(✔) 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙗𝙤𝙮 ↳ (𝔃.𝓭.𝓱)

fifteen !

( ⚠️: ABUSE TRIGGER WARNING!)

"Where have you been?" A voice growled.

     Everly's heart dropped into the pits of her stomach. A wave of dread crashing into her, she slowly turned around to face her dad.

     His cheekbones were sunken and hollow, giving him the appearance of a skeleton. His thin lips were contorted into a menacing sneer. His eyes were big and bloodshot, fixated on Everly with the coldest, meanest glare she had ever seen.

     He staggered forward, an empty beer bottle swinging from his hand. Of course, Everly thought. He had been drinking. She swallowed hard, wanting to inch away from him.

     "I went over to my classmate's house to work on a project last night. I must've fallen asleep there. I'm sorry," Everly said, fighting to keep the fear from her voice.

     Her dad's sneer widened and his glare got sharper. "You liar!" He bellowed, hurling the beer bottle at the ground. It smashed into thousands of tiny glass smithereens at Everly's feet. She flinched.

     He slammed his hand loudly onto the table. "Tell me where the fuck you've been!" He shouted, his eyes bulging madly.

     "I told you, I was at my classmate's house working on a project and I didn't mean to fall asleep," Everly explained, trying her best to keep her voice even.

     And then just like that, it happened. His fist collided with Everly's cheek and everything spun around her. Her face burned and throbbed and she was suddenly dizzy. Another hard slap echoed around the room and Everly's face stung. She could feel the warm metallic taste in her mouth. Blood. She felt sick.

     Everly had no clue what was going on. Everything burned bright with colour, spinning rapidly around her, over her head and beneath her feet. All she knew was pain, washing over her body. Her whole body ached and her lungs were squeezing painfully for air.

     Unaware of the hot tears of pain slipping down her face, she writhed away from her dad, gasping for breath. She shouldn't have.

     Incensed by this, her dad kicked out hard, his foot landing on her stomach. She screamed out in pain. That was the first time she had made any noise. The force of the kick seemed to go through her stomach and into her spinal cord. She doubled over and landed hard on her knees, unable to breathe.

     She couldn't take it anymore. It was unbearable. She gave into the pain and dropped down to the ground, tears quietly streaming down her face. Everything around her was muffled except for her blood roaring in her ears.

     Finally, when she realised that her father had gone back up to his own room, she opened her eyes a peek. The entrance hall was a mess. Glass from the smashed beer bottle was littered across the floor, and the shoes that lay by the front door were scattered everywhere. But Everly didn't have the energy to tidy the place up. She didn't have the energy to do anything.

     As silently as she could, she dragged herself to her bedroom and quietly shut the door behind her. She fell to the ground and crawled towards her mirror in the corner.

     She discovered she didn't look much better than the entrance hall. In fact, she looked way worse. There was a large bluish-purple bruise on her left cheekbone and her face was extremely red.

     And to her horror, she realised that there was a huge cut on her upper left thigh that was leaking blood. It was quite long, but thankfully it wasn't too deep. Everly's breath felt shallow in her chest. Her head throbbed. She must've gotten cut by one of the glass pieces of her dad's beer bottle.

     She crept out to the bathroom right next to her bedroom and tried to clean and wrap her wound. She did her best with the bruise on her face too. Once she was done, she hurried back to her bedroom.

     Upon closing her door, she fell onto the ground. She was disturbingly dizzy and her surroundings were blurring in front of her eyes. Her whole body suddenly felt very weak and numb. She couldn't feel a thing. Then her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed.