I slowly pulled up my driveway, feeling as if I was about to step on eggshells. The inside of my house appeared completely unlit, due to the darkness behind all the windows. There were no signs of anyone being home.

Maybe Jack had fallen asleep? He could have chugged down a bottle of vodka, and gone to bed in a drunken stupor. Or perhaps he went out and hadn't gotten home yet? Either way I could go in, slip into bed, and he would be none the wiser. I peered down at my phone to check the time once more.

Please let me be right. It was now 8:25.

I walked up to the front door and put my key in the lock. My heart was pounding so hard I felt as if it was trying to punch out of my chest. As I slowly opened the door, I stepped into the house. The large door creaked a bit causing a sharp jolt of alert to run from my heart to my toes.

Calm down Patience.....just a walk up the steps and you're home free.

I looked around for any signs of Jack being home. It wasn't easy since I had to squint in the darkness, unable to actually see my surroundings well. The only illumination available was the moonlight delicately reaching through the windows. I checked the living room, then the kitchen. When Jack was nowhere downstairs to be found, my heart finally settled in relief. The tension eased out of my shoulders and I released a breath hadn't even known I was holding in.

I can't believe it. I'm actually in the clear!

My excited legs began shuffling up the steps to my room. I just putting my foot on the third step, when something yanked me by my hair and pulled me down the few steps I had ascended.

You should have known Patience...

I hit the floor with enough force to make me whimper. A tall muscular figure loomed over me, and I instantly withdrew deep into myself. It was too dark to see his face, but I already knew.

He bent over and pinned me to the ground by my throat.

"You don't seem to know how to listen." Each word was dripping with hate, literally. A few shards of spit splattered my face as he spoke. Jack's speech was slurred, and the smell of alcohol radiating from him was strong enough to send my brain buzzing.

"Ja-" I couldn't get the word out with his brawny hands on my neck.

"SHUT UP!" Jack screamed at me. I was thrown against the corner of the dining table. "Do you know what time it is, girl?!" More screaming from Jack. Both of his hands entangled into my hair, which allowed him to have a terrifying grip on me as he chucked me to the floor.

I tried to get up but was rewarded with a kick in the ribs by Jack.

In ten seconds I went from a hopeful seventeen-year-old, to a living rag-doll.

"M-my friend got hurt and I had to t-take care of them." Tears blinded my eyes as and helplessly tried to explain, despite the enormous amounts of pain screaming all over my body.

"DIDN'T I SAY SHUT UP!!" Jack erupted, and I recoiled into a fetal position. "I don't give a crap about whatever friends you think you have." He let out a couple of punches onto weak points of my body, a trick he retained from his days as a boxer.

I started trying to crawl away from him. I didn't know where, but anywhere was better than here. Jack grabbed one of my legs and drug me right across the floor. My limbs flailed about aimlessly, and carpet burn instantly set my arm ablaze.

More pain...

In my frantic state, I then managed to do the mother of all things stupid. So stupid, it might actually be the last thing I ever do.

I kicked him in the stomach.

The moment it happened, the world almost stopped around me. I only saw the rage in his eyes and my heart sunk into the floor under me. Jack and I connected eyes, and in that second we both knew...

It wasn't an accident.

My uncle went from furious to explosive. Next thing I knew I was hurled against an adjacent wall. I scrambled out of his grasp and sprinted to the stairs. I tripped up the first step, and held my breath, thinking Jack was now close enough to throttle me again.

O, how wrong I was. The rumbling sound of something heavy being picked up off the ground, resonated in my ears. Panic almost choked me and I began clawing my way up the steps.

Please, please don't let it be a weight.

I almost reached the fifth step when something unbelievably hard shattered against the back of my head. Flames of pain seared my neck as my body hit the floor.

I had just been cracked in the head with a vase.

"Do you see what happens when you don't listen, Patience?" Jack leaned over and stared down at my motionless body on the floor. I couldn't move. I couldn't cry. I couldn't speak. All I could do was try not to focus on the pain. "When I tell you to do something, you do it." He growled with finality.

He stepped over me, breathing heavily, and walked up the steps to his room, remorseless and unmerciful as ever.

Me and the dismembered vase left on the floor had one thing in common: We were shattered. But even the vase still had an advantage. It's damage was physical. With work, the pieces could be put back together, and that's why I was different. It was going to take more than glue to fix me. My shards were physical and mental.

The impact of the vase has already made a big gash somewhere behind my ear and neck. To make matters worse, a few broken pieces of vase were still digging into the wound. The whole area felt hot and stung, no doubt still bleeding.

I know I should move but every ounce of me is seething with pain. I moved my head a little to get out of the shards. Then closed my eyes and attempted to let my exhaustion put me to sleep. Every moment I laid frozen on the floor I replayed tonight in my mind.

I kicked him. I actually fought back, for the first time in years. True it was in a frantic moment of fear and panic...but I still meant to do it. I forgot how good it felt...to fight back.

The realization set in and one fact became undeniably true. There is no way on earth that I will make it another eight months with my uncle.

With every shuddered breath I felt pain, loss....helplessness. Hardly new, I wore them always, like some ugly second skin.

But inside, inside was what mattered. Deep down I could finally feel it. A fire that had been lit. One that grew stronger within my broken body with every second that passed. I need to get out.

I need to get out......or get even.

I don't care how.

I don't care who helps me.

I've had enough.