Shattered Soul

****Warning**** Mature content. This story depicts s****l content and events that depict traumatic events such as abuse, rape, and mental illness associated with such events like PTSD. This story also contains cursing though I do NOT go into racial slurs, and keep it to more typical and mild cursing. I do not mean to offend anyone with this, only to bring awareness to it and hopefully give strength to those who face it. For those who face it, there are those who wish to fight with you. You’re the true heroes of my story. Riley Tonight was the night. This would probably be the only chance I got and if I screwed this up, it would most likely be the last chance I ever had. It was storming outside. Complete with thunder so loud it made the house shake, lightning that would blind you for a few moments, and a powerful sheet of rain falling so hard that you would be deaf to a bear snarling next to you. It was nearly pitch-black outside with the moon carefully caged behind thick black clouds that refused to allow any of the simmering silver light to slip through. The rain provided even more cover, ensuring that nothing would be able to see, hear, or smell me, through the storm. I heard a bottle clank onto the floor and a grumbling curse as it was scraped along the wood floor before a louder clinking signaled it had made its way into the recycling with the dozens of other beer and liquor bottles. His sluggish footsteps assured me that he was heading up to bed and I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter, hoping he would just pass my room before doing so. My cheek still stung from last night’s beating. He usually didn’t aim for the face. It was too hard to hide, so when he did use me as a punching bag, he typically stuck to the stomach and kidneys. His favorite was the kidneys. The pain lingered longer, especially when using the bathroom. I never drank enough anymore just so I wouldn’t have to pee. I heard the doorknob turn and my stomach dropped. If he decided to beat me tonight in another drunken stupor, I’d have to wait even longer to escape. My door slammed open, cracking the drywall behind it and knocking over a picture of my mother, shattering the frame. “Riley, clean that s**t up tomorrow!” He snapped in a barely understandable garble. I sat up quickly and looked at him. His eyes were crimson and glowing, reflecting the beast barely shackled behind that drunken, drugged, glaze in his eyes. “Yes sir.” “I want breakfast on the table and the kitchen cleaned before I wake up.” He mumbled, slurring over his words. I nodded to him, hope blooming inside of me as the drugs were kicking in and making the effect of the alcohol that much stronger. He didn’t even stop to realize I can’t leave the room without being unlocked first. “Yes sir.” “Maverick and Bentley are coming over tomorrow to talk business. s**t better be squared away before they get here.” “Yes sir.” He growled, stumbling again as he tried to lean against the doorframe and nearly missed. “Shut the f**k up.” He snapped as he closed the door. I heard him stumble away and smiled. It’s working. I quietly reached under my bed and pulled out a sling bag. I had clothing, cash, medical supplies, and enough food to last me a few days. I carefully opened the shackle around my ankle that was attached to a large weight, the lock-picking practice had paid off, and crept to the pile of clothes I had awaiting my escape. I slipped on a tank top, followed by a long sleeve shirt and a heavy waterproof jacket. I tugged on my sturdiest pair of jeans, slipped on two pairs of socks, and laced up the most expensive pair of waterproof boots I could find. I pulled my long dark golden-brown hair up into a bun and pulled the hood up on my jacket. I glanced at the picture of my mother, carefully pulling the photo out of the pile of broken glass and slipped it into one of the plastic baggies. I had to keep everything safe from the elements. “We’re leaving Mom.” I told the picture with the faintest of whispers. Her brown eyes gazed back at me with a loving smile crinkling the corner of her eyes. If only she knew the hell her second marriage would be. I crept to the door, opening it carefully and listening for any sounds. Garrett was snoring down the hall heavily. I had slipped enough ketamine into his alcohol that it would have killed a bear. I had been collecting it, slowly over the course of months. My meals at night would be laced with the drug to keep me asleep all night and prevent exactly this, and if I wasn’t drugged, I was beaten. It was the only real way to keep a werewolf from running. I had stolen an empty vial and took small quantities every night until it was full and each beer I gave him I dropped a little in. Now, the massive werewolf was passed out and will be all night in a drug and alcohol stupor. Good thing too. With his buddies coming over tomorrow to talk ‘business’ that meant another round of beatings to entertain his friends, a week of caring