Saturday October 27th

(10 year old Cole’s POV)

“Will you shut the hell up? I’m trying to sleep and your pathetic crying is keeping me from doing that.” Kristoph growls at me callously.

“It hurts just to breathe.” I whisper through my tears.

While I’ve had several fractured wrists this is the first time my chest and back have hurt this badly.

“Then stop breathing or I will give you something to cry about.”

I duck my head in my arms, crying silently as his words are a crushing blow to the sympathy I was hoping to receive a little of. The older I get the more obvious it is that dad treats me differently from my siblings.

“I said shut up.”

Kristoph’s frustration with me grows as I silently ask why I sleep in the same room as him. A sudden crack of leather against my bare skin lights up the cuts and bruises already there as I scream from the pain it produces.

“I told you to shut up. I can’t sleep with your pathetic crying in the room.”

He’s wailing on me repeatedly as he screams expletives no child shou