24 [Episode 4]

“He won’t do anything. I don’t even care if he was a cop or not, actually I hope I didn’t call a cop because he will never guess what’s going on! Nevertheless, who would think about what I’m going to do? Nobody!” She kept smiling in the mirror, admiring herself and her cuts. “People nowadays are so ignorant! Put more of them at the same spot and they will even watch another person die without doing anything, thinking that the person right next to them will. Pathetic! That’s why I have no chance to fail, not even if I go with a bandana around my eyes!” Then she turned around, killed the light, closed the door, took a deep breath and went inside the kitchen. A quick look at the clock and she was ready for her biggest day. “It’s 12:45. Just a few more hours and I will achieve immortality, I will become a legend! Oh, how I will crumble their reality today! But first, I’d better eat something...”
Life’s harder than a rock sometimes. No doubts that life is as cruel as Lucifer himself with some people. Sara knew this better than anyone, or she loved to think so. She was born exactly 25 years ago, on 12 December 1985. A cold winter, a cold bed, a cold mother. Her mother gave her life so that she may live, so that she may taste fresh air, feel the green grass, experience love and all those great things that make life beautiful. One thing her mother forgot to mention: her husband. Sara referred to him as a thing for his entire life, always called him ‘dude’ and never loved him. Sara’s father was a drunk and a drug addict. Nevertheless he had a well paid job, lots of friends and at a certain point she even found a clear smile on his face. Alcohol was already a huge problem for him, it made him lose his job but not his ‘friends’. Sara remembered the days when she used to come back from school to find her father laughing with his friends in the kitchen, drunk as hell, as if life was amazing. Then things got worse…
“Don’t regret it Sara, not at all! You did the right thing, he deserved it!” her mother’s voice echoed in her head whenever she remembered that day. Things weren’t going so smooth at school, she fell in love with a boy that wasn’t giving her any attention, the grades dropped because she just couldn’t find silence at home to study and she got into a fight with one of her classmates. Sara was just happy that finally school ended and she can go home to listen to music in her room without being bothered by anyone. She got home faster than ever:
-Hey, I’m home!
-Sara, how are you my dear?
-Aw man, you’re drunk again! Leave me alone, go to sleep!
-Honey be careful how you talk with your dad!
-Ya, whatever...
-You may be 10 but I raised you, I gave you food, I gave you a home! Stupid kids, they are never grateful for the sacrifices their parents do! Her father said hitting the table hard with his fist.
-Shut up! You never sacrificed anything! You always did what you wanted to, you always brought your friends over and got drunk even if I was asking you not to because I have to study! Don’t give me that bullshit because I’m not buying it!
He slapped her. Harder than ever... Her cheek became red instantly and it felt as if 1000 lightning bolts were playing underneath her skin. Sara put her right palm over it without knowing how to react. She just couldn’t hear anything around her but she saw her father screaming, waving his hands and throwing things all over the place, filled with anger. It was something strange in his eyes. It wasn’t the same person she knew. Eventually he stopped and went back to the kitchen for another drink. She took advantage, ran into her room and closed the door with the key. Apparently he heard it and rage filled him once again. He started pounding at the door while Sara stood speechless near her window listening how the wood from which the door was made did its best to keep the enraged father away. It didn’t last for long, the door eventually gave away and he blasted inside with fire in his eyes. He did not slap her this time, instead he grabbed her right arm and pulled her away from the window throwing her in the bed. Then slowly, while she was crying with all of her soul, he started untying his belt, then his shirt, smiling like a crazy, mindless freak. “Don’t you give up! Stand up, stop crying!” her mother’s voice shouted in her head. “Kick him in the balls!” She did so and then ran outside without shoes, without a jacket. “Police, the police can help me!” she thought. Sara ran ‘till the closest Police station without even looking back for 1 second. When she entered the building her mind focused on the first chair available where she sat with her feet bruised and her face half red and burst into tears. Tears of fear, tears of joy, tears of safety, it didn’t even matter much because it felt good, it felt like the only right thing to do. She stood there for like 5 minutes crying and crying without a single police officer to ask her if she’s okay. Eventually, a voice screamed from behind the desk:
-Get out of here!
Sara was amazed. She stopped crying instantly and lifted her head. Her eyes were swollen from all those tears and she couldn’t see much.
-But I need help, my dad tried to rape me!
-Maybe later, we’re watching the game now, get out! The same voice answered.
Sara started crying again but this time they were tears of fear. She knew that she had to go home eventually where the monster waits. Her mind was looking for solutions but nothing could be found. It was already night and rather cold, she had not eaten anything and she had a huge homework for the next day. As she got closer to her block her heart started beating faster and faster ‘till she could literally hear the beats. Instinct took over her and from somewhere deep inside, from places she never knew, courage embraced her heart. She looked around for something sharp, something to defend herself but slowly the courage started to disappear, until she remembered about the broken window at the entrance. “I will take a fragment of glass and if he tries to do anything to me I will stick it in his stomach!” Said and done, Sara was facing her flat’s door but right when she decided to take a deep breath and push the handle, the door opened and she closed her eyes throwing her arm to defend herself.
-Sara, forgive me, I don’t...
The glass went deep inside her father’s neck causing him to bleed to death while Sara watched even the last piece of life fading away from his body. It felt good, strange but good, so she didn’t even shed a tear. She ran inside the bathroom took a razorblade and cut her soft face. “He tried to cut me and then he tried to rape me. It was self defense, let him die.”
“Fuck it, I did the right thing!” she thought as she poured some ketchup on a slice of bread.


To be continued...