I can't move. How many hours have passed? How long have I been laying in this utter darkness. I can hear nothing, but my breathing and my own heart beat. Yet I feel as if I am being watched. Now I'm beginning to feel cold. My fingers and toes are becoming numb. However, the cold isn't satisfied. It wants more. It wants all of me.

 

The light? I'm awake. That nightmare has passed, but its time to begin another. I can't keep doing this to myself, but what choice do I have? Its funny, at least I don't feel cold anymore. Its a good thing that I brought my backpack. I don't know if he's slept it off yet and I don't want to take that chance. I still feel a twinge of pain in my leg with every step I take.

 

I wonder how many nights I will have to hide here in this old tree house my dad made? He was my dad. I, I don't know who he is now. I don't know who I am now. If only mom was still around, then... maybe... Ho, no. I can feel the tears coming. There is no place for that in my life anymore. I need to be strong. Besides the school bus is here.

 

Every time I get on this bus the driver looks at me like I'm abnormal. Maybe it is because of the bits of leaves in my hair or because I'm wearing the same cloths as yesterday. Either way I hate that look she gives me. By the time I reach school I'll have this mess all sorted.

 

Another day at school passes. I feel jealous at the people around me. Everyone seems to talk and laugh. Everyone seems to know somebody else. For me, well this is my first year of high school. Before this year I had friends, but now I feel more alone then ever. It seems that everyone has moved on to new friends. Everyone, but me.

 

Report cards were handed out. I got As in three of my classes and Bs in the rest. Heh, I must be born to succeed at school because I barely put forth an effort. Now to get it signed... Please, God, just let him be normal tonight so I can get it signed.

 

The bus drops me off in front of my house. My dad's car is gone. I know I need this paper signed, but part of me is revealed. The house is toasty warm inside. I'm so tired of sleeping outside in the winter. Upstairs my room is just the way I left it. My comfy bed looks so inviting and I have no choice, but to wait for my dad to come home. I suppose it couldn't hurt to take a little rest.

 

I am now laying still in the darkness again. There is no sound. My breath and my heart beat are silenced. The cold has won. As I peer into the looming shroud I begin to see figures both great and small. They are eyes. Lidless eyes are watching from the dark abyss. Its strange, but I am not afraid. I keenly hear a whisper in my ear. “Never again”.

 

I'm jarred awake by a loud call. “Lilly!”. My dad is yelling. The first thing I notice is that it is dark out now. How long have I been asleep? Before I can act my door bursts open. My dad rushes to my bedside. He smells so bad, but his breath is by far the worst. For a moment he just stares at me in the dark. I can't make out the expression on his face.

 

He raises his arm and precedes to click on the lamp overhanging my bed. Oh God no! His face has blood running down it that is stemming from his nose and there is so much rage in his eyes. This is bad. He grabs both of my arms and squeezes until I flinch in pain. “You little bitch! How dare you run out on me!” he screams directly into my face. “This is the last time you disrespect me!” From his grasp he lifts me out of the bed. I am afraid. I plead,“Daddy please! Not the stairs again!” I knew that this time would be different, worse.

 

Suddenly he drops me to the floor and begins looking at his hands. “What the fuck did you do to me?” Blood is coursing out of his palms. What did I do to him? Then I remembered the whisper. The door to my room abruptly closes. My dad looks back and even struggled with the door for a bit. It is useless. I know that now. He looks in my direction with all of his anger replaced by fear. He sees me for what I have become and knows the error of his ways.

 

That final and oppressive dark engulfs my room. There is only me, him and the lidless eyes. They look at him with such judgmental fury, but it is up to me how this ends. Later the cops arrive. They are responding to a report of loud screams. After entering my home they find the broken body of my father at the bottom of the staircase. Behind the house, in a tree house, in the woods they find me. Apparently I froze to death in my sleep on the previous night. The only things that weren't explained by my condition were the two flaps of skin frozen to either of my arms and my eyes. My body was missing the eyes and all that remained were two blackened indents. That is because I am still watching from the darkness.