The Dark Side of the Moon

1. Twilight

The streets are blackened by the setting of the sun, and a chill runs through the air. The distant sounds of local teens on their way home for the night fills the silence as the diner closes across the square.

A cool breeze dances through the trees as twilight settles on the small town of Forks, Washington.

It's a Thursday night, and I've been kicked out of the house again.

It wasn't my fault this time, though.

The young doctor, the pale one with the cold hands, told the social workers to check on us...on me. It's his fault Charlie beat me tonight, but I know the doctor didn't mean to instigate.

He had no idea.

I have only met him twice, the first of which when I was very little. Charlie brought me in when I was six, claiming that I had been hit by a car in a hit-and-run accident.

He tried to kill me.

The second time I was just turning 11; Charlie beat me so badly that I didn't wake for two whole days.

Some part of me believes that he regrets hurting me, that somewhere deep inside, the drunken bastard actually cared whether I lived or died.

But from the time I was an infant, all I've known is violence.

I watched him kill my mother. I saw it with my own two eyes, and it haunts me to this day.

You'd think something from such a young age would be long faded into memory, but I never forgot...that was the night when he first turned on me.

I was nearly four when it happened.

Since then, Charlie has kept me hidden in the walls of our old house, occasionally kicking me out when he felt like it, especially when his buddies came over to watch the game.

On nights like these—when I was left to fend for myself—I walked.

I wanted to see the world, I wanted to explore, even if it was just by going into town.

I've tried to escape him, but being the chief of police in such a small town has its perks and I've never gotten far. Running hurts more than obeying, so I've learned.

When I'm 18, I will go...he can no longer keep me bound by my chains.

A rain drop falls onto my cheek as I watch them get into their cars.

How I longed to be like them, with a loving family and boundless opportunities before them; with a life to live as their own.

I start school on Monday. I will be normal for once I my life. From books and research you can only learn so much. I know I am smarter than the average teenager...I have to be. Every year I was forced to take a standardized test and pass, to show that my 'homeschooling' was as effective as public school. If I failed, he'd kill me.

I was not to test Charlie.

The rain begins to fall more frequently, and I break out of my revery to realize that I am alone once again. I pull the hood of my thin jacket tighter and run into the cover of the woods for shelter from the dark night.