• 4 characters: a young girl, Father, Fear, and Reason.
    Italics are Fear
    Bold are Reason
    “” are Father

    A young girl sits curled in a ball, hiding in the corner of her dark room. She can hear his footsteps and the terrifying crash of the glass bottle smashing onto the wooden floor.

    He’s coming. Please don’t, Father. Please? Not tonight…

    The heavy thuds that echo through the hallway send shivers through her broken body as they move ever closer.

    No… Please.

    Give up, child. You know he’s not going to listen. He’ll come in here and take out his anger on you just like he does every other day. He’ll beat you into the ground and laugh when you cry.

    Maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll stop and actually regret hurting me. Please don’t hurt me, Father.

    The footsteps come to a slow stop in front of the door. The handle of the door is shaken before a slurred voice drifts over to the girl's ears causing her to shake even more in fear.

    “Unlock the damn door, b***h. If I have to break it open I’ll break your neck too.”

    Just do as he says. Get up off the floor, walk over there, and unlock the door. It’ll be worse for you if you don’t.

    No. He’ll hurt me. I just want to leave. I don’t want to be here anymore.

    “What the hell did I just tell you. Get your a** over here and unlock the damned door. Now!”

    The sound of a fist banging against the wooden door makes the child jerk her head up, eyes wide and terrified. With trembling limbs, she gets up and slowly moves to the door.

    He’s going to hurt me now. I don’t want him to hurt me. Don’t let him. Please?

    Shhh, child. It’ll be over soon.

    The girl unlocks the door after fumbling with the lock for a few seconds. As soon as the lock slides out of place she backs away quickly watching the door crash open to reveal the dark figure of her father.

    Please no. Please. I don’t want to be hurt.

    What you want doesn’t matter. It’s what he wants that makes a difference and right now, child, he wants to hurt you.

    A single tear slides down her bruised cheek as her father steps into the room. In his hand is an object, it’s thin and kind of long.

    No… Please not that. I’ve been good. Honest, Father. I didn’t do anything bad enough for that. Please.

    “You know better than to try and keep me out. You remember what the punishment is for locking the door?”

    A small nod and a few more tears slide down her face.

    “And what is it?”

    Th-the belt, Father….

    The belt. The words escape the girl’s lips softly. Her eyes close tightly as she walks back to the wall and kneels down with both hands pressed firmly to the baseboard.

    “Good girl.”

    Her father moves closer to her still shaking body.

    No. Please…. Please. I won’t do it again. Please, Father. Don’t hurt me.

    Maybe you should beg him to kill you? After all, you want to escape his abuse for good, yes?

    Yes, but not that way…. I don’t want to be hurt, but I don’t want to die. Not yet…

    I understand, child. Now take a deep breath.

    The child stiffens as the shadow of her father raises the belt. As it comes down, things go black as a pained scream cuts through the house. A scream of one longing to escape, that will never be able to.