in my head until I heard it again this time the noise was louder. I took in a deep breath before I slowly began to climb down the ladder to have a closer look.

"Dad?" I whispered taking a few steps away the ladder once I was on the ground but saw nothing, I could feel the loneliness I felt for a long time creeping back over me.

"Get it together Alberto," I tried myself "He's not coming back."

"He might," I whispered looking down at the ground and that's when I was shoved back against the side of stone tower hard with such force that it caused the back of my head to slam into it hard. I looked up to see that Bruno had returned and he was holding me against the tower, he had wide grin on his face as he held me in place.

"Remember me?" he asked glaring down at me just like my dad had done so very often when he was mad at me "I would say that my dad says hi but that would be a lie," he said with a smirk as he pressed me harder into the side of the tower "as a matter of fact he is always telling me how happy now that you are out of his life."

I felt a wave of hurt rush over me, was I really that bad of a kid to have around? I tried pushing the older boy away from me, but he was so much stronger than I was, and it seemed the more I struggled the more he held me in place harder. "LET GO!" I hissed trying to at least free my arms from his grip.

Bruno laughed before releasing my arms and stepping back "Fine," he said, "whatever you say."

"What do you want?" I asked glaring up at him and trying my best to sound as brave as possible, deep down I knew he was there to hurt me just like my dad had done so many times before.

"Isn't obvious?" he asked with a crooked grin "I wanted to tell you the reason you are all alone is because no one wants you around, not dad, not anyone. No one even likes you."

"Yeah, so," I said trying to make it sound like his words were not affecting me but deep down they stung. He let out and loud obnoxious laugh as my hands slowly balled into tight fists, I just wanted to knock that look off his face. My actions did not go unnoticed by Bruno who snorted out another laugh "You want to hit me?" he asked with a wide grin as he opened his arms making himself even bigger than he already was "Well, go on then, I'll give you one free shot." I knew the only reason he came here was because he wanted to fight but before I could do anything he quickly took matters into his own hands by reaching out and grabbing a good amount of hair and yanking me forward towards him. My hands quickly shot up to try and free myself from his grip.

"Let go!" I warned glaring intensely at him not knowing that he was only distracting me from noticing he had brought someone with him and when I did notice it was already too late. The two of them wasted no time before they had me down on the ground, I could feel my heart pounding against my chest as I tried my best to keep my face covered but it was no use.

"Not so tough now?" Bruno asked standing over me with both of his hands clenched into blood covered fists before he kicked so hard in my side that it caused me to let out an involuntary whimper. Wishing I could have taken the noise back as soon as it left my lips because all it did was cause laughter from Bruno and his friend. I could feel myself becoming weak as my sight began to get blurry and my surroundings started to fade. 'No!' I scolded myself, I was not going to give him the victory he wanted and somehow, I found enough strength to get back up on my feet and stare Bruno down. My legs were shaking under my weight and the world around me was spinning but this was something I had to do.

"What's this?" Bruno asked raising an eyebrow and started walking towards me "You need to just stay down."

Bruno then shoved me as hard as he could in the chest causing me to lose my footing and fall backwards hitting my head on something hard.