1 Chapter 1

Julia's POV:

I let out a shriek of terror as my father shatters a beer bottle over the counter and points it at my head. He slurs over his words as he says, "God, you're just as pathetic as your mother. It's not even fun to hurt you anymore."

My nine-year-old body shakes as he drops the bottle on the floor. I exhale and close my eyes to help me relax. I open my eyes and find my father right in front of me with his fist cocked back. I don't remember if I screamed or not, all I remember is the excruciating pain that flew throughout my face, and then everything went dark.

I wake up on the kitchen floor, surrounded by blood pooling underneath my head. I lift my head off the floor and immediately feel the stinging pain shoot through my head that makes me clutch my cheek. I gently touch my nose and the misshapen form lets me know that it's most likely broken.

I slowly lift myself off the floor and grab my bag as I leave the sad excuse of a house that my father spends each day in. I hate it when he breaks bones because then I have to go to the doctor. They check me out and ask me all of these questions as if they care and I have to lie because I don't want to be put into the foster care system. They know I'm lying but truly don't care enough so they let it go but it's still annoying.

I finally arrive at the ER a few blocks down from my house and I pull my hand away from my nose. I am not surprised at the blood coating my hands. I'm called in and the doctor checks my nose and lets out an exasperated sigh.

She sounds like she's holding back anger as she says, "God, Julia how many times have I already seen you? You're getting hurt faster than your body can heal. If you don't wanna do anything about it then that's fine but at least stop coming in here and wasting all of our time."

I'm not at all shocked at her words but I don't come here for their help so, in a blank voice, I say, "While I appreciate the offer, there's nothing to do about my clumsiness. I simply come here so that I can get pain meds and be on my way. I don't mean to waste anyone's time." The doctor seemed tired of my shit so she just gave me a prescription for pain medication and sent me on my merry way.

It's almost sundown at this point so instead of going home, I head to a park nearby and walk over to the swings. I ran the broken skin on my fingers over the cool metal of the chains and let them sit there for a moment before sliding them back into my pocket. I sit on the swing and look up just in time to see the sun start to tuck behind the landscape of the crappy city I called home.

As I watched the sun lower and the sky burst out into blues and purples, I made a promise to myself. Today was the last day I would be defenseless. I would learn to defend myself, even if I couldn't fight back against the bastard that was my father.