Believe in Me

Chapter 10

Anna's POV

My mentoring session was over with Demi. I almost let my guard down, but I didn't. Jake and his parents picked me up thankfully. It was Friday afternoon around 4:00 now. I got into the car and Jake had a huge smile on his face. "Guess what?" he asked.

"Um I don't know... you found five dollars?" I replied sarcastically. He shoved me gently.

"No you dork! The tumors are finally shrinking! They finally found a treatment that worked!" 

"Oh my God! Jake that's great!" He pulled me into a hug and I couldn't help but smile. I noticed Demi was watching us waiting on the next contestant for mentoring. She had a huge cheesy grin on her face and she gave me thumbs up so I just laughed and rolled my eyes at her. Me and Jake got into the car and instantly my happiness faded as my phone started ringing. I answered it.

"You need to get home NOW you worthless piece of shit!" It was my foster dad.

"Okay, I'm sorry I'm coming," I said calmly without emotion and hung up. I knew I was gonna be in trouble for hanging up later. "Um do you mind taking me home? My foster parents need me. Sorry Jake I wish we could've gotten to hang out,"

"Sure sweety," Jake's mom replied. Jake gave me a worried look because he knew exactly what was going to happen when I got home. I mouthed I'll be fine to him.

They dropped me off at "home" and I let myself in with my key. My foster dad was passed out on the couch with a beer bottle in his hand and my foster mom wasn't home. I tried to sneak up to my room and lock myself in but he heard me and woke up. "Anna?" he spat out.

"Y-yeah, I'm just gonna go up to my room now," I said trying to get to my room but he grabbed the neck of my shirt and pulled me back.

"Not so fast!" he said angrily as he began to remove my clothes. I had learned not to fight it anymore. There was nothing I could do about it anymore. He went inside of me and I could feel that all familiar ache. He was shouting insults at me. "You're such a slut, you fat ass whore," After a while I couldn't tell if the insults were coming from him or from my demons. Either way I knew they were true. I think I eventually blacked out from the pain. I awoke next to him both of us nude. I quietly got up and ran to the bathroom to take a shower. I stepped in the shower with my head spinning. I couldn't control the demons any longer. I grabbed my blade and began sliding it over my hips watching the blood drip down my legs and feeling the sting of the warm water on the fresh cuts. For a minute I felt relief. The only things keeping me from cutting too deep were Jake and The X Factor. I stood in the shower for probably a good hour just thinking. I stepped out of the shower and examined the damage that had been done this time. It was the usual gashes and bruises and aching all over that I had grown all too used too. I checked the time. It was already 7:00 am. I had to get school done and get to the X Factor lot for my vocal coaching. I decided I was going to catch a taxi to the lot and take my laptop and do school there to avoid my foster parents. 

When I arrived it looked like the building was empty thankfully. I didn't want anyone wondering why I was there so early. I sat down on one of the couches in the lobby area and pulled my laptop out. I threw myself into my school work to block out my demons. After a couple hours people started to show up. I felt a hand on my shoulder so I looked up. It was Demi. "What are you doing here?" I asked her. I didn't think she had to be here on the days when there wasn't mentoring or staging.

"I think I'm the one who should be asking you that... you still have 2 hours till your vocal coaching! I have to be here to check in with everybody and stuff," 

"Oh um my foster parents were both at work and Jake wasn't home and our wifi wasn't working so I decided to come here to get my schoolwork done," I lied hoping she'd buy it.