Alpha Dean (Original)

Chapter One

The chilled air of fall slipped between the crack of the car window. Gasps sounded over and over in my mind. It was all anyone could manage when they saw the bruises that lined my entire body. It was supposed to be a prank. A senior had snuck into the junior's locker room as we changed for gym. I was changing in one of the showers to be sure no one could see me. Then a camera pointed overtop of the curtain. Everyone had seen my battered body, but before anyone could do anything about my father packed us up and hit the road.

That's how our life went. We would find a new town every time someone found out about me. Every time someone found out that my father beat me. I watched the new faces pass in a blur as we drove down the streets of our new home. This town was halfway across the country from our last one. It was small enough for our father to find a job easily but big enough that no one noticed or cared when someone new moved in.

He found a shitty little house in the corner of the town. There was a few other houses stretched across the gravel road of our street, but none close enough to hear him in his drunken rage. There was a wood clearing just behind the house that ended a block away from the high school. I noticed the trail when we went this morning to turn in my paperwork.

The house was two stories with only three bedrooms. Mine and my little sister's were on the second floor, yet not far enough away from our father. I turned my attention to London as she sat beside me in the car. Her fingers twirled around her brown curls as she too watched the window. My hand wrapped around hers as I sent her a light smile with as much love as I could show with my eyes. She was my life. The only reason that I kept moving in this cruel world. It didn't matter how much my father had broken me, I would always piece myself back together for her.

She hated moving just as much as I did. The nerves of starting a whole new school feasted on the both of us. The car jerked to a stop outside of our new house. "Get the bags." His voice was cold as he glared back at us before getting out of the car. Snatching his beer bottle from the cupholder. Finishing it as he walked inside of the house. London had only known this version of him. She hadn't had the opportunity to know him when our mother was still alive. The memory of a loving father burned right through my heart. That man died when his wife did.

"Come on Lon, I'll carry the bags," I opened the door for us while throwing a look over my shoulder to make sure father was still inside. I hadn't spoken to him since I was eleven. One night he beat me so badly that I couldn't speak for weeks. During that time I realized that I didn't have the spirit to speak to anyone but my baby sister anyways. No one mattered but her. From that moment forth I let him believe that I was mute. That was seven years ago.

I caught London's arm as she headed towards the house, "Go straight to your room and stay there until I bring you dinner." Her rounded brown eyes caught mine. She deserved so much more than this and it broke me that I couldn't give it to her. Not until I could graduate and save up enough money to disappear in the night. That was still a whole school year away. School just started at the beginning of august. It was only September. I had to make several trips as I carried all of our belongings inside which mostly consisted of our father's things. The only toys London had were the ones that I bought or stole for her. There were maybe ten at most and they all had been broken in some way by our dad.

Yet she would put them back together each and every time, never asking for a new one. She was the only person in this world that made me feel worth it.

"Why the fuck haven't you served me my dinner yet?" I looked over at the microwave. He was too lazy to even heat up a frozen tv dinner. The thought of him suffering after I left with London gave me the strength to hold out a little bit longer. He was a grown man who relied on his eighteen year old daughter to provide for him. I washed his clothes, made almost all of his meals, cleaned his mess. It was truly sad.