Brutal Secret
A year later… December 23rd, 1996
It’s been a year and a couple months since Cassandra met this so-called guy named Chaos. Emailing someone and not knowing who they are, is sometimes tough. But through all that’s happened in the past year, both always found time to check their email. They became really close because they seemed to have a lot in common from what they’ve told each other. It’s now two days before Christmas of Cassandra’s, Trevor’s, and Chaos’s junior year’s Christmas vacation. Trevor and his parents went out of town this Christmas so Cassandra was extremely lonely. Her parents gave her one to two presents a year if any. Trevor was always there to make her day happy and give her something meaningful. This year he couldn’t and Cassandra was just utterly depressed about that. Just then the door slammed shut with a loud bang downstairs.
“Craig is home.” Cassandra quietly said to herself as she lay on her bed reading a book. She heard thudding footsteps come up the stairs.
“CASSANDRA!” Craig’s deep voice boomed. “You did not do the dishes! I clearly stated to you a long time ago that you have to do them ALL the time! I come home and there’s a whole entire sink full! I’m sick and tried of them not being done!” Cassandra couldn’t hold back her anger.
“Well Father, maybe if you were home more, maybe if you actually paid attention to me, maybe if you stopped yelling and correcting, maybe if you were someone I could talk to… Then just MAYBE I wouldn’t feel so heart stricken and I wouldn’t procrastinate so much on things you tell me to do. AND maybe if you asked instead of COMANDED I’d do them with enjoyment. BUT NO YOU DON’T!” Cassandra choked out the last part because she had started to cry.
When she had finished her last sentence, Craig punched her in the shoulder. The force had pushed her back and she hit the wall hard. Tears were now streaming down her face forcefully. When she turned her head to look down towards the ground Craig jabbed her one in the upper left side of her jaw. Cassandra winced more from hatred than pain.
“Now you listen to me! You WILL NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” Craig kept punching her arms and chest. “You have to obey me or you’ll be thrown out of this house. You’re not happy? Well you have a roof over your head and we feed you! You’re lucky we even buy you food and other accessories! If you don’t want the support you get from your mother and me than you can leave! I as sure as hell don’t care!” He slapped her face and stormed out of the room. Cassandra slide down the wall in pure agony. She would have fought back. She’s not really one to just sit back if someone would be attacking her, but she knew otherwise from experience.
Where’s Trevor when I need him the most? I need to talk to someone… Maybe I should confess this to Chaos. I can trust him. He wouldn’t track me down and get the police to get my parents in trouble. The only reason that she didn’t bring her parents in was that she didn’t want to leave Trevor’s side and she wanted the roof over her head. She’s even thought of getting Trevor’s parents to agree to adopt her, but she didn’t think they’d want to pay for her to stay with them all the time. Her parents at least kept her alive.
Cassandra signed on to the Internet and got to her email. Chaos was just replying to her about their normal nonsense conversation. She momentarily composed herself and hit the compose button.
Hey Chaos…
There’s something I have to tell you about my life that you have no clue about. All my life I’ve had an abusive father. Not only that, but my mother is hardly ever home and she could care less about me. The reason I’m still letting them parent me is because I need the stable roof over my head and I defiantly don’t want to be in a foster home. I have to be able to be with my best friend Trevor. The reason I’m telling you this is because I just got beaten by Craig, and Trevor’s on vacation so I can’t talk to him about it. You can’t tell anyone about it. Not your best friends, not anyone. I’m gonna be 17 in February and then it’ll only be another year until I can leave and be on my own.
Ya know my job at the Quickie Mart? I got fired from that last week because I was taking to many sick days. Oh well though. Since I told you about my big secret can you at least tell me your name? You know how it bothers me that I call you Chaos…
<3 Cassie <3
It extremely surprised Cassandra when she received a letter back from him in only a half-hour. She clicked on it and read it carefully. It had said:
Oh man Cassie
I just can’t believe it! You’re right I had no clue what so ever. I mean you always seem so happy in your letters that you had a good life and you just always were cheerful. I’m sssssssssoooooo sorry for you! It hurts me to think a friend like you would have to always endure so much pain! I wish that Trevor or even I could be there to comfort you. I have to tell you something about me too but I have to go in like two seconds so I don’t have time. I’ll try and email you later.. I promise I’ll tell you soon But I gotta go.
Yours,
Nick
Even through all the pain she was feeling, Cassie cracked a small smile when she saw that he had signed his actual name, Nick.
Chapter 5
