I came to in time to see my stepfather had advanced toward me. Purple in the face and neck from such high blood pressure while having yet another temper tantrum.  I could see it was about to blow out his ears very soon!

His eyes black as pitch. Flat with no feeling or warmth at all. Just flat, black, dangerous eyes.

On the floor beside me, lay the broom. I grabbed it and scrambled back holding the broom with the pointy end out towards my stepfather.

"Get away from me!! Stay back!! Don't come near me!!" 

I was hysterical with fear!  I shook like a leaf. The grey threatened to consume me! I had to do that trick inside my head. I had to wake the rage and let it take over while I shook in my shorts. Uncharacteristically he laughed for the second time.

"What are you going to do with that?" He chuckled.  

"I'm gonna hit you with it if you come near me!" I sputtered.

"Really...is that what you're going to do?" Chuckling a bit more.

"Yes! I'm gonna club you 'til you go down!!"

I could hear my Mother upstairs yelling. "You two stop arguing! Get up here! If I have to stay up all night there'll hell to pay!"

"Drop the broom and get up there." He said in a quiet menacing voice.

"FUCK YOU!!" I shouted gripping the broom tighter.

There it was.  My anger rising with my fear while I struggled for control. Adrenaline now rushing through my veins. The grey completely banished from me as a cure for what ailed me. But as my anger and fear rose, so did his rage.

His face filled up with blood once again turning his expression into a full facial bruise. There was that thick miasma in the air which indicated his irrational, illogical fury was soon to be released.

"At first I found your new attitude amusing. I don't any more. Drop this broom and get your ass up there. This is your last warning." Still in that menacing voice thick while his dark eyes bled black.

"No! I'm not doin' it! I'm getting my stuff and I'm leaving and your gonna let me!!"

I gripped the handle as tight as I could started to swing the broom handle back and forth to illiterate my point.

I knew I could not beat him in a physical fight. He was much stronger than I was. But, I also knew that I was much faster. With my adrenaline high my rage riding along with it, I was even faster still. 

He reached out in a flash, grabbed the end of the broom handle and wrenched it from me pulling me forward as he did. He made a fist extending his knuckles and smashed me in the forehead with them. The pain made me angrier which kept the blackness at bay.

I dropped down to all fours and shot past his hip as fast as I could! The pose was as if I was starting a race in the olympics and the gun had just fired.

This did not stop him from grabbing a fistful of my hair as I flew by.

I could not have stopped the momentum. If I stopped, I was dead.

So I let my light weight and speed carry me through but, leaving behind hair and roots in his grip.

"YOU LITTLE WITCH!!" He roared. "Get back here!"

"No fucken way." I thought as I launched myself toward the back door.

That door that lead to the carport, the septic field and freedom! He came towards me almost as fast as me but not quite...Not quite.

I got the door opened in the split second I had ahead of him. His arm reach out and gripped my shirt.  My momentum wasn't allowing that so I slipped from his grasp. I knew he wouldn't follow me over the septic field. So I aimed for that throwing myself through the car port and right across the center of the septic field.

I ran through it which gave me valuable seconds ahead of him. He could not catch me.

I ran like the wind, my speed almost making me fly.

Kitty corner to the house was a stretch of woods that ran about twelve blocks end to end.

I shot across the street and into the bush. I could feel blood trickling down my neck and over my back. My head was thumping from getting punched but I was out!

I actually did it!! I was out! I was free!!

The small stretch of wood was a place where kids built forts, ran around with their dogs. Pick up Gardner snakes and frogs. Not a place a girl could hide for long, but just long enough to stay free.

I went towards the fort my sister and I made and crawled inside.

"A couple more hours, the sun's up." I thought. "I'll stay in here until then head to my friends house after. She was now my only hope." 

Sitting on the stump inside, my heart slowed a bit and the adrenaline wore off.  My exhaustion hit me like a hammer. My mind was done the grey came as swiftly and as fast as the adrenaline did. I felt myself lean and then fall off the stump.

That was all...