Innocence

6- Victim

The wind was pushed out of me as the man punched me in the stomach with his bare fist. It felt more like a metal baseball bat though. I fell to the ground and curled into a ball, gasping for precious air.

"C'mon scrawny! Get your ass up! Let's go!" Yelled the Australian man, his hands curled into fists and his fists guarding his face as if I would actually work up the nerve to punch him in the face.

'Hand to hand combat' is what Mrs. Ryan called it as she pushed me into an empty room with obviously old mats that a toddler would probably sleep on. They were moldy looking and squishy and just plain disgusting.

And I was curled into a ball, without a shirt on, on the floor, probably getting some nasty disease from the gross mats.

"I-I can't!" I yelled, or, tried to yell.

"C'mon scrawny! Let's go!" He yelled again as he pulled me up by my skinny arm, "Hit me"

So, I attempted to punch him in the stomach the same way he did to me. But, he was ripped. So, it probably hurt me more then it hurt him. He didn't even flinch, where as I hissed and clutched onto my injured hand.

"Oh, Scrawny, that was pathetic! Even your brother did better than this!" He laughed, his voice deep.

   Tears of anger and frustration filled my eyes, "I'm sorry!"

    "Shut up! You're pathetic! You're a pathetic piece of trash who can't even throw a punch!" He yelled, angrily, "What!? You gonna cry now?"

    I let one tear fall but then pushed the rest down. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction, "No."

   "Punch me!" He yelled.

    And I did. And I failed. Again. And again. And Again.
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    "I can't do anything!" I whined to Isaac later that evening.

    "You can't be that bad, Tay." Isaac reasoned.

    "Yes I can and yes I am. I couldn't even throw a decent punch!" I sighed, "Ike...what if- what if I fail the 'mission' and they...I dunno...kill me or something." I whispered. I was terrified that if I didn't get good fast, it would not end well for me.

    Isaac sighed, scooted closer to me and put his arm around my shoulders, "You're going to be okay, Taylor. I won't let anything happen to you."

    "Okay." Was all I said, even thought I knew in my heart, no matter how hard Isaac tried, nothing he did would defeat Mrs. Ryan and her seemingly endless army of burly men.
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    It hurt and stung and tears ran down my face, "Pathetic!!" The hand to hand combat teacher yelled in my face as he slapped me as hard as he could. Drops of his spit landed on my nose and eyebrows.

    The force of his slap was so strong that I fell to the ground clutching the right side of my face as it slowly started to tingle and swell.

    "You're a pathetic piece of shit did you know that?!?"

   I cried harder. This is what it had been like for the past two weeks. They would feed us every other day and every day, we would switch training from knife throwing to hand to hand combat. I started getting good at handling the knife but I couldn't fight for my life. Obviously.

    "GET UP!" He screamed, pulling me by the arm which had been attempting to comfort my stinging face. Once he had me standing he grabbed both arms and pinned me against the wall.

    My breathing started speeding up as I knew what was to happen next. He punched me hard in the stomach. The same place he had punched me two days prior and two days before that. The bruises seemed like they would never heal.

    "You're pathetic!" He yelled in my face, punching me repeatedly in the stomach.

    "You think you'll ever see your family again? Well you're wrong, Scrawny! I own you now! Mrs. Ryan owns you now! You aren't in control so stop trying you pathetic son of a bitch!" His last blow was to my groin as he let go and allowed my body to go limp as I slid down the wall, crying the hardest I'd ever cried in my life up until that point.

    "For being so pathetic, I think you deserve a punishment." He slyly stated. As if all this wasn't punishment enough. He undid his brown belt. At first, I thought he was going to beat me with it, but when he undid his top button on his pants, I knew what was to happen.

     "No! No please!! I'll do anything! Anything!! PLEASE DONT DO THIS!" I cried.

     "Too bad, Scrawny."

    My whole life flashed before my eyes.