Loveless Lizard pt. 1 "Prelude"

"Stab My Back"

The Phone Rings, and She Screams, Stab My Back, It's Better When I Bleed For You

8:40pm

I snuck to the top of the stairs so that I could hear what was going on, careful not to step on the squeaky floor boards' right outside Lizzie's room.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion mama, but we just received an anonymous tip that someone was being assaulted here." I was going to kill Ryde. No, not just kill him; torture him until he begged me to kill him.

"I'm sorry that you kind officers had to waste your time, but there isn't anything like that going on here."

"Still, if you don't mind, we'd like to speak with your daughter, Sky Penelope."

"She's not here, and to tell you the truth I'm not sure where she'd be. She does things like that, goes off without letting me know where she's headed, typical teenager behavior if you ask me."

"Alright, we'll be on our way now, but if we get another phone call, we're going to need to speak with her no matter what the circumstances are."

"Of course, and again, I'm sorry you had to go out of your way."

I froze in my spot as I heard the door close, but just as my legs started to work I spun around, still crouched low, and just as I was about to rise up, I was being knocked back down by the pink fuzz ball.

"Mom! She's up here!" Called Lizzie, grabbing my hair and pulling it roughly as Karen came into view.

"Who was it that called the cops, who were you on the phone with? Tell me now you little bitch or so help me I'll kill you right now." Lizzie's hand was soon replaced by Karen's as she started dragging me down the first small flight of stairs and into her bedroom.

"I wasn't on the phone with anyone; I was just checking the voicemail to see if Vincent called." She pulled my hair harder, forcing me to bend backwards.

"You're a liar, now tell me the truth, or you're going to get it." She picked up one of her old cheerleading trophies from the shelf and waved it around in the air with her free hand.

"I swear I'm not lying." Tears were already falling out of my eyes again from how hard she was pulling my hair, it felt as though my head was splitting open and being set on fire.

"Was it one of your little boyfriends? If you tell me who it was then this doesn't have to be so painful."

I whimpered like a beaten dog, if I told she would have one of her special friends intimidate Ryde, and at the very least, mess him up terribly. I knew I couldn't say anything, no one else should have to go through this, and like it was meant to be, I didn't have to worry about caller ID because none of our lines had it installed.

"I was just checking the voicemail, like I said."

"I don't believe you." She swung back her hand with the trophy in it and brought it down hard to meet the side of my face. I would have been knocked over if she wasn't holding me up by my hair. Blood was trickling down my cheek and my eye was bruising all around. But that didn't stop her from taking aim three more times before shoving me back out into the hall.

My light blue tank top had blood splattered down the front of it from my busted lip and multiple cuts along the side of my face. I could hardly see out of my right eye as I stumbled back up the stairs as quickly as I could to avoid her deciding that she wasn't done and having another go at my bruised and bleeding face.

Immediately I tried to clean off the blood after peeling off my top, but it stung so badly that it took longer than I had expected. I don't know how I was going to be able to cover this up tomorrow, make up certainly wasn't going to help, and I didn't own any hats. I also knew that I wasn't going to be allowed to stay home until I was healed, that would only make matter worse.

Houdini ran up beside me as soon as my body touched the bed and curled up next me. I didn't bother putting on pajamas, it would take too much energy that I just didn't have. And it was taking up enough just to try not to cry, in the end I lost.

I didn't lay with him very long before deciding that I needed a bath, but didn't dare start to draw one until I made double sure that my door was locked. Just to be safe I locked the bathroom door as well with Houdini in there with me. I poured in some lavender scented bubble stuff and waiting for the tub to get full before stripping myself of the rest of my clothes and climbing in.

I was so angry with myself for not fighting back. True Karen and Lizzie were both much taller and defiantly in better shape than I was, but I wasn't completely defenseless. During peaceful periods I had imagined myself standing up to her when she got like that, but when it came down to it, everything I had thought of would somehow find a way to run away from the current situations.

I wanted so badly to tell someone about it and get help, but it was a hopeless situation. I was scared of Karen, and not just only of her, but of her friends as well. She had used her special friends as intimidation methods before, and threatened to have them do other, more disturbing stuff, if I refused to comply with whatever she was asking of me. It never resulted in that, but I never doubted that someday it might.

I spent a long time in the bath, careful not to get any soap or shampoo on my face as I washed my hair. I wanted to put everything I had that night into getting back at Ryde. He had no idea what he had just done to make my life a thousand times worse than what it had been before, and like I would tell him the specifics, but this whole tutoring thing had to be off now.