Chaos.

            It was what I lived in, what I breathed, what I heard, and what I always felt. But at the same time, there was nothing. There were no feelings, there was no pain, no shred of warmth. All that existed was a slow and steady heartbeat that pumped just enough to keep my body breathing. My life was sustained, nothing more and nothing less. I was simply there.

            I remember the first time I ever felt hope. It was an odd little feeling. A sudden tightening in my chest that made breathing difficult. It crept out of nowhere, in the dead of night. It was raining outside. The echoing thunder and patter of droplets hitting the roof was the only sound that resonated throughout the house. It was strange to hear silence in the house that was always loud with voices and noises that shouldn’t have been familiar to a ten year old child. It was strange, but I remember that I was overwhelmed with relief. My ten year old self could barely breathe without the fear of interrupting the god given silence. All I had wanted was to curl up with my stuffed animal and blanket and hide away in the closet with the small wish that no one in the house would find me. But as I tiptoed down the vacant hallways, a sound made me freeze. It was quiet at first, barely a murmur on the wind. But as the moments went on and my feet moved forward, the sounds grew louder. Whimpers. They were so soft, and sad, and they sounded so tired. My feet followed the sounds until I was stopped by the wooden door. My heart began to pound at being so close to the room that constantly haunted my thoughts and memories. I wanted to run, run so far that the dreaded place wouldn’t be able to even seep into my dreams. But as I turned away, a new sound had frozen me. A voice.

            “No,” it said. My body shivered at the gentle tones in which it was spoken. A yearning pulled at my heart. A yearning stemming from a fragilely broken place. “You can do whatever you want to me, but I won’t give you what you want. You can make me scream; you can make me cry; you can make me feel so much pain that I wouldn’t even be able to stand. But you will never be able to break me.”

            I heard the voice of the mistress sneer and snarl, and I could imagine her upper lip curling and her eyes narrowing to slits. For the first time since I was brought into the hellhole known as my “home”, I wasn’t afraid. I felt light. So with my heart pounding in my ears and my breath escaping me in small little gasps, I pushed the forbidden and heavy door open.

            My eyes found him immediately. He was tied to a chair with his hair matted to his forehead from sweat and his lip bleeding. His eyes widened when he came to spot my small frame. I took a step forward but a sharp blow to the back of my head forced me to my knees. But I had almost immediately picked up my head to search for his face once again. Glittering eyes filled with worry made my own water in response. No one had ever looked worried for me before. The mistress’ foot came down and connected with my nose causing my vision to flitter black. But once again I sought out the face of the man being held. The beautiful man that now had desperate tears in his own eyes.

            “Leave her alone,” his voice croaked as he pulled against his restraints. The mistress’ hand curled into my brown hair and twisted a fistful of it. I didn’t even flinch when she pulled her arm back dragging my body along with her. The man let out a growl before turning his blazing eyes to me. “Fight back,” he ordered. And so I did.

            Within a couple of minutes, I was on my knees crawling towards the stranger. My little body was slow and heavy. But it still trudged forward, ignoring the rapidly cooling body of the fully grown women that had been struggling just a moment before. The grown women that laid no longer breathing. I had untied the ropes with nimble and well-practiced fingers until they finally tugged free.

            Pale and slender hands gently smoothed my wild hair as I snuggled into the warm lap of the stranger. He hummed quietly through his sniffles and my eyes drifted closed. My soul was soaring at being touched with a loving hand for the first time in my short life. But they opened when the sounds of shouts drifted through the abandoned hallways. I remember my energy drained leaving me tired and my body had sagged in resignation. It seemed like my comfort was reaching its end.

            “Do you hear that, little one?” the man holding me asked. I peeked up from my place on the floor shyly. I just nodded clumsily. “That’s the sound of someone coming to save us,” he told me. My eyes drifted to the door and back to the gentle gaze.

            Yes, my heart pleaded, save me.

Yeah guys I don't have any confidence and I don't know if anyone will like it. But here it is so...fighting ^^