, today is going to be a long day! Last year Teddy broke everything in the house and almost broke down my door. I tried to stay in the room as long as I could, but I was so hungry! I hadn’t eaten all day, and it felt like there was a lion going to rip out of my stomach any second now. I leaned against the door to listen for him and I couldn’t hear anything.

I slowly peaked out my door and couldn’t see any sign of him. So I slowly opened my door and turned to close the door softly. When I turned back around I was face to face with Teddy. Damn it!

“I’m going out. You better have this house cleaned when I get back,” he said pushing me out the way and then slamming the door.

I cleaned the house, even though it was spotless and then made me some dinner. Afterwards I went straight up to the room and prepared for when Teddy would be back.

Later on that night, I awoke to pounding at the door. I gripped the bat in my hands and forced myself to wake up.“Minzy, Minzy you’re an ugly you know that! I blame your father for you looking like that. If you looked an ounce like my sister, I wouldn’t be so harsh towards you! But NNNOO, you got your father’s looks,” said the drunk Teddy as he pounded at the door.

I was so tired of his bull ! He said things like this every day to me, no matter if he was drunk or not. I squeezed the bat and bit my lip to stop me from saying something stupid.

“Hey you stupid little , answer me when I talk to you! Why are you alive, huh? Tell me why an ugly like you is alive and not my sister,” Teddy said getting louder.

For some reason I couldn’t hold back and shouted back, “So what, you gonna try to bring back the dead, you stupid drunk?! Get away from my door and go to sleep already you alcoholic!”

“WHAT?! What did you just say you little head,” Teddy shouted back. I quickly covered my mouth and scolded myself for saying something. All the sudden the pounding started to sound louder and it became harder. I leaned my body against the bed post underneath the bed as I felt it shake. “What did you say? Come out here and say it to my face,” he shouted. I held my place, trying to keep the bed and dresser in place.“ Oh so you wanna play like that huh? No one talks on me and gets away with it!”

After he said those words everything outside went quiet. I quietly listened, but there still was no sound outside. I sat leaning against the bed posts and waited. After a half an hour of waiting, I relaxed and lied back down. For sure I thought I was dead meat for saying that to him. But he just left and I figured that he probably knocked out already. So I closed my eyes and laid the bat next to me.

As I dosed off, a loud banging noise awoke me. I jumped and hit my head onto the bed frame. I rubbed my head and heard the banging noise again. I listened to figure out what Teddy was doing on the other side of the door.

Out of nowhere, I heard Teddy shout, “Come out here Minzy! Come out and say it to my face!” I quickly crouched under my bed, leaning against the bed posts not knowing what he’d do next. I heard the door knob jiggle and he pounded on the door, “Open up you little b*tch! Open the door now!”

“Just leave me alone. Can’t you just leave me alone,” I shouted back trying to hold back the tears.

“Leave you alone? Girl I’m going to make your life a living hell, so you know the pain I’m feeling! The pain of losing someone you love,” he said.I shook my head trying not to feel bad for him. He was suffering, but I was suffering too! She was my mom! I loved her just as much as he did, if not more!

“Just leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE,” I shouted not knowing what else to say.

After I had said those words, Teddy punched right through the door and I screamed. He kept punching more holes into the door and said, “Leave you alone huh? Yeah right!” I sat there shocked to see him punching his way through the door. His knuckles were all bloodied up, but he kept making his way through the door as if it were nothing. He pushed at the dresser to move it and I quickly got up to try and push him out. But he knocked me to the ground and he continued to push at the dresser, “Damn this is heavy!” I crawled over to the bat and prepared myself to fight him. He finally pushed the dresser out the way and stood with blooded clenched fists, “What did you say to me you little ?”

“Stay back, I have a bat,” I said gripping the bat tight and hoping he would do so.

He walked up to me and glared down at me, “And? It’s not going to stop me!”

He then reached out to grab me and I swung the bat at him. He caught my bat and I tried to pull it out of his grasp. But he pulled it right out of my hands and threw it out the door. I’m done for. Think Minzy think! There’s no other way out of this so I’m just going to stand my ground. I clench my fists knowing all to well what I must do. Be strong Minzy! I'm not going to show this er that I’m scared less. As I stood my ground I whispered a little prayer. Give me strength to fight him off! But if I must die, please God let this be quick. I don’t want to endure a slow and painful death.

I glared back at him trying to hide my fear.“What did you say to me you little ,” Teddy said as he took one step towards me.

I looked up to him as I stayed put and said through clenched teeth, “Leave…me…alone.” He then walked up so close to me I could no longer see his eyes. But I could feel and hear him breathing over me. As he did so, I shut my eyes closed trying to calm my ferociously pounding heart.

He finally spoke, “What did you say?”

I forced my eyes open and slowly looked up to meet his gaze, “LEAVE ME THE ALONE!”

Before I could stop to take a breather, I was picked up from the ground by the collar and thrown against my bed post. I hit the bed post hard and I thought I heard something in my back pop. He then picked me up and held me against the wall by my shirt, “You just don’t know how to just that smart mouth of yours, do you?!” As he held me up with one arm I saw his other coming at me fast and I ducked. I barely missed as he punched a hole into the wall. I then upper cut him right in the jaw and he let go of me to hold his jaw.I fell to the ground and tried to crawl towards the bed and away from him. But he grabbed my left leg, “Oh no you don’t!” I held onto the bed post for dear life, but he yanked at my leg so hard that I lost my grip. As I was being pulled back to him, I dug my finger nails into the floor hoping to stop myself. When I was finally at his feet he let go of my leg and started kicking me in the stomach. He kicked me till my whole body was turned around and I was facing the ceiling. I held my stomach and tried to turn onto my side to breathe, but he kicked me to face the ceiling again, “ did I say you could turn over?!” He placed his foot onto my chest and leaned his body weight onto me, “Leave you alone my !”

I could barely breathe and I started to punch his leg that was on me, “Get off of me!”

He finally took his foot off of my chest and gasped for air as he coughed a laugh, “You look pathetic!”

I glared up at him and kicked him as hard as I could right in the nuts! He fell to the ground and I pushed myself up. I looked down at him tossing and turning as he held his balls, “Now who looks pathetic!”

As I was turning to walk away, Teddy grabbed me at my feet and pulled me back down saying, “You do!”

I fell back down to the ground and had the wind knocked out of me.He pulled me towards him and we had an all-out fist fight. We rolled back and forth as I tried to fight him saying, “ you Teddy!”

The adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I could feel all this strength coming to me. All the hurtful things he said to me, and all the times he would beat me flashed in my mind. During the fist fight I kept repeatedly saying, “I’m sick of this !” In the middle of our all-out brawl, Teddy hit his head against the bed post and it threw him off guard for a second. I ceased the opportunity and punched him so hard that his head flung backwards. It hit against the bed post again and he was knocked unconscious. I was a little shocked that I was able to do that, but I had no time to think. I got up and ran. Not looking back, I ran into the dark night air.