The Habbit: Chapter One

I was born to be different. My father, Doug, left my mother and I when I was only three-years-old, and I've supressed all of the memories I have of him. I suppose it's better that way. For a long time I wondered why he left us. What kind of father could do that? What kind of man. After he left, mom stayed gone alot, too. Sometimes when she would leave I would wonder if she was coming back or not. There were alot of different sitters and I only remember a few of them. One of them, Darcy, didn't think it was "proper" that I didn't play with Barbies, or dolls, or play tea party like "normal little girls should." I would laugh and tell her I prefered my hot wheels and that was that. She tried to take tham away, but realized that was useless after a while.

When I turned thriteen I became involved with a boy named Samuel. Samuel had a drinking problem and he normally stayed strung out on pot. It was the hottest thing, so of course I tried it. I loved it- the emotional highs. But it was the coming down that I hated. I started smoking the joints every day. I needed to be high. When I moved out with Samuel, I was only sixteen. I figured mom wouldn't miss me and I didn't have anyone else to care but Samuel.

Everything was great, at first. We stayed high and it was wonderful. Then the bills started rollin' in and Samuel was using all of my money to pay to support our habbit. I knew I had to stop. So, I moved back into my mom's place since I couldn't get my own. I was clean for six months before I started seeing Jack. Jack was the love of my life. We were inseperable. Mom hated him of course, but I didn't care. I was making A's in school and I was clean! I loved that feeling of self-accomplishment more than I ever loved the high of pot. And the best part was, I wasn't coming down off of it.Everything started changing then. The way I viwed the world and I decided that instead of surpressing and blocking it all I would write about it. So I sat down one day and started writing and found taht I couldn't stop. I loved it, too. I

t made me feel like I was doing something for myself for once. And then the knock came at my door. It was Samuel. After seven months he realized just how much he missed me. Or so he said. I knew I wouldn't take him back, but I let him come in to hear him out. After all, I had been with him for a year , I trusted him. And, I was just plain curious. And curiosity nearly killed the cat. Samuel realized that I had no intentions towards pursuing his feelings or supporting his habbit anymore, much less remaking it my own, and something inside him snapped.

I realized where it was headed and asked him to leave, but he wouldn't. I threatened to call the cops which made him even more irate than he already was. It was then that I realized I should be scared. Mom wouldn't be home for another two or three hours at most and I couldn't outrun him sober so I ran for the bathroom. I realized halfway there that there was no window, but there was no way to switch directions. I told myself he'd calm down as I locked myself in the bathroom. The bathroom was a 4x6 room, and there was no where to hide, he knew where I was. He began to beat on the door, which frightened me even more. I don't know if he thought I would come out if he did or what he thought, all I knew was that I was scared.

The first hole through the door made me scream. I didn't expect to see his fist through the wooden door. But there it was bruised and bloody. I closed my eyes and silently said a prayer that God would send one of his angels to protect me from this hell. When I opened my eyes, there was Samuel. He was crying, but his eyes were wide and blood shot. Maybe I had been wrong about the high thing. That was the first time Samuel had ever hit me, and it was also the last. He beat me until I couldn't move. There was no where to run, no where to hide, and I couldn't overpower him. The more I struggled, the angrier it made him. So I stood there, sat there, and laid there, until he was done. Then, I saw a light come on and I heard Jack's voice. I screamed his name and tried to move, but I couldn't. He came running towards my voice, shouting my name in an unknown protest.

Then Samuel blocked the broken down door, filling the doorway so that Jack couldn't see me. "Can I help you?" Samuel seemed so calm about what was happening. I shivered on the tile floor of the bathroom, and suddenly found peace in studying the patterns. Then Jack's voice: "Yeah, you can move out of my way." I knew that was directed towards Samuel, and then to me he said: "I'm coming Peyton, don't worry baby." Samuel sneered at him and I knew then that it would all be over soon.