“What on God’s Earth is this?” She demanded, gripping a cardboard box.
“I’m collecting second-hand clothing from people as part of a school project. We’re sending everything to a small community in South Africa.” I replied honestly. “Why?”
“That’s a lie! You’ve stolen it all haven’t you?” She exclaimed, her hands now shaking with rage. I tried to reassure her but I soon felt a burning sensation as her hand landed fiercely on my cheek.
“You are nothing but a thief! You’re Satan’s child! I hope you burn in hell!”
At that moment my father walked in.
“What’s going on?” He enquired.
My mother informed him of her side of the story and I prepared myself for what would happen next. My ears were so used to shouting that they taught themselves to tune out but this time was different.
“You’re no child of mine.” My father stated, remaining eerily calm. He looked around the room and suddenly grabbed the now boiling pan of soup and he poured it all over me faster than you can blink. The pain was excruciating, like nothing you could ever begin to imagine. My parents remained calm; their eyes full of hatred. My father then knocked me to the floor in one punch and then dragged me by my hair to the top of the stairs which lead down to the basement. I tried to stand but instead fell down the stairs.
I was in hospital when I woke up the next day. The strong smell of bleach stayed in my nostrils and I was in a ward full of other patients and their families. Mine was nowhere to be seen. The pain was only just made bareable by the painkillers I obviously had in my system. As I looked down at my battered body, I saw it was covered in cuts and bruises and my arm was covered in bandages where the soup had burnt me. A doctor who had been talking to a young girl in the bed next to me, made his way towards my bed. He introduced himself and then went onto explain what my parents had told him had happened. He claimed that I had been preparing my dinner when a burglar had attacked me and that I was found unconscious in the basement. He also told me how lucky I was to have such caring parents and that they were at home resting. I desperately wanted to tell him the truth about the previous night, tell him the truth about every night, but I just couldn’t.
I was released later that day and as I arrived home I realized that my parents had even knocked household items over and had broken things just to make their story look believeable. As I lay in bed at night I thought about how true Christians would follow the religion correctly and not follow certain rules. One major thing the Bible speaks about is honesty yet here my parents were, with a degree in lying.
Both my mother and my father are out volunteering somewhere and won’t be home for at least two hours. I lifted the rug hiding the floorboards and I lifted out my secret box. I emptied the entire contents of the box into my bag and took some extra clothes from my wardrobe. I then looked out my hidden stash of money I had been saving and put it in my bag aswell. I ran down the stairs and slipped while doing so. I banged my still bandaged arm against the wall and cursed out loud. I ran into the kitchen and began searching through the cupboards for any food which would fit into the remaining space in my bag. I finally took my coat from the coat rack and walked out the door.
Luckily I didn’t live far from the train station and as I walked down my street I thought to myself how I would never have to step inside that house again and knowing that I would soon be gone from this town completely was extremely overwhelming by itself. When I arrived at the train station, there was luckily a train sat in the station due to leave for London in fifteen minutes so I rushed to the ticket desk and bought a one way ticket to London. I boarded the train and found a deserted carriage so I took my pick and put my feet up. I spent the entire journey thinking about what I would do in such a large city I’d never been to when I was from a small town in the north of England. I didn’t have any idea what I would do when I arrived, I just knew I was free.
