Finally...Liberation

Pheobe Marquez has never had a family for as long as she could remember. However growing up in an abusive foster home has given her the strength to withstand any obstacle hurled in her way. After her escape from the vile orphange she stumbles upon sexy ba

The sky weaved a bright radiant orange among the purpling clouds, as the sun began to retreat behind the horizon. A flock of oil colored crows flew gracefully into the sunset above the shining street lights. The wind raced behind them through the brilliant beams of endless glow. What a peaceful sight this would have been for Pheobe Marquez shimmering through the giant double pained window in the living room. Indeed this would have been a sight of relaxed beauty if she hadn’t been held up against a brick wall with giant rough hands clasped around her neck. With oxygen disappearing from her lungs at a quickening rate, as she gasped desperately. She felt her head pounding with every beat of her heart.               Ba-boom…ba-boom…ba-boom echoed through her skull.                               She gripped her fingers over Lawrence’s trying pitifully to pry them off her throat. Her vision was beginning to blur. And just when she thinks her heart and her lungs were about to give up he drops her. Pheobe fell to the floor and gasped, inhaling the oxygen as if it were the sweetest thing she’d ever tasted. Her mind raced as the flow of blood filled her face. She sprawled to her feet when Mr. Jenks kicked her in the left of her ribs. She fell back down and grabbed her side. Her face stung as her salty tears washed over the open cuts on her cheeks. Lawrence’s fingers grabbed a handful of her wavy black hair and yanked her up. He held her face no more than 3 inches away from his.

His dark brown hair swayed over his scruffy middle aged face. His eyes pierced hers with drunken aggravation. “Stop looking at me like that!” he snarled. Pheobe had no idea what he was talking about but quickly flattened her expression. He took a puff and cigarette smoke made its way into her eye. She tried to hold back a shriek, but the stinging sensation was too much. More tears trickled down her face. To finish her he heaved his fist into her delicate stomach and threw her into a nearby coffee table. Something broke beneath her neck sending a surge of pain down her spine.

Lawrence Jenks merely flicked his cigarette, turned and walked away in the dim lighting. Pheobe lay there for several minutes before getting up, making sure he was completely out of the room. Getting up too soon usually enticed him to come back for seconds. She licked her lips and tasted blood. As she laid there weeping silently she gazed around the room to examine the damage that was just done.

The living room was a complete mess after Mr. Jenks trashed it with his recent drunken episode. The place was overcrowded with newspapers and phonebooks thrown around everywhere. The dark brown carpet was stained with her blood and some other clear liquid she didn’t recognize, probably her tears. Wooden chairs were flung all over the room. Even pictures of Lawrence’s late wife were smashed and discarded onto the floor. Of course she suspected that in the morning he would force her to clean everything up by herself. She couldn’t for the life of her figure out why he treated her this way. Out of all the younger children living at St. Mary’s Foster Services Pheobe always seemed to be the primary target for Mr. Jenks’ rage. He had fun beating, smashing, cutting, and humiliating anything that had to do with her. In a way, Pheobe was his favorite, or his least favorite in the man’s mind. He always held a tendency to single her out among everyone else to release his wrath upon. And in some way or another Pheobe was special to Mr. Jenks. Special in a sense that no one should ever wish upon anyone else.               Dreary and worn Pheobe assembled the strength to lift herself from the mess and make her way upstairs. She sobbed mutely as she rubbed both her arms against the fresh bruises Lawrence had left her with. Clenching the rail with her left hand she made her way past the first three steps. She paused for a moment to control the urge to vomit. For she often needed to regurgitate after her usual thrashing. Shaking and wobbling from various pains around her body Pheobe managed to make it to her room and lock the door behind her. She collapsed on her bed and held her breath when the pressure upset her ribs. She lay there weeping into her plaid blue bed sheets. Her bedroom wasn’t really much of a bedroom at all. It was the available space in the attic above the living room. If the entire attic wasn’t over clustered with decades of useless crap it would actually be a comfortable place to sleep. But as Lawrence would have it he didn’t want Pheobe to be comfortable. She had no furniture just a small lumpy spring mattress on a broken box spring (she was fortunate enough to at least have a box spring, from the way Lawrence protested against her having furniture). At the far end of the room was a small window barely the size of a medium sized picture frame.     Then there was a knock on the door.                                                     Her heart beat picked up. She was already so sore, she couldn’t take another beating. Not so soon, she needed time to heal. For several seconds she said nothing.                                       “Pheobe, it’s me” A quiet voice said from behind the door. Immediately Pheobe jumped up, unlatched the door, and embraced her friend in a powerfully soothing hug. His arms wrapped around her sore body as her head rested against his chest. Still holding her he walked in and closed the door behind him. She began to sniffle into his striped dark green t-shirt. His hand stroked the back of her head cooing her like a mother would with a teething baby. “It was terrible Kaden, what the hell is wrong with him?! Why does he always do this?! Why the hell doesn’t he just stop drinking?!” She found herself shouting the words in frustration. She clutched to his chest and wailed heavier.                                         “shh, Pheobe its okay. I’m here now” Kaden Jenks had been Pheobe’s best friend since she was placed in the foster care fifteen years ago when her parents died in a fire. Though she’d only been a baby just learning how to walk and speak a few words Kaden took a quick liking to her. Over the years he’d always protected her from his father, who from time to time would come home drunk and take out his frustration on either or the both of them. Countless times Kaden has hidden her under beds or in the backs of closets. When Lawrence would come home he’d see that his favorite rag doll for pounding wasn’t in stock, so he’d be left with his son instead. Numerous times have Pheobe lamented letting Kaden be the one to take the beating instead of her but she was just so sensitive and well…breakable. Kaden was much tougher than she was and would heal faster. Or so she thought to herself at late hours of the night in order to rest her guilt long enough to drift off to sleep.