for three large abusing werewolves that enjoyed punishing me for any little thing I did wrong, possible nights of keeping his friend’s company and pleasure, but worst of all, another group of girls being held in the basement in a few days. Their screams of torment and Maverick ‘breaking them in’ always echoed through the house early into the morning and I was always the one to clean up afterward. He was gentler with me. Garrett would kill him if he ever got too carried away with me, but sometimes those poor girls… I couldn’t bare the sobbing pleas to be released or to just end their lives. For years it tortured me to listen, even though I was also happy that for once it wasn’t me until last time. Last time I had decided enough was enough and now- I shook my head, pushing those dark thoughts away. I haven’t slept since the last group of girls and I’m not staying to endure another round of hearing their screams or the beatings if I couldn’t keep them silent. An icy shiver crept up my spine and lingered in the pit of my stomach at the thought. Ever since I was twelve, the beatings started, and sixteen was when I was old enough for more…entertaining fun. After seven years, I’m finally getting out. After the last batch of girls… I owed it to them to leave this hell. To at least try. I crept down the hall, having to pass my stepfather’s room first to do so. Every breath I took was too loud. The sound of my heart beating gave me away. I took each step slowly, careful not to wake up the literal sleeping beast. I could only imagine what would happen if he woke up after, not only drugging him, but then attempting to escape. I can hear is voice now. Stale beer on his foul-smelling breath as he hisses in my ear. It’s only because you’re supposed to be my daughter that you’re not like one of these sluts. He had brought me to the basement, or The Hole, as I had called it, for the first time. I had fought back that night and swung at him as I tried to get away from another beating. He had slammed my face against the iron bars, cracking my cheekbone as he held my hair at the root and ripping strands from the scalp. One more outburst like that from you and you’ll be here, in this cage, waiting for someone to come and buy you. For s*x, entertainment, work, hell, one of my customers likes setting his girls free to hunt them down and kill them like cattle. I had started crying then, begging him to forgive me. Oh, I know you’ll be good. I feed you. I give you a bed. I even let you go to school. Defy me again, and I will sell you, not to the highest bidder, but to the one with the most fun planned for you. That threat had kept me obedient for years. I couldn’t do it any longer. Maverick had gone too far last time with one of the girls. Breaking her in, he called it and I… I made a mistake. She now lies in a deep grave a day’s drive from here. I shivered as I finally crossed past the door and hurried down the stairs. At the bottom, I flew past the front door, knowing it was locked from the inside, and ran to the bathroom by the mudroom at the back of the house. No one uses this bathroom. It was broken and dirty, and mainly used to lock me up in, but what they didn’t know was I had been working on the window. It had been nailed shut but for weeks I would wiggle the screws out and put them back in, making each hole wider until the screws would simply sit inside it. My fingers were bloody and nails broken for weeks but it was worth it. I started pulling each screw out and setting them on the counter, then carefully unlocked the window and pushed it open. The sound of the rain was deafening as I climbed onto the counter to get more leverage to pull the window open a little more. “Riley!” My head whipped around so quickly my neck cracked painfully just before a large hand wrapped around my throat and slammed me into the window. I heard the glass crack just before Garrett started dragging me off the counter. “Where the hell do you think you’re going, Riley?” He growled. His words were still slurred, movements sluggish and clunky, but he was still strong as hell. My heart leaped into my throat as I struggled. I kept both of my hands on his, trying to pry them off my neck before I passed out while kicking at anything close. He lifted me up, throwing me against the wall and I slid down, landing in the bathtub. I moaned as I felt the blood dripping from my head. “Are you trying to leave me, Riley? Me? Your father?” I could feel part of me shrink back. An apology was about to tumble from my lips as I was about to beg for forgiveness when something else inside me forced me to stop. Fight him! It hissed. Look at him! He can barely stand. The drugs are still working and you will not have another chance. If you don’t take this now, you will die. I glared up at him as he started reaching for his pants to remove his belt. He started wrapping the leather end around his hand, his usual way of whipping me, and raised his arm up. “You’re not my father you drunken bastard!” I screamed. The crimson bled into his eyes once again just as I kicked out with all my strength and aimed straight for that sweet spot between his legs. I made contact and he howled as he quickly cupped his bruised testicles. That’ll definitely earn me a week in Maverick’s bed if it doesn’t get me sold! I thought as I scrambled up and hurried to the window. “Riley!” He screeched as he clawed at my leg. His strength was wavering, but his speech was clearing up. The adrenaline was burning through the drugs. If I don’t leave now, I’m screwed. I kicked out again, my boot connecting with his face as I heard a crunch. When my boot moved away, I saw the gushing blood from his nose and the look of surprised pain in his eyes. A smile slipped across my face as I turned back to the window. I gripped the frame, ripping it up, no longer concerned about the noise, just as something smooth and thick wrapped around my neck. “You stupid b***h!” He snarled. I clawed at the belt around my neck, my legs still on the counter as he heaved me up against his chest. I gasped for breath as a fist came down on my already bruised cheek. I felt the crunch as the bone broke again. “You are mine!” He snapped. “You will always be mine!” I twisted, throwing elbows, clawing at his face, when I grabbed his nose and twisted. He howled as he let go of one side of the belt, allowing me to pull away coughing horribly as each breath burned my bruised throat. I quickly reached for anything I could use as a weapon when my hands found the heavy porcelain lid of the toilet tank. I quickly lifted it up and took one step out as I swung. “No! I’m not!” I screeched. He was kneeling, only a head below me with his broad shoulders twisting for a punch aimed at my ribs. I continued with my follow through though, knowing the punch to the ribs would be nothing compared to me hitting that bastard in the face. We connected at the same time, my ribs giving way and feeling a muted snap, just as the heavy lid connected with the side of his jaw. I heard the crunch of his jaw. Blood sprayed out, across my face and chest, as his head whipped to the side and he spun nearly 180 degrees around and landed on the floor. I dropped the lid with a loud clang as part of it chipped and sent little splinters scattering across the tile floor in a musical tinkling sound. I quickly grabbed my ribs and began climbing out the window as Garrett groaned and struggled to stand. Just keep moving, damnit. Keep moving! I chanted to myself as I fought through the pain. I dove headfirst out the window, hitting the ground hard and gasping as I struggled to sit back up. My ribs protested as the rain soaked me in seconds. “Riley! You little w***e. Get back here!” I heard Garrett scream. Fear flooded my system with adrenaline, quickly drowning out the pain as I stumbled to my feet and broke into a dead sprint for the tree line. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see a shape break through the glass as I ducked behind the tree line. Garrett had shifted and now the hunt was on. I stood back up and turned north and sprinted. The rain would hide my scent and any sounds. It had already washed away the blood. I just need to keep running. I leaped over fallen logs when I could see them in time. Mostly I was tripping and falling into the mud as I kept pushing myself forward. I was waiting for the sting of claws in my back, the burn of teeth locking onto my leg. I still had scars from the first escape attempt I had when Garrett took pride in hunting me down and I learned that I could not shift. A useless wolf, born without claws. Four legs would be so helpful right now. The cold bit at my fingers and I lost feeling in them quickly before it was replaced by that prickly pain of cold and the feeling started on my toes making them even more clumsy on my feet. I huffed, the cold soothing my bruised throat while also burning down to my chest and chilling my core. I felt eyes on me and twisted around just in time to see Garrett as a giant brown wolf leaping for me. A scream ripped from my throat as his heavy paws landed on my chest, claws digging in as his hind legs dug into the tops of my thighs. I screamed as I swung, rolling us over until I felt a drop. We were tumbling down a muddy slope, slamming into trees and rocks on the way down. I felt something hit my leg sending a blinding pain radiating up to my hip and felt a pop in my wrist as I tried to throw it out to slow myself down, then nothing. Just the wind blowing by before I was suddenly submerged in frigid water. I fought, clawing my way out but unable to find which way was up. I was running out of air as I tried to yell for help, for anyone to hear me. I didn’t know where Garrett was, hopefully drowning like me at the bottom of the flooding river. I failed, grabbing as trees rushed by and rocks as the water was moving too quickly. Suddenly, a sharp pain blossomed in my head as lights exploded across my vision, then everything went dark.