I was walking down this alley for the ten billionth time in my life but for some unseen reason I felt terrified.  I had no rational reason, of course, since I was clearly the only one in the short, dark alley, but I had this strange uneasy feeling that I have been getting more and more frequently.  Ever sine my mother, Jane, left her abusive boyfriend, Derik,  I have had the feeling of being watched.

                        Derik was not only abusive to her but to me and everyone else he knows.  Since the time he moved in, three years ago, I have had a bruise and/or broken bone every day.  My mother, to no avail, has always tried to stick up for me and to get in the middle.  She loves me but she also loves him.  Him who beat her so bad she had to be in the hospital for two weeks, him who cheated on her with every whore in town, and him who also beat her only living child.

                        Up until a month ago I thought she would never leave him but he finally went to far even for her.  There was a school dance I had planned to attend and I was going to go with the cutest guy in the eleventh grade, Jake Fuller.  Derik was not so keen to that idea and as I went to leave my apartment he pushed me down the very hard, very metal stairs.  I had to get thirty stitches above my left eyebrow and I also had the worst concussion my doctor had ever seen. I got lucky that I didn’t have any brain damage.  That night while I was in the hospital my mom moved all of our stuff to my grandma’s house.  We haven’t seen Derik since that night, or so I thought.

                        When I saw my grandma’s house come into view relief swept over me.  It was a nice house considering all the other places I have been dragged to since I was five, when my father kicked us out of his home.  It is a two story brick building with two bedrooms, I had one to myself while my mom slept on the couch.

                        “Jane, honey, is that you?”, my grandma asked from in the kitchen.  I could smell her delicious homemade brownies, but as long as I have known her, all my life, brownies were her comfort food. Something was wrong.

                        “No gram, its me.”, I replied, trying to sound cheerful.  “I decided to come home early.”

                        “Oh, well, Crystal dear, could you give me a hand here”, she asked, sounding stressed.

                        When I walked into the kitchen she was juggling a pan of hot, fresh from the oven brownies, and a pan with still uncooked brownies.  I reached for the uncooked pan and shoved them in the oven.  Looking around a rush of panic hit me hard.  There were brownies everywhere, something was terrible wrong.

                        “What’s going on gram”, I ask, trying unsuccessfully to keep my voice clam.

                        “Oh, umm…” she hesitated.  “I was just doing a little baking.”  She smiled nervously.  “Has your mother talked to you yet?”

                        “Crystal” my mother called before I could answer. She came into the kitchen and scanning my face her smile fell.  “Crystal, why don’t you come into the living room with me so we can talk?”  She finally said.

                        “Ok.” I answered passively though my mind was going crazy. 

                        In the living room I sat in my favorite old, ripped up chair.  My mother sat on the couch across from me.  She sat there for a good two minutes before she looked me in the eye.  I could see the conflict ragging and I became a hundred times more nervous than I was before.

                        “I’ve been speaking with Derik for awhile now,” she heard the disgusted sound I made and held up a finger.  “He feels rally bad ‘bout what happened before and wants to make up for it.”

                        I sat there speechless while she read the horror on my now paled face.  She waited for me to say something but when it dawned on her that I wasn’t going to respond to her ludicrous statement she tried to explain.

                        “Crystal honey you know how much I love u but…” she was almost begging with me to understand, “I also love him.”  She was starting to get desperate now, “He really is sorry ‘bout everything not just… well you know, but everything , and he wants to make it up to us.  He wants us to move back in with him.”  She waited to assess my reaction then added, “I accepted his offer, hone, and we’re leaving tomorrow.”

                        I sat motionless for I don’t know how long before it all finally sunk in.  My head swam with the words she just said and I was completely shocked.  How could she really mean what she just said?  How could she talk to him again?  How could she …, want to move back with him?  How?  I didn’t understand her reasoning at all.  All that pain he caused us and she wants to move back with him.  And take me with her, back to that hell.  No, I didn’t understand.  No, I was not going back.

                        “No!”  I screamed breaking the long silence at last.  “No, no, no, NO!” I screamed again.  This couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t.  One minute I was finally getting a little stability in my life and the next it was like a rug getting ripped out form under my feet.  What did I do wrong this time?  I was careful to do everything asked of me this past month, not one thing I was supposed to do was neglected, not one.  I didn’t understand.

                        I got up from my chair and ran out the door as fast as I could, all the while my mother screaming after me.  I couldn’t make out the individual words she was yelling, I was to angry and confused to even try.  I ran and ran and ran until finally I collapsed in an alley, unlike the other alley I was in before, this one was unfamiliar.  I was in a place that I have never been before and even thought I should have been scared I was relieved.  I wouldn’t see Derik ever again.  Nothing here could be as bad as what I would go through when we moved back with him.  I was free of Derik for good; I wasn’t going back… ever. This made me very happy.

                        I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Just as I finished that thought I heard a laugh that sent shivers down my spin.  A laugh that I would, no could never forget, Derik’s laugh.  Fate could be so cruel, sometimes.  Derik started walking towards me talking to his friends behind him, I couldn’t hear what he was saying but it amused them.  I recognized his two of his friends, Dave and Bill, both just as bad a person as Derik.

                        “Well, well, well, what have we here,” Derik laughed.  “Crystal!” he said with fake surprise.  “Aren’t you glade to se me.”

                        “I don’t think she is.”  Bill said also laughing.

                        “Hum, why don’t I give u that well come home present early. I was going to wait for your mother to be around but…”he kicked me hard in the stomach and I cringed in pain, “this is as good a time as any.  You ruin everything you do.  See if it wasn’t for you your stupid mother would have never left.  She thinks I’m a gift from god you know.  That’s why I have to get rid of you.  You see I have been following you around this past month waiting for the right time to get you, but then I ran into your mother, who like always, wants me back.  All I have to do is get ride of you now.” 

                        Then all of them started kicking me as hard as they could, I gasped for air.  Then just as suddenly as it all started it stopped. I could still hear their laughter as they looked down at me.  I could here mumbling but couldn’t make out any words.  I looked up to see that they had circled me and that Derik had a knife in his hands.  Again instead of being scared I welcomed what he would do, end my pitiful existence.  No one would miss me, I was sure of that.  I felt my face go calm and my lips formed a small smile.

                        I looked away waiting for the end to finally come but instead I heard the three men start to laugh again.  I couldn’t understand that, yet another thing on my list.  I looked up again to see the most beautiful boy.  He had black shaggy, but not long, hair, and piercing black eyes.  His skin was very fair like he stayed away from the sun for to long.  He was tall, almost six foot, and muscular but not excessively so.  He was wearing a red sleeveless shirt and a pair of baggy denim jeans.

                        When I looked into his eyes he was looking at me and I saw anger burning there.  He turned his attention to Derik and the other guys, who started walking toward him and his eyes turned to that of amusement, another thing to add to my extensive list of thing I didn’t understand.  As Derik and the guys lunged at him all at once I saw him smile, and just like that he was behind them his back turned towards me.  The guys turned around with disbelief covering their ugly faces.  I closed my eyes then, knowing that a fight was about to begin but not sure who I wanted to win.  Who would kill me the quickest?  I heard grunts and groans and all sorts of painful noises and then silence.

                        I lie there not moving; hopping my pain wouldn’t be prolonged for much longer.  When I opened my eyes the beautiful boy stood over me pity, anger, and something I didn’t recognize, hunger maybe, shone in his dark eyes.

                        “Kill me quickly.” I begged before I shut my eyes and let all my other sense go with my vision.