But today Kaden was off with his boyfriend the entire afternoon. When Lawrence came home he immediately went to Pheobe to satisfy his sick pleasures of condemning himself superior. There wasn’t enough time for Pheobe to find a sufficient enough hiding place. And besides he would find her, without Kaden being there he had to find her. None of the other orphans gave him quite a feeling of accomplishment as Pheobe and Kaden did when they were tossed around.       

Carefully Kaden sat her on the bed and slid down next to her. He took his thumb and gingerly swept it under both of her eyes to wipe her tears. Then he said quietly “Let me see em.”

Pheobe unrolled the long light blue sleeve of her shirt revealing a herd of brand new bruises. They were swollen and plump. They raised high above the grey bruises that were there long before. Then she lifted her shirt to expose a baseball sized bruise just below her ribs. It was the first she’d seen this new batch of contusions and was little surprised by the damage. Kaden rubbed the ball points of his finger tips against her cold purple stomach. His expression was pained.                     “I’m so sorry” he managed to choke out.              “No its okay” Pheobe protested as she pulled her shirt back down.                               “I know how important it is for you to see Daniel. It’s not your fault. You guys never get to see each other.” Pheobe was choking on her own words now, even though she meant them. After a long pause he says “yea…I guess you’re right…I really did miss him. I can barely go anywhere with Lawrence watching me like a hawk…Pheobe…” He turned to her. His expression turned from guilt to worry in mere seconds.                         “I think he knows” With that said she stared up at her friend. His long dark hair hovered over his shoulders, as his almond shaped eyes reeked with anxiety. She reached up with one hand and rubbed his shoulder.              “No he doesn’t” she said not only knowing that what she was saying was meant only for comfort but also highly unlikely.            “Yes he does Pheobs, if you would see the looks he gave me. The way he stops talking as soon as I walk into a room.” Kaden slumped back onto the backboard of the twin sized chestnut bed. He clasped his hands as if in prayer and held them against his forehead. His eyes were open and Pheobe could obviously tell that he wasn’t praying, but possibly trying to soothe an immediate headache. “I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to slice my orientation out of me.” He said.                            When Pheobe and Kaden where about five or six years old they had a propensity to spend most of their time playing together in the living room. One evening Lawrence arrived home from church, rudely he lifted the both of them up from the black leather couch and tossed them into the hall. He didn’t want pestering little rugrats to interrupt the evening news. The news report stated that a gay man was brutally attacked and thrown into the ____ river. Lawrence had been drinking vodka and sprite that night and chuckling insanely at the TV. He pulled me up by my collar and said that if I ever turned out gay he’d cut my face until the gay thoughts bled through my head. ” The room fell silent. They stared at one another in reflective horror.           “Dear God.” Pheobe said finally. She said this because if Lawrence was drunk enough he might actually do it. He’d always been known to keep his promises, the ones that satisfied him anyways. Pheobe felt a hurricane of sympathy for her friend. She’d never been in love but could only imagine how hard it must be for Kaden to go throughout his days without being able to see his boyfriend. Not to mention how difficult it must be to hide who he really was from his own father.                       Kaden always did try his best to hide his sexuality. He would watch basketball as often as possible, no matter how much it bored him. He hid all of his astounding illustrations of unique fashions he created. He even joined the football team when he was in high school. That was how he met Daniel. And soon enough the two of them fell head over heels in love with each other. Jenks never let them see one another though, he became suspicious of the two when he noticed their knees touching just a little too much on the living room sofa one evening. At least that’s what Pheobe suspected had happened.

