Trees as beautiful as buzzing bees, grassy green fields as wide as the ocean, as free as can be. In the distance, a faint melody can be heard, a song of freedom is being sung on the strings of a battered old violin. A young girl floating the bow across the strings ever so smoothly. A light breeze picks up, blowing her blond hair and carrying the notes to a land somewhere far away. The wind stops, all is calms as the music, a lullaby of one's life, plays on. Suddenly all is dark, the wind picks up, the playing stops. The player opens her dark blue eyes, and looks up at the sky. It starts to rain, thunder can be heard, lightning is seen. The young girl looks for cover, all she sees is trees. If lightning were to hit one with her under it, it wouldn't end good. The wind is fierce now, thunder crashes, lightning strikes, it hits her violin, the violin breaks in half and is on fire. The young girl drops the violin and falls to her knees. Pounding her fists on the ground in anger and frustration, looking up to the sky, she cries, "Why me? Why?" Yelling as if shouting at the gods, "WHYYYYY?????"
     There's a loud banging as if on a wall. "Elizabeth, shut up in there! Some of us like to sleep!Don't make me come in there!" A man's voice shouted at a distance. Suddenly, after more thumps, Elizabeth woke up. She realized it had only been a dream turned nightmare. She got up off her bed and went over to her violin case. She opened it slowly to admire the piece of art inside. Oh how she longed to play it. To caress the neck in her arms without being criticized and tormented. They say life is a song, and love is the music, but where's my music? she thinks. Then she remembered, her music lies within the friendships she holds in her heart. They still love her, she can find peace with them, if she can't play her music.
     Elizabeth had trouble getting back to sleep so she just laid in bed staring up at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the outside world through the open window, turning them into a soothing song. How she longed to be as free as the wind, to be away from this place. Maybe she could go stay with one of her friends, but what if he found me? He'd kill me, or at least make me wish I was dead. A few minutes later, Elizabeth drifted off into a restless sleep, plagued by nightmares. In the morning, she was awakened by her step dad yelling at her to get up so she can make her breakfast and "get the hell out of here!" as he says it. Slowly but surly, Elizabeth gets up. She makes herself a piece of toast with peanut butter on it. As the young girl was eating, her mother comes into the kitchen, "sorry about last night, dear," she said, "I knew you were dreaming, but you know he doesn't listen. And you know he was drunk too."
     "Whatever," was Elizabeth's reply as she got up to go grab her clothes for after her shower. She knew her step dad was an alcoholic, and he has mental issues, but that doesn't give him the right to be a jerk.
      Elizabeth walked towards the bathroom and as she reached for the knob to open it, it opened and her step dad was standing there, "What do you want?" he asked when he saw Elizabeth standing there.
     "I didn't know you were in there, I was just going to take a shower," she replied, avoiding his glare.
     He walked passed her and said, "fine." As she's shutting the bathroom door behind her, Elizabeth hears him say under his breath, "Dumb shit."
     After her shower, Elizabeth ran to her room, grabbed her school bag and her violin and left the house as quickly as possible for the bus stop. On the bus, Elizabeth sits alone, she has no friends on this bus, and she's too shy to talk to anyone. She just turns on her iPod and drowns out the world. When the bus arrived at school, Elizabeth went and found her best friends Kayla, Cara, and Harry. She told them about the night before and the events that had occurred that morning. "I'm sorry, Lizzie," Kayla said to Elizabeth as she hugged her.
    "Yeah," Cara said, "No one should have to deal with that."
     Harry came in with a, "At least you have your poems and your violin."
     "I guess you're right," Lizzie answered, "And I have friends that love me," she smiled. The other 3 smiled back.
     After sitting in content silence for a few minutes, the bell to get to class rang. Kayla, Cara, and Harry all had classes in the same hall, but Lizzie had to get to the other side of the school. She bid her friends farewell and made her way off to class.
     History was boring as usual, they were studying World War II. Next class she had was strength training, where she got to work out the whole period and listen to her iPod the whole time. She decided to listen to her favorite pianist, Yiruma, she could think best while listening to his music. When this class was over, she decided to go and wait for Kayla. Kayla said hello and they talked for a bit, Lizzie told Kayla that she was having bad thoughts about hurting or killing herself. Kayla became worried about her friend, more worried than before. Lizzie felt bad, she doesn't want her friends to worry about her, but who else can she tell? At lunch, Elizabeth found out her friend Maggie, who she's known for 11 years, is really mad at her for some reason. When she asked why, Maggie said, "You're texting me too much."
     "I text everybody a lot,"replied Lizzie. I haven't done anything wrong, have I? the poor girl thought. Luckily after lunch, was orchestra, where she could lose herself within the melodies they create. This was the class she had with Maggie, all during class Maggie acted like everything was fine. Afterwards she didn't even wait for Lizzie that was really the only indication that Maggie was upset. Lizzie had math the next period, she walked to the class alone and said hi to Kayla and Cara along the way. When Lizzie got to Mr. H's math class she saw her 2 good friends, Laura and Danielle, she sat at the desk next to their's and they began talking about their days. Laura told them all about her culinary class and how they made chocolate tarts that day. She said they were delicious. Danielle told about this one guy she really likes in her science class and how he doesn't seem to know she exists. Then they asked why Lizzie looked so sad. "I'm not sad, what are you guys talking about?" she replied, using the fake happy voice and the look she's had all day even as she walked into this class.
     "We can tell," Danielle said.
     "Yeah," came in Laura, "It's in your eyes, we can see passed all the fake smiles.
     "So what's wrong?" Danielle pressed on.
     "Well," Elizabeth began, “last night I was having the most wonderful dream, soon it became a horrible nightmare, I guess I was yelling a lot in my sleep, because my step dad was pounding on the wall telling me to shut up, when I woke up.” Laura and Danielle were listening intently. Elizabeth continued on with how she couldn't get back to sleep, her rude awakening and everything up to Maggie being mad at her for some reason.  
“I'm sorry, Lizzie,” Laura said.
“Get over it,” commented Danielle, “about the Maggie thing I mean, that sucks about your step dad though. I'm sorry.” Mr. H. called the class to attention and explained how to find a function of a number x. Lizzie kept glancing up at the clock, anxious for class to be over, so she could hurry up and get home so she could play her violin before her step dad got home.
     Finally, at 3:20, the bell rang, Lizzie got her iPod out and turned it on. She said goodbye to Laura and Danielle and made her way to her bus. Once on the bus, Lizzie turned up the music and blocked out everyone and everything . Luckily, she was the first stop, and as soon as they got there, the young girl zoomed off the bus and into her house. Good, Lizzie thought, He's not home, I can practice. Lizzie raced  up to her room and got out the beautifully handcrafted instrument. She tightened the white hairs of the mahogany bow, and placed the shoulder rest on the violin. Bringing the instrument up to her neck, she pulled the bow across the strings. A perfectly in tune melody flowed gracefully from the strings. The notes filled the room  and flew out the window. It was a rather sad sounding song, but it didn't matter. Elizabeth had found peace. Several minutes later, her step dad came bursting in the door. Lizzie stopped playing and looked up. “What do I always tell you about that piece of crap?” he asked.
“That if I play it, you shouldn't be able to hear it,” Lizzie replied.
“That's right, and guess what, you worthless piece of crap, I could hear you all the way outside in my car! Haven't I also told you not to play with the window open?”
“N-no sir,” Elizabeth stuttered, “you haven't.”
He smacked her across the face, “Next time,” he said, “it'll be the violin.” Slowly, Lizzie nodded, fear in her eyes, as she went to put the violin away,  step dad staring at her the whole time. Feeling his eyes glaring at her, she sped up. Once the violin was away, he stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. “Dumb shit,” she heard him say through the door.
     Finally, now that he was gone, Elizabeth broke down and cried. She cried and cried for hours and couldn't seem to stop. Eventually her mom came home and talked to Lizzie. "He hit me, then he threatened to break my violin," the 17 year old told her mother.
     "He's never hit you before has he?" asked Lizzie's mother. Lizzie shook her head. They hugged, "I'll go talk to him," said the mother, and then she left the room. After that, much yelling ensued between her mother and step father, for about 10 minutes. Suddenly it stopped, all seemed quiet and calm, like the eye of a storm.
     After a few minutes, Lizzie's door burst open, and in came and angry step dad, "Why did you tell her, you little dumb shit?! You should have known better!!!" he yelled. He lunged for the violin case on the floor, so did Elizabeth. They struggled for until he hit her, causing them both to drop the case, and he stormed out of the house and left, slamming the door behind him. He was most likely headed for a bar. It was still early, and with him out at a bar, he most likely wouldn't be home for several hours, so Lizzie decided to play her violin. At 9:00 the girl decided she should get to bed. Packing up, she saw a picture out of the corner of her eye. It was of her and her real dad. They were so much happier back then, until that event, that happened when she was six, Lizzie didn't dare tell anyone about it.
     The next day at school, Maggie came up to Lizzie at lunch. "Lizzie," she said, "can we talk?"
     "Sure, what's up?" Elizabeth replied.
     "I think it would be best if we weren't friends anymore, I'm sorry."
     "Oh... uh... okay then..." was all Lizzie could manage. They'd known each other for eleven years, and now, after a huge fight about who knows what, they weren't friends anymore. Slowly, she walked away, Kayla, Cara, and Harry, hadn't been exactly been getting along with Lizzie lately either. But, with them, it had been going on for some time. Lizzie went and found them, and she told them what happened. They all hugged her and tried making her feel better.
     Elizabeth stayed after school that day so she could play her violin without being yelled at. She decