Daddy's Not So Little Girl.

2 a.m- She walked hurriedly towards the bus stop, hoping that she'd be lucky enough to reach home before her father woke up. She didn't want another night of bruises. Every time she snuck out of her home, an air of freedom surrounded her. Ironically, she felt comforted being amongst strangers, cheerful to talk to random people who took interest in her. Lydia wasn't weak, she wasn't afraid of her father either, she just wanted to protect him. She was worried about someone seeing her bleeding face and reporting to the police. She loved her father, of course she did. They had been best friends since her mother had died 12 years back. But then.. he fell prey to the evils of alcohol and drugs. He came home reeking of the cheapest drinks, almost as if he'd bathed in them. She wished he'd settle down with their widow neighbour, Mrs. Turnstone. She'd always been a mother figure to Lydia and as the rumours stated, her father and Mrs.Turnstone had been lovers long before her parents got married.

She knew that her neighbour heard her cries of anguish. The agony she went through every time her father threw her across the floor for being too late. The sores on her legs and arms and the deep cuts on her face that slowly changed colours from red to blue to black. She tried to muffle her pain as well as she could but sometimes they came outas sobs, which made her father give her a dirty look and walk out of the room.

2 30 am- Lydia carefully latched the door behind her and crept up the creaking staircase of her 2 storey house. She could hear the loud snores coming from her father's room as she walked up. She heaved a sigh of relief as she shut her bedroom door. Relief at not being tortured by her father for the first time in 3 weeks. She went to the dressing area and carefully examined her face. Tears of dread poured down her once radiant face. The cherry red cheeks were now a dirty shade of blue, her lips were swollen, and her eyes looked sad and helpless. How she wished that the girl who was once the most sought after in the village, would find someone who looked beyond her cuts and bruises . She wanted to escape, but she was stuck in an ugly position.. of leaving her father behind, afraid that he might succumb to the diseases caused by his cohesive alcoholism.

To be continued..