A loud bang ruptured from below, and then the shriek of breaking glass echoed its way up the stairs.                                     “Oh s**t” Pheobe whispered.                    “Kaden!” The familiar animal like growl forced the hairs on their necks to stand up.                “I gotta go, see you in the morning” He kissed her on the cheek and raced down the stairs. He left the door slightly ajar allowing whatever was about to happen audible to her.

 

Pleasingly Pheobe walked down an endless dirt road she’d never seen before. The sun hung bright and beautiful in the center of the cloudless sky. The cool breeze whistled through her hair and her skin blushed with satisfaction. On each side of the road were continuous fields of daisies. The daisies were clustered tightly together as if they were a giant family of flowers that loved one another so much that they had to be constantly hugging. Pheobe admired the atmosphere and was almost completely incredulous that she was even allowed to experience such simple pleasures that life bestowed upon us. 

 Then out of almost nowhere a massive wave of fatigue smacked into her. She went from comfort and contentment to exasperation within seconds. Nevertheless she continued forward for she felt that she had to. It was as if something were pulling her, nudging her to walk forward even though she was suddenly so undeniably exhausted. As her legs dragged her forward she noticed the sun was getting dimmer with every step she took. Black clouds emerged into sight and enclosed the entire sky, giving the appearance of night.          The daisies began to wither. Everything was slowly losing its color, the daisies, the sun, the road…they were all bleeding out their pigmentation leaving behind different shades of melancholy gray. Then she saw something in the distance. There was someone lying on their side in the middle of the road. Pheobe worked to pick up her pace as her fatigue continued to gnaw at her. As she approached the body not only did she noticed it was a woman but she was also completely naked. Worried that the woman might be hurt she bent down and turned her over. As soon as the woman’s long hair swayed from off of her face Pheobe gasped.               It was her.                                                                   The facial features were exactly the same, including the beauty mark to the left of her nose. As Pheobe held her naked duplicate in her arms a red drop fell from the sky. The only visible pigmented liquid landed directly onto the replica’s cheek. Then another dropped on Pheobe’s hand. One after another the droplets fell faster and faster. A puddle accumulated onto her hand. She lifted her palm and smelled it. Just as she thought…blood. She stared up into the heavens as the thick fluid falling from above drenched her, her duplicate, and her once beautifully lit world that she spent no more than a few minutes in.

Gasping and horrified she awoke. The green digits of the digital clock on the floor next to her bed revealed that it was quarter after eleven. She heard the light tapping of rain as she gazed around her room, there was no dirt road, no daisies, and fortunately no blood. Just darkness. Visible darkness as her eyes adjusted to the dim moon lighting illuminating from the window on her right. Pheobe sighed, relieved that it were nothing more than just a dream, although she didn’t remember ever falling asleep. Then a sickening thought ran through her head that caught her breath in her throat. He’s going to kill me, she thought to herself.                                      “No…no. S**t no!” It was at this exact moment when Pheobe realized that her time in Lawrence’s personalized hell was up. She was 17 and even though she graduated high school no less than two weeks ago she would have to wait an entire year for her 18^th birthday to come around to legally be allowed out of the hell hole they call foster care. It was realizations like this that made her wish she hadn’t skipped second grade. At least she’d have decent public education to keep her occupied for eight hours of the day, rather than staying home for Lawrence’s 24 hour access. She couldn’t take it anymore. Being beaten with belts, hangers, extension cords, fists. For the very first time she felt as if she just grew a backbone. The entire recognition of what her future was to bring finally hit her. She had to do something. She couldn’t just sit here waiting to die or to see Lawrence try to bleed the gay out of Kaden’s head.                     She jumped up causing the springs of her mattress to squeal in protest, she simply ignored it and headed for her dresser, which was just a clothing basket with a piece of cardboard on top for holding her reading books and hair brushes. She lifted the cardboard off careful not to spill her belongings. And dumped the basket onto the floor. At the bottom of the basket was a large white backpack from which she used for school. She hurriedly shoved the few articles of clothing she owned into the pack. She needed to act quickly before her adrenaline of realization wore off. She left out a white tank top, dark blue jeans and a thin red jacket which she quickly exchanged her light blue shirt and black sweatpants for.

As soon as she had her clothes on she paced across the room collecting other necessary items. Items like Deodorant, shampoo, books, teddy bears that were given to her from Kaden over the past 15 birthdays. As soon as she felt her packing was done she turned around for one last look at her room in the darkness. The small stuffy little space she spent most of her life in will surprisingly be missed. All the nights she spent in here either crying from beatings or thinking about her mother lingered in the atmosphere. All the times Kaden made his way up here to console her after Lawrence’s drunken experiences. All the nights they stayed up talking about pointlessly endless topics. In a way this place has always been her sanctuary. There was nowhere else in the world she could find comfort other than in this room. Of course she never did get to explore on behave of Lawrence never allowing her to leave the grounds other than for school. As soon as she realized she was wasting time daydreaming she quickly shook the thoughts from her mind and headed downstairs.

In the darkness she was careful to count the 19 steps of the staircase so as not to fall and awaken Lawrence or any of the other orphans. As soon as she reached the bottom she carefully tip-toed to Kaden’s room, cautious as not to step on the creaky parts of the floor boards. As she approached his room the rectangular outline of his bedroom door indicated that he was still awake. She slowly pushed open the door to find Kaden lying on his bed reading a seventeen magazine. As soon as he heard the creak of the door he immediately dropped the magazine onto the floor. Obvious much?                         “It’s ok Kaden it’s just me.” She said to him.                                                            “Pheobe, what are you doing up?” He asked                                   “We have to go Kaden, we don’t have to take this anymore”                                       “What are you talking about?” She stepped through the door completely and as soon as he saw her fully clothed with a backpack his eyes widened.         “Are you serious?! He’ll kill you when he finds out!”                            “He’s not going to find out.” She assured him. “We have to go Kaden; I can’t just sit around waiting for the day when he finally decides to kill me.”                                        “But I thought you were going to wait until your eighteen, c’mon Pheobs it’s just around the corner” Kaden said.                                                            “A whole year? A whole year is not just around the corner. Who knows what might happen in that amount of time. I can’t take my chances.” There was a long pause of silence as they both stared into each others’ eyes.

“I ‘m not going.” Kaden said breaking the silence.                            “What? Why?” she asked.                            “I can’t risk it. Do you have any idea what he’ll do to me if the cops end up bringing me back home after trying to escape? Do you have any idea what he’ll do to you?” of course Pheobe had better thoughts to think about than what Kaden was trying to place into her head. She couldn’t dare imagine what kind of torture Lawrence would bestow upon her for trying to run away from him. This only made it more serious for her not to get caught. And even if she did get caught by the police there was no hope in trying to explain to them the abusive situation in which she has lived in her whole life. The police department of Queens, New York get so many prank calls about child abuse on a daily basis they just gave up on believing in the stories anymore. And besides everyone knew Lawrence Jenks around town. No one would ever believe that that the most beloved renowned pastor could do something so vile to the most innocent of children in his foster services. And for the fact alone that he obtained the generosity to open his own foster home was enough to fool people tenfold.  He’s put up the same sickening front for years. It made Pheobe sick. This was exactly why she needed to escape in the first place. But the wave of disappointment washed over her from knowing that her best friend couldn’t join her in her journey to liberation.

Suddenly a sound came from the far end of the house. A door opened and footsteps began to make their way across the wooden floors. Panic rose in her chest as she recognized the familiar heavy footsteps getting closer.

“I have to go she said quickly” and headed for Kaden’s window. He grabbed the back of her jacket in protest.                                                                   “You can’t he’ll find you” he pleaded with her.                                   “That’s just a chance I’ll have to take” she said as she kissed him on the cheek. With both hands she thrust opened the window and jumped outside. Her sneakers made an uneasy squishing noise that made her grimace. The rain was pouring heavier now; her clothes were almost immediately drenched once she stepped outside. She pulled the hood of her jacket over her head. Although the action had no use. Clutching the strap of her backpack she hurriedly moved from the shine of Kaden’s window and into the soaking darkness. She ran towards the front gate almost falling from the loose friction of wet grass. Not a cloud rest afloat in the eerie twilight, nothing more than mere stars and a crescent moon were present. If it weren’t for the faint lighting of the moon the front yard would be pitch black. As Pheobe approached the metal gates at the bottom of the hill that the house resigned upon she felt a voltage of excitement electrify from within her. Even though she had no initiative of where she would go after her escape she was still just as thankful to finally obtain the power to leave the 15 years of hell behind her, even if that had to exclude Kaden.

Author's Note

Please be honest :)

Reviews

[dark and twisty]

a lot of pain...very raw...and if that is the effect you intended to achieve than i think u succeeded...interesting...admittedly i personally don't really like too much violence in my stories but it was a good read nonetheless

[Call Me Cash]

There are a few tense issues, but apart from that it is a vivid descriptive piece.
I love how you put the reader in the scene. You allow us to feel the pain she feels. I am looking forward to the next chapter.