My heart thumped a little louder when I heard the sound of heavy boots approaching.
He is coming.
The monster himself.
He killed my mother barely three days ago, and now, is coming to kill me, just like he promised me yesterday.
I am paralysed with fear that I can barely think straight. My thoughts are slow, and my mind is struggling.
Never had I thought that my life would end at just fourteen years of age, or that I would watch my mother struggle to her death, unable to protect her.
My grip tightens around the metal bars of the cage as I scan the dark, dank room where he has kept me for weeks.
Last week, he beat me to pulp and broke my leg, just the same way he snapped my mother's neck.
We would never escape him.
And all this was bound to happen just because I am Cristian Petukhov.
The door creaks open, letting in a small silver of lights, and the beast-like man walks in. Even in the dim light, I can see his pale, mean, ghostly-looking eyes, and a scar that runs from his right eye to his cheek.
"It's time to die, you little shit." His lips curve into a mean smirk as he approaches the cage.
"No…No!"
He opens the cage, yanks the door with force more than necessary, then pulls me out, sending unbearable pain shooting up my whole body.
"Let me go…leave me alone_"
"Shut up, you stupid_" A punch lands on my left cheek, delivering far more pain than I felt before, and I see stars.
Tears roll down my cheeks. I am helpless.
He then yanks me from the ground, throws me over his shoulders and heads towards the old barn, the same place he burned my mother's corpse and made me watch. He pulls the door open, then throws me to the ground.
I land with so much impact that it has me curling into a ball. I can't move, can't see, can't do anything.
Then the sinister sound of the door slamming sends the reality of knowing that I am trapped.
And then I smell smoke.
It pours under the door. It only takes seconds for orange flames to swallow the smoke up, rising all around me.
I let out a distressed scream.
I'm sorry, Mother, that I couldn't save you or myself.