Chapter 1

It was a dark and gloomy night. I blindly ran through the woods, stumbling over twigs and sticks as tears ran down my face. I knew there is no way I can go back home tonight, because my father would surely bring out his belt. “Jamaica!”, my father's voice roared from somewhere in the distance. “You better come back here now!”. I didn't answer him and continued running. My father is in one of his drunken rages, and this is one of the times that I fear for my life. I really wish Mom was here, but I know that there's no way she is going to just magically appear. My mother died a couple years ago, when I was 17. She suffered from heat strokes and heart attacks. She had three heart attacks, if you don't include the one that killed her. No one knows what caused her heart attacks because she didn't do drugs. Mom wasn't like that.

Shaking my head, I came back to the present. I kept running, in fear that my father was in pursuit. Finally, I slowed down because my chest started hurting. I can never run for very long. Warily, I checked my surroundings, and listened for any unusual sounds. But the forest was quiet. Too quiet. I started walking fast now, keeping an ear out for the heavy footsteps of my father. After an hour, I reached the edge of the forest and stepped out onto a street. Stores were on either side, and after I walked down the street for a little bit, I began to feel hungry. I had not eaten at all since lunch because my father had refused to let me and he had everything locked down. Yeah, I know he seems real cruel, but you haven't heard everything. But I will talk about that later if I'm ready.

I spotted a small diner that looked a little worn down and raggedy,but it suited me just fine. As I approached the doors, all of a sudden two really nice-looking dudes burst out; laughing at something. When they saw me, they stopped in their tracks and studied me. I froze, sensing that something wasn't right. The two guys came closer, slowly. I wanted to run, but my legs felt like they were made of cement. I held my breath, hoping that they would walk right past me, but they stopped one inch in front of me. “Hey sexy”, said the dude with dark brown hair. “Want to go for a ride?” I shook my head no because my words were stuck in my throat. “Can't talk?”, asked the guy who had his hood on. I still couldn't answer, but inside of me I was panicking because I knew this could end up bad. “Alright lil' mama. You're coming with us”, said the dark-browned hair guy with impatience. He grabbed my arm and in that instant my leg unfroze and I could move again. I swung a punch at him and connected my fist with his face and he let go, howling with pain as he clutched his face. “You stupid bitch! You hurt me”, he screamed. But I was focused on the other guy who was circling me with a look of a predator stalking his prey. He sprang at me quickly in a quick second, but I was prepared. As he sprung at me, I aimed a kick at his face. I guess he had a feeling I would do that because he ended up catching my foot with his hands and throwing me to the ground. Wincing with pain, I got up but only to be knocked down again by the guy with dark brown hair. Then I felt a sharp burst of pain in my side and another, and another. They were kicking me to death. I couldn't get up. I wanted to scream “I surrender”, but I was to stubborn. I would not give in to these two guys. The world started flickering, and then faded in and out. I heard another male voice that wasn't the two guys who were kicking me. All of a sudden, the kicking stopped and the male voice was arguing with the two dudes and the two dudes were yelling. I saw something shiny appear and I thought that I was going to heaven, but then I heard a loud banging noise and the world went black.