Runaway

Horrors of sleep

-_-_-FLASHBACK-_-_-

There was a crash from near the door. Blocks of ice fell down my back as I heard drunk laughter from nearby. I tried to make a quick exit up the stairs to my room but before I could do so something hard hit my head. I fell to the floor and I flipped myself over to see my step-brother, Connor, holding a bat in his hand. The colour from my face went away when I saw a smirk form on my step-father, Tommy's lips. "You didn't cook us dinner!" Connor spat angrily. Tears threatened to fall but I knew that that would make the situation escalate quicker than ever before if I let them out so I forced them back. "Time for your punishment..."
I tried to back away but Connor stepped forward and grabbed a handful of my hair, yanking it.
"Please... I-I'm sorry... It w-w-won't happen again!"
He lifted the bat in the air. "PLEASE!"
It came down at full speed and hit me in the stomach. I cried out in pain but I couldn't move or fall to the comfort of the cold floor as Connor still held my hair. He threw the bat away and punched me a few times before the other hand let go and my body went limp. I hit the cold tiles of the floor and I laid there. Firm hands stroked my cold, red and purple cheek.
"No... it won't happen again..." Connor smiled before standing and walking into the living room. Tommy stepped forward with his belt in his hand and my eyes widened but I had no strength to move. I pleaded and begged him not to as he dragged me into the basement and pushed me to the floor on my stomach. I thought that the was the worst pain ever until a sharp pain formed in my back, sending me wailing like a banshee.
"STOP! PLEASE...!"

"Lia! Wake up!" Another voice that did not appear to be from someone in the memory, called out to me. The vision faded to blackness and I felt my legs and arms being held in place. I forced open my eyes to see concerned faces of my father and brother, Alessandro. My vision was slightly blurry and a wet substance drenched my face.
The memories of me running and then passing out returned and I looked around. I was back in my room. Tony, Frank, Donny and Embry were holding onto my limbs for some reason. When they saw that I was awake they let go but still remained on the bed.
"What happened? Did I wake up guys up? What time is it?" I showered them with questions.
"I personally thing we should be asking the questions since we had to take you to the hospital after you passed out only to find that you have very bruised ribs, an injury to the head and scars on your back and legs, before taking you home, trying to get work done only to get an interesting call from the floor below saying my sister was screaming like a banshee in her sleep." Alessandro said angrily. My brothers were quick to agree.
"Y-You saw the bruises...?" It came out as more of a question than a statement.
"No. The doctors told us about them. You are going to tell us where they came from and then show them to us so we can help you." Tony said in a firm voice. My father cleared his throat and interrupted them.
"Actually. We're going to make this easier for Lia by asking questions. Most of them include yes or no answers." He said while glaring at Tony. They agreed. He turned to me. "Was if your family that did this?" I cringed at the word 'family'. For nearly 7 years they had shown me that they were more of the enemy. I nodded. "Did they beat you a lot?" I nodded again. "Was if mostly by hand or using other things?"
"Mostly using knives or belts. They tried setting me on fire once and then another time they threw iced water on me and locked me outside in the freezing cold." I mumbled under my breath. I saw that all of my brother's faces went bright red in anger and even my father was trying to hold back rage.
"Did they ever... erm... touch you?"
The question took me off guard and I think it even took my brothers off guard too.
"Connor did once. Tried to. I kicked him where the sun doesn't shine and tried to run but Tommy caught me and they starved me for 4 days..."
I saw my father relax at the fact he hadn't succeeded in doing that. When I looked over at my brothers they were all still furious. Especially Embry and Alessandro.

"Excuse us. We're going to my office." Alessandro said through gritted teeth.

None of the others aside from Donny followed without another word. All that was left was Frank and Tony.
"Don't worry about them, Bambina. They're just angry..."
I nodded and smiled weakly.

I couldn't get back to sleep so Tony carried me downstairs and into the kitchen. Frank started making something that smelt delicious.
He brought out a tray carrying square brown looking things. Tony and dad jumped forward to pick a few up and he shooed them a few steps away so he could put the tray down.
"W-What are they?"
They looked at me as if I was a ghost or something.
"They're, brownies, Tesoro. Try one!" Dad insisted. I looked at the brown squares and cautiously picked one up.
The moment I took a bite I felt like I was eating heaven! My brothers and dad chuckled at my response to eating one. I ate three more of them before I was too full to eat anything more.

Donny joined us in the kitchen in a better mood than before. He walked up to me and hugged me, kissing me on the forehead and stepped back.
"Why don't we watch a movie?"
Tony and Frank nodded and started making their way out of the room. Along the way they had bumped into each other and were now fighting while walking.
I giggled at it when dad swept me into his arms and carried me toward another room. There was one large white corner sofa and the biggest TV I had ever seen against the wall. He placed me down next to Frank and then sat on the other side of Tony. They grabbed the remote and started flicking through this thing called Net-fleex? Netflix?
"What's a movie?" I asked Frank. He explained that a movie was kind of like whatever Connor and Tommy watched, only it wasn't real but was sometimes based off of true stories.
"Why don't we watch-"

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!