Chapter 1: The Escape

JILLIAN

The only angle I can see from below is the feet of my dad walking towards the door. I can feel the warm liquid flowing from my eyes wetting my cheeks and flooding the area my face landed after I drop my body on the floor. My dad beats me again, giving me new bruises and scratches. My old ones are not yet healed but there he gave me new sets of them again.

It’s hard to breath with my chest tightening so much baring all the emotional pain that’s invading my heart. I have always wished to be numb and empty. I’m tired of all my sufferings.

Thought I’m also suffering physical pain, I still forced myself to stand up enduring all of it. I can’t help but stare at myself in the huge mirror I got inside my small room. My wavy light brown hair is all messed up, covering half of my face exposing my eye with dark circles in it. My light brown eyes don’t look the same and the bruise near my lower lip is making me look like a small girl being punched by a giant’s fist.

My huge baggy gray shirt is hanged down my left shoulder exposing my visible collar bone. The rain is making me feel a lot sadder, lamenting over myself for having such a misfortune. And that’s to be born to this family with such an abusive father who can’t love me.

“Run away.” A whisper brought by the wind going inside my room, opening the window, gave me chills. My room is dark and I can’t see anything but an odd shadow by the window. It’s a silhouette of a man, as if he is leading me the way out of my cruel world.

I watched the view of the outside as I slowly take small steps towards it. My hair is blown hardly by the wind making me embrace myself trying not to take away my sight from the silhouette and the window.

One blink and it’s gone. The rain poured harder as the lightning struck giving interim light to the darkness. 

My room is located at the second floor of our house and I think I can jump. The thunder startled me just when I was raising my other feet to jump down. I fell down unexpectedly but I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. I’m getting out of this house, getting away from pain.

The next thing I know is that I am running to nowhere. I don’t know where to go and just let my feet decide where it wants to go. It took me down the forest, alone, wet and is lost.

Fear dominated inside me as I started crying again feeling a lot miserable. The wind once again blew hard as if it’s telling me which direction I should go. I ran to its direction until I found a huge mansion. I have nowhere else to go and decided to barge in.

The lightning struck again followed by the thunder’s roar, making me cover both of my ears. My body is uncontrollably shaking not just because of fear but also because of the cold weather. The rain soaked me wet and I ended up stranded in an abandoned mansion standing in the heart of this forest.

“Jillian.” A familiar whisper made me gasp. The cold water is dripping from my clothes as I started walking on the dark hallways looking for somebody. I see no one and the light that I only have is the light passing through the huge windows given by the lightning.

“Hello? Is anybody here?” My voice is shaking.

“Jillian.” I heard it once more but I can’t seem to identify where it might be coming from.

“Who are you?” I released a louder voice and it echoed down the wide hallways. 

The lightning made me blink and a sudden appearance of a guy wearing all white came in front of my eyes. I can never forget his green eyes glowing in every lightning struck. It will forever be forged inside my head. His light brown curly hair is perfectly matching his chiseled jaws. He is wearing white sleeves folded to his elbow with two buttons open.

“Don’t be afraid, I mean no harm,” he said with a calming voice. 

I’m just 14 and he is much taller than me. He walked towards me making me get a more vivid view of his beardless face. His hand landed on my head patting it very softly. 

“Who are you?” I asked once more but he didn’t answer. He took my hand with his hand but I can’t feel warmth from him. His touches are cold but I didn’t mind. 

The large door swung open untouched exposing the real insides of the mansion. The bright yellow lights made me close my eyes trying to adjust on it. Just when my eyes finally can open, the huge chandelier meet my eyes. My jaw dropped seeing how unexpectedly beautiful the mansion is. It might look like abandoned from the outside but it’s a complete opposite in the inside. 

The warmth and sweet scent of the inside welcomed me as I walk in still holding the man’s hand tightly. He made me sit, put on warm clothes, offered me something to drink and eat, offered me a room to stay and service that I wasn’t expecting.

The moment he started treating my wounds and scratches, I once again had a chance to stare and memorize his face. The face of the guy who made me feel special even just for a day. I’m fearing these are all not true and I was just making them all up through my head.

His hair looked almost golden when reflected by the bright lights. It’s all I can have access to see because he is treating my feet while I am comfortably seated on the king-sized bed. I feel so much safe in here though it seems like it’s just me and him.

“You seem like you are very used with pain. You can’t feel the alcohol touching your open wound,” he broke the deafening silence. I blinked my eyes when he lifted his head and look at me. 

“I think so,” I just said trying not to look at his green eyes that much. 

“Whenever you want to escape, find this place. I’ll be here.” His words confused me. 

“I’m already here, I don’t want to go back.”

He smiled at me making my heart melt and my body froze. His hand slowly wiped some stands of my hair from my face hiding them behind my ears.

“Just remember what I said,” he spoke with a very low and deep voice. 

“Please tell me your name.” I brought it up again and I’m not stopping until he gives me his name.

“I’m Angelo.”