Changes: Chapter 1 - Opportunity

Flash forward, five miserable years.

I ran faster and faster, getting as far away from him and that dreadful place as I could. I was running away from Hell. No, not Hell. A place worse than Hell, if such a place indeed existed. You see, I was running away from the man who kept me locked away from the world; locked away from my friends and family. I was running away from someone who assaulted me every day for no reason.

No matter what I did to attempt to please him, I would receive a punishment. These were worse when he came home from a 'draining day of work.' If the house wasn't cleaned to his standards, he would include any object within reaching distance to these punishments. Sometimes, he wouldn't even give me a reason. He would just attack me without explanation. He would even keep heavy-duty locks on every door and window in the house and placed his keys on a key chain in his jeans pocket.

I wasn't allowed to work. I wasn't able to resume my education after high school. I was never allowed to ask for any money. He transformed me into his prisoner. I was his property. I knew I wouldn't live much longer if I stayed. I recognized what he was doing to me was wrong. I might have barely been twenty years old, but I was intelligent and knew I had to take my opportunity to leave as quickly as I could.

So, one night when he came home from drinking with his friends and passed out on the couch, I realized that would be my one and only opportunity. I snatched it up as quickly as I could. While he slept, I anxiously searched his pockets for the keys to the front door. Once I discovered them, I raced to frantically unlock the front door. Just as that last lock clicked open, he stirred awake and discovered me. For a brief second, I froze, like a deer caught in headlights, my hand still on the doorknob. As he started to get off the couch, I ripped open the door and began to sprint away as fast as I could.

"Run. Go on. I'll find you. It's only a matter of time. You'll be back. You know you need me. You're pathetic. No one is ever going to desire you. You're damaged!" his sinister and raw voice thundered throughout my head, as he stumbled drunkenly after me. Every word, every name that he yelled towards me, propelled me to run faster and farther away. My Adrenalin rushing through my veins and helping to push me.

Eventually, the Adrenalin rush slowed down and I changed my sprint into a fast-paced jog. I took the time to guesstimate the time. I wiped the sweat away from my forehead with the back of my pale hand, looked over my shoulders at the moon. I decided it was around midnight. I had been running for 3 hours and I had no idea how. Two more hours passed and still, I was unable to convince myself to slow down to a normal walking pace. As the Adrenalin left my body my legs began to ache and despite the mild temperature of late-August in Colorado, I started shivering.

Around two o'clock, I finally stopped walking altogether and looked around at my surroundings. "Finally," I mumbled under my breath as I spotted a dense forced on the other side of the road; "somewhere to hide," I ran straight into the maze-like forest, not looking back. I attempted to memorize my surroundings as best as I could using only the light of the night sky. I picked a direction and continued running, tripping over logs and branches on my path hidden in the murky darkness. I ran until I saw some slivers of light sprinkling throughout the tree branches. I ran towards the light and broke through into a glade that was illuminated generously by the full moonlight.