Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

"STOP! STOP! PLEASE, I AM BEGGING YOU TO PLEASE STOP! I promise to try harder tomorrow and bring you more money." Bella, with tears gushing down her now badly bruised face, barely balancing on her knees, and her palms put together, pleaded with Mason. He stood tall before her with a fistful of her hair. He had beaten her, flung her around the little room like a ball, and kept yelling aloud how ugly she was and how she had no talent in pleasuring a man. Bellatrix Willow turned 18 a few months back and lived with her mum, Tara, her 10-year-old brother Jacob, and Mason Daniels, who was also a part of her dysfunctional family. He is her mum's boyfriend of 9 years. After Bella's dad was killed by a local gang, he owed money to, her mum, falling for the devil's charm, and chose comfort in the arms of Mason who was extremely popular with all the old and new drug addicts in town. As he would like to call himself, "THE BEST DEALER IN TOWN!" It was only in the first few months of their relationship that all was well. After about six months, the abuse began, and not long after, Tara had become an addict. One who was willing to do just about anything Mason wanted for her next fix. Bella, as young as she was, tried her best to step up and take care and protect Jacob. Mason, thankfully or not, never forced drugs upon her as she had to take over Tara's household duties, take care of Jacob, satisfy Mason's desires when needed, and that of paying customers.

CHAPTER 1

BELLA

I can feel my knees getting weaker as I try to maintain balance and beg Mason for mercy. I can't pass out; I have to get to Jacob. Please, God, please keep Jacob safe, I pray silently. For the past few months, I have been trying to save up as much as I could, hiding it away in the hope to soon escape this hell hole. By doing so, I had to endure severe punishment from Mason. I would lie that the customers were no longer paying well as they were getting bored of me. He believed me because he knew that I would not go against him or cheat him out of fear of what he would do to Jacob. Earlier, Mason had sent me out to a local bar to meet and satisfy some of his customers, but before bringing my full payment back to him, I gave Jacob most of it with the rest of what I had saved up, a bag with the little clothes we both had and hid him in a scrapped-up truck down the street. We lived in a very dark area of town. Drugs, gambling, and prostitution were like oxygen here. Nobody cared about the well-being of the next! My plan was to escape tonight. Mason was even more enraged and beat me up even worse than the previous days. Just as he picked me up to most probably fling me across the room again, mum walked in calling out to him in her weird voice she used when she is totally high on whatever cheap stuff, he normally throws her way. She stood before us in just her bra and panties, "Let that little skank go now, Baby, and let me help make you feel all better." she sang out to him. She swayed her hips and called out to him repeatedly and started touching herself. Mason dropped me to the floor and yelled at me to get myself cleaned and fixed up for tomorrow. As he walked towards mum, he stopped, turned around and told me that I better start thinking of more exciting things to do to please his customers tomorrow and bring him more money or else it's the end of the road for Jacob.

As I cleaned myself up, I kept repeating the words, "YOU ARE STRONGER THAN THIS BELLATRIX WILLOW, YOU TOTALLY GOT THIS! YOU ARE GETTING OUT OF HERE WITH JACOB TONIGHT!!!" I wrapped some cloth over my bruises and taped up as much as I could around my sore stomach, sides, and chest areas. I could hear mum screaming Mason's name as he was pounding into her. Tip toeing, I snuck out. Once I was outside, I zipped up my old black hoodie and covered up my head. Even though I was sore and weak in physical strength, I forced myself to pick up pace and went to find Jacob. "BELLA!" Shouted little, Jacob trembled in fear. "I was so scared, I thought you would not come for me cos Mason hurt you bad," he cried. "I will never leave you behind Jakey" I told him as I wiped off his tears and pecked his forehead. "Come now, we have to try and get to the bus station quickly so that we are out of town before light." I carried him out of the old truck and put the bag filled with what little we had over my shoulders, held his hand tight, and started towards the bus station. I had not planned where we were going to go, I didn't care as long as it was far away from here. "Bella, can we please stop for a bit? My feet hurt" asked Jacob. "We're almost there Jakey, please we have to be strong and get out of here before Mason realizes we are gone," I tell him. He gives me a brave smile and nods his head. Thankfully for us, the bus station was not that far out from where we lived. "Are there any buses leaving town tonight?" I asked the ticket attendant. He looked at me suspiciously, his eyes catching the bruises on my face and neck. He then gave me what looked like a smile of sympathy and said that there was a bus leaving soon for Honeyville. I bought our tickets, still holding on to Jacob's hand, and rushed for the bus. Once we took our seats, I let out a huge sigh of relief. Goodbye, HELL TOWN, as I had named it. A man came around selling snacks on the bus and made me realize that both Jacob and I hadn't eaten anything for hours. I took some money from my savings and paid for some snacks and bottles of water. I asked Jacob to eat up and get some sleep as we were going to be traveling for a few hours till we reached Honeyville.