• The winter snows had come on strong that long night. The snow fell from the ebony clouds like lacy tears falling from ebony brown hues. Her mother had left her and the world the previous winter when the snows caused a power outage. Her father never wanted to accept it but had to.

    People always told him how much she looked like her mother, same cheekbones, same hair, and same eyes. She was shocked and scared the first time that it happened. Now, as he made his way up the creaking stairs, she sat on the edge of her bed, contemplating what would soon happen, and what she would do.

    She took deep breaths, her body shaking in fright of what was soon to come. The floorboards creaked as he moved closer his movements slow and stumbling as the alcohol began to invade his system.

    She refused to be yelled at like she had been when she was a six-year-old child. She quickly stood up, her back straight as a board. She was at the door and in the hall in a matter of seconds.

    This is when she made her mistake. He wasn’t going to her room; he told her later on, he was just going to lie down in his own room. She knew it was false. She knew that he had been on his way to her room to yell at her just like he always did when he was like that although she didn’t tell him that.

    He groaned and grumbled when she ran into him, making him trip over his own feet. He caught himself as he hit the wall behind him. He pulled himself up, his shirt wrinkled no matter how many times he tried to straighten it out.

    She began to apologize but with the first word out of her mouth, the back of his hand slammed into the side of her face with the force of a lightning bolt hitting a tree setting it quickly aflame. That hit he gave her sent her stumbling backwards towards the old creaking stairs.

    She tried to apologize over and over again but each time he raised his hand like he was going to hit her. The third time, he was close enough to do it and he did, making her stumble to the edge of the long stairs, her hands moving to clutch tight to the railing.

    He looked at her, his whole body, which was hidden within shadows so dark that they covered everything that they touched. Except for his eyes. His eyes which were so dark they looked like the nighttime sky outside bore deep into her. His gazed pierced her soul. His eyes reminded her so very much of how a crazed gunman must look when killing someone.

    He began to mumble, one word jumbled into the next, to the point where she couldn’t understand hardly anything. What she did understand she began to beg the Gods above for help.

    His muscular arm was pulled back; his hand formed into a fist, a few bits of her blood clung to it like a babe would cling to a bottle. She closed her eyes, her hand clutching even tighter to the stairway, waiting for the pain that would undoubtedly follow.

    SNAP! His arm came down and his fist slammed into her chin, knocking her backwards with a bit of upward lift which sent her flying down the stairs, just centimeters from the stairs themselves.

    When she landed she hit the stars so hard that she split the back of her head open. Her eyes slowly opened to look up at her father who began to make his way down the stairs. He quickly stopped when he heard the stairs beginning to shake and then began to give way, starting at where her shoulders hit the stairs and moving outwards.

    Splinters of the old rotted cherry wood dug deep into her back. A few boards that ha d fallen shattered on the cement floor of the basement below. The few long pieces of wood that stood up were as sharp as a steak knife and passed through her arms, legs, and stomach like they were butter.

    She landed on the ground below with her arms spread open, like a cross, her legs spread eagle. Her breathing was slow and gentle. Her father stood at the edge of the broken stairs, his eyes wide with shock at what had just happened.

    Her eyesight began to blur. Her body began to slow. Her eyes gently slid closed as darkness took her over. The last few things she remembered were:

    Well at least this ending was dramatic enough to be remembered, I hope…