HAZEL’S POV
Life had become very difficult for me after the passing of my family. I was put in the foster care system. It wasn’t too long after that I was given to my new foster parents.
The Smiths gave me the ick from the first day I had met them. I tried to tell the supervisor that I didn’t want to go with them but she would hear none of it.
Eventually, I ended up going with them.
Mrs Smith didn’t smile. I didn't think she could smile. They had four children, all of which were boys.
Growing up with a sister, I didn’t know how to handle myself around boys.
I kept to myself a lot and I read a lot of books from the library to help me escape my new reality.
Mrs. Smith had turned me into her maid. I did everything, from cleaning, cooking, doing the dishes, grocery shopping… everything.
While everybody at home hardly did anything. The only free time I had to myself was when I would be coming home from school.
Her sons were all in high school while I was in elementary school. I sometimes stayed back to read books at the library, but I lied that I was staying back at school for the gym or book club or… something, but it was always a lie.
I soon fell into a routine and I began to get used to my new normal, until the day everything changed.
Ever since I came to the Smith home, I had avoided Mr. Smith. The way he constantly looked at me, with a glint in his eyes that looked as though he wanted to devour me, I knew that I had to stay away from him.
I made sure that I was never alone with him and that I kept a distance from him. He was a very disgusting man. He was short and stout with a balding head and a loud mouth. He was always drinking and he reeked of alcohol whenever he came home.
I would constantly hear him and his wife arguing. He never slept in their bedroom, always slept on the couch.
I was terrified of him. It was as though, deep down inside of me, I knew that there was something wrong with him but I could not pinpoint exactly what.
A month after I came to live with him I knew I discovered exactly what my mind was trying to tell me.
It was just an hour after dinner and I had gone up to my room to shower and then go to sleep. I had just finished getting dressed in my pyjamas and I had slipped into bed with a book in my hand. I had a ritual of reading till I fell asleep every night.
That night, I had with me a John Grisham book, The Rogue Lawyer that I had gotten from the school library. I was excited to see a Grisham book because it had been me and my father’s favorite author.
I was so deep into the novel that I had not noticed when the door to my room had opened and closed. It had also been raining and it made it that much harder for me to have heard anybody come in.
I felt his fat, sweaty, clammy hands on my waist and the other covering my mouth to silence my screams. I was flipped on my back and that was when I came face to face with my tormentor.
Mr. Smith’s dark eyes stared into mine. I was terrified.
“This is going to be quick and so much fun if you don’t make it hard. If you scream, I will hit you so hard, you forget your name, do you understand me? I will kill you and nobody will miss you, do you understand?”
He told me in a hushed, cynical tone. I knew that he meant every word that he said and I knew that I shouldn’t cross him.
I nodded my head slowly and he pulled his hand away from my mouth. Then he smiled the same smile that had caused a chill to run up my spine the first day that I met him.
“I had been waiting a long time to make you mine. I am going to have my time with you. I will f**k you so good, little girl.”
Then he snatched my lips with his and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself not to throw up. The kiss was wet and slurpy and his breath reeked of alcohol.
Every girl imagined what her first kiss would be like, none of them dreamt it would ever be this gruesome and vile. I screamed at myself to fight or push him away, to scream, but I was paralyzed with fear.
He tore my pyjama bottoms and discarded them on the floor, that was when my body started to move and I started to scramble away from him hastily, which made him angry. He grabbed my leg and pulled me back to him.
“I told you not to make this hard for me.” He yelled and slapped me hard across my face.
I still went. I had never experienced that level of pain in my life.
He pulled my panties down my leg and in my swift motion, he covered my mouth with his hands and then he released his manhood from his shorts and shoved it into me. I let out a pain-filled, muffled scream.
Tears ran down my eyes as I lay there while he violated me.
That was the first of many nights. After some time, it just became normal to me. I started to numb myself to the pain of it.
Mrs. Smith started to lose her temper more with me, she knew, she knew everything her husband was doing to me, but she only blamed me for it.
When I turned 17, I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to leave, I knew that if I stayed, I would die.
I stole the money from Mrs. Smith's cooking jar and some more from Mr. Smith’s wallet. After school one day, I didn’t go back home, I ran to the nearest bus station and I ran away.