Ghost In The Mirror

ARIEL'S P.O.V.

School was good today. Tarra and Josh are still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, meaning that they are all mushy and flirty. We had to banish them from the group this morning. Im sure they went and made out behind the school after, not that it would surprise me.

To be more precise, my whole day was great. Until I had to go home that is. Home, it isn't the best. Sometimes I don't even want to call it home. It's just a place I live. I clean the whole house everyday, even when it's not my mess.

Most of the time it's because of my dad. When he gets angry, which is most of the time, he yells and throws stuff. He yells at me, sometimes even going to the extent of hitting me.

Today was no different than any other day. Im cleaning up the house before my parents get off. This last rant he had happened after I left for school. The house was spotless before I left this morning.

After I finished cleaning I went into my room to start on my homework and text Ryan. He doesn't know about my dad's abuse and I plan to keep it that way. Most of the times when my dad goes on a rampage I just stop texting him. I don't tell him I have to go I just stop. I do it because Im afraid I'll slip up and tell him. When Ryan questions me about it the next day I lie and tell him I fell asleep. He doesn't need to know what goes on.

I jumped when I heard the door slam, signaling my dad was home. Mom wont be home until later tonight. "Ariel!" He growls. Great, he's pissed.

I stand on shakey legs and go out into the hallway. "Yes sir?" I reply, hoping my manners would calm him down a bit.

Sadly though, it didn't work. "Why the fuck is the trash can full?" He shouts.

"Im- Im sorry d-dad. I'll go t-take it n-now." I stutted and try to move past him.

He grabs my hair and yanks me back in front of him. "Oh no you don't." He covers my mouth as I shrieked and the force he put on my scalp. Tears started to sting my eyes as I realized that this wasn't going to end well for me. He dragged me into the living room and threw me on the coffee table. "This'll teach you not to fuck up again." He pulled his belt out of the loops on his pants and started beating me with it.

I got a number of lacerations to my face, arms, torso, and thighs. My lips was busted, my nose was bleeding and I had a cut on my cheek. He managed to blacken my eye when he hit me with his buckle. I had bruises everywhere and I hurt like hell.

I stumbled into my room and called the one person I knew I could trust at a moment. I knew this person wouldn't tell anyone or wouldn't flip out and kill my family.

"Hey Ariel. What's up?" I heard over the phone.

"T-T- Tarra, c-can I come over?" I begged, whimpering slightly and the pressure that talking put on my swollen lip.

"Yeah. Of course! I'll text you my address. I'll wait outside for you." She agreed, sounding very worried.

"Thanks. I'll be right over." I concluded then hung up my phone.

I put some make up over my face, wincing at every wound I rubbed. I practiced standing up straight in my room, knowing dad would be pissed if I went outside hunged over.

I went into the kitchen and grabbed the trash bag. I hissed at the weight it put on my arms but took it out to the dumpster nevertheless. I came back inside and went intocthe living room where my dad was sat.

"Im going to a friends." I informed him.

He glanced over at me and looked me up and down. I was wearing a hoodie, jeans, and a hell of a lot of foundation so noone could have even noticed this just happened. "Whatever. Don't come home until tomorrow after school though. You pissed me off." He grunted. I nodded then walked outside and started towards Tarra's place.

Surprisingly, we lived on the same street so she wasn't to far from me. She lived in the tiny apartment complex a few houses down.

I saw Tarra waiting outside, glancing around worridly lookibg for me. I quickened my pace as much as my bruised body would let me, a few tears slipping in the process of me doing so.

"Tarra." I called out. She turned her head and looked at me. She gasped when she got a full look at my face.

"Oh my god! Ariel what happened to your face?" She questioned. I guess I didn't do as good of a job at covering my face as I thought I did.

"Can I explain inside?" I begged, earning a nod from my friend.

She led me to her apartment and sat me on the couch. I explained everything that had happened. She asked me to take off my hoodie and show her all the other wounds, just incase some needed patching. I showed her my torso and my thighs then she dragged me into the bathroom. Some cuts on my torso was still bleeding so she told me she would bandage them.

Afterwards she took me into her room and lent me some of her clothes. "You're probably really tired so if you want you can sleep on my bed when your done changing. You can stay here as long as you need to. I wont make you go back to that if you don't want to." She explained to me.

"Tarra, that's your bed. I wont take it from you." I argued.

"Ariel, you are hurt. You need it more than I do. I don't mind sleeping on the couch." She replied.

"Thank you Tarra. Really. You don't know how much I appreciate this." I sniffled, wiping a few stray tears that slipped from my eyes.

"Its fine. Im guessing you don't want Ryan to know?"

"No! Please, don't tell him."

"I wont. I promise. If you want you can stay here tomorrow during school so you don't have to cover everything up. I know that's gotta hurt."

"Thank you Tarra."

"It's what family is for." She said, sending me a smile. New

Notes

New chapter! Comment your opinions of Ariel's POV!

Rickys_mistress how did I do? Do you like it?

I will be including more characters soon enough! Some shit is about to go down...