Exclusive Cover Reveal for Runaway by S.m Knowles as Aubrey Kendall
Synopsis
At seventeen years old, Courtney McKenzey is fed up. With a dead mom and an alcoholic father that beats her every chance he gets, Courtney decides that enough is enough. Packing up only what she needs, Courtney leaves home without telling a soul and heads off to find her new life.
Life on her own is not exactly as she thought it would be. With nowhere to stay, Courtney finds herself sleeping on an old stoop in an abandoned apartment alleyway. A chance meeting with a new group of friends seems like a great beginning to her second chance at a real life. But everything is not as it seems
Tricked into a life she never wanted and fears, Courtney needs to run away, again. She needs to find a way out of this new and dangerous life. With the help from a man she doesn't know, will Courtney find her way out? Or will she find herself on the run from a dangerous past, and a hopeless future. Faced with a choice that will change her life forever.
Runaway
Chapter 1
The night was dark as Courtney tossed and
turned in the night,
sheets twisting around her legs with every toss, another bad dream no doubt. Her
emotions frizzled and life moving down a slippery slope any young adult would
love to stay clear of. Sitting up in her bed, she reaches for a
glass of water situated on her table beside the bed. She takes a gulp feeling
the cool water slide down her throat and into her stomach. The only satisfying
feeling she’s felt in weeks, months, and years for that matter.
Looking at the alarm clock she realizes
the buzzer will go off in another five minutes.
“Ugh.” Reaching over she shuts the clock
off so not to make noise and wake her father who again came home late last
night drunk. Slurring his speech and throwing things because his food sat cold
in the microwave instead of heated up on the table.
Courtney looks at the broken plate lying
by her bed and the food that still lay on top of her comforter. She will need
to clean this up quickly before she leaves for school or surely another
thrashing will happen. She removes the sheets from her legs before tossing them
over her bed to stand up. Standing, she stretches her arms and legs as she
yawns, finally moving to her closet.
Rummaging through her closet, she finds
another denim skirt and jacket. Pairing the denim with a black shirt and socks,
oh and of course, her favorite pair of net stalking’s she has her ensemble
chosen for the day. Tip-toeing
through the
living room where her father lay passed out from the night before, she makes it into
the bathroom. Slowly closing the door, she is careful to
turn the handle so the latch doesn’t make a noise.
Success! She becomes excited as her
father still sleeps. Removing all her clothes she quickly jumps in the tub and
starts the shower. Jumping a little from the freezing cold water, but warming quickly, she leans against
the back of the shower taking it all in.
Pieces of her skin hurt from bruises
she’s endured the last few weeks. More than recently because rent is due and
her father hasn’t made an ounce of money working. Well, none that Courtney
sees. Most all of it spent on liquor or possibly a liquor store from the smell
of her father each night. Stinking up the whole house.
She uses what little shampoo is left in
the bottle. Remembering to pick more up in her school locker room later today. Luckily, they keep extra little bottles of soap for the girls to
use.
“Four more months of school. That is all.
Once I’m done I can leave forever and never look back.” Her smile becoming
dreamy. Anything to be away from her father. The man who sees a servant instead
of a daughter.
A hard knock beats on the bathroom door.
“Courtney!” Another belt on the door.
Shutting off the water quickly, Courtney
tries grabbing a towel as she puts her foot outside the tub. Her heel slides
along the tub as she places her balance on it causing her to fall right in the middle on her groin.
“Owe.” She pushes herself off the tub in
agony trying to wrap her wet body with a towel. “I’m coming daddy.” She slips
again this time hitting her knee on the toilet. “Can this day get any worse?” she mumbles.
Another loud bang beats at the door. Her
father growling as he begins to speak. “Courtney! You had best get your ass
out!” He hits the door just right it bursts open, catching her ankle.
She looks down, watching a line of blood surge from her opened skin. A tear
falls from her face. She knows what’s next. Her father is like clockwork. Immediately, she covers her head as her towel slips down her waist and she leans over trying to get as close to the
floor as possible. If she can lean into the floor she won’t have to worry about
her face bouncing, causing more bruising.
He begins pushing his way through the
door. “God damn it girl! You get out when I tell you to.”
A hard punch to the back of the head. She
shivers as she waits for him to hit her again, pushing her way deeper into the back of the toilet. Anything
to keep him from hurting her. This time an open hand slap to her lower back.
She jumps hugging the toilet. “Please,” she whimpers.
“Please, what? More?” He kicks her rear at that and her legs are the only thing exposed at this
time.
She continues laying, shoved as far as she can get herself beside the toilet.
Waiting for whatever else her dad might throw at her. Shaking uncontrollably,
tears streaming down her face mingling with the snot coming out of her nose.
More whimpers as she lays, waiting.
She holds her breath expecting another
blow but this time she hears water entering the toilet. Her father pee’s as she
lays hiding from his abuse. She knows better than to move and remains silent
trying to soften her cries. More bruising and welts along with a necessary
butterfly bandage will take her to school today.
“Stupid girl,” her father mutters as he
leaves the bathroom shutting the door behind him.
Courtney slides out from behind the
toilet trying to sit up. Every muscle in her back is sore to include her butt. Grabbing her towel she tightly
wraps it around herself. Looking for her clothes, she realizes they lay in a
mangled mess in the corner near the shower, where a puddle of water usually sits.
Dropping the toilet seat down, she gets into the medicine cabinet where not much
remains. An old razor and a pack of band aids she had recently taken from the
store. Stealing anything is against her morals but lately she ended up with
more cuts and bruises needing something to hide them.
She put her towel under the sink getting
it nice and wet to clean up her ankle. Plopping down on the toilet she wipes up
the blood exposing the cut. “It looks a bit deeper than normal.” She lets out a
loud sigh before trying to pinch her skin back together.
Drying off the area she takes the sticky
piece of the band aid and rips it away from the cotton center. She does the
same with the other side then places the sticky piece over her pinched-skin then places the other sticky piece on top. “I hope
this works.”
Setting her foot down on the floor, she throws the towel to the side picking up her
underwear. “I’m so lucky these aren’t wet.” Her face cringes as she picks her
leg up to place it in the hole of her panties then does the same with the other
leg. Pain obviously still surging through her body.
Her shorts got a majority of the wetness
and just the sleeve of her black shirt. After fully putting on her clothes and
brushing out her long brown hair she grabs the handle of the bathroom door and
slowly walks out, hoping her father fell back asleep.
As she tip-toes past him, he lays with his arm hanging off the couch, mouth wide open. Her face cringes as the man she once adored has turned
into a devil of some kind. A careless man who feels no need to take care of
him, his house, or his daughter. A whiskey bottle lay between him and the back
of the couch. She eyes it trying to decide if it would be worth the effort in taking it from him and
dumping it, or just leaving it as is.
She looks at him again and whispers, “I
desperately want my daddy back.” Slipping over to the couch she pulls out the
bottle.
The tug is a little harder then she meant, as he is now turning to his side. She stands over him
holding in her breath, eyes wide complete in horror that he might wake up. She sighs, relaxing her body, as he lies with another loud snore.
Suddenly his eyes open. She runs as fast
as she can to the kitchen opening the top of the bottle. Swinging her arm over
the sink she begins to pour his bottle of booze down the drain, until his arm grips her wrist tight.
“What made you think you could get away
with this little stunt.” He pulls her arm towards him, taking the bottle out of her hand. Putting it up to his
dried cracked lips he takes a big swig and whips away the moisture left on his
mouth with the other arm. “Ahh. That stuff will put hair on your chest.
Something you must need, messing with a grown man’s alcohol.”
He opens his hand parallel to the floor
swinging it rapidly in Courtney’s direction backhanding her. She falls over to
the floor grabbing her face trying to rub away the pain. But this pain, she will never be able to rub away. The pain of
her father never truly loving her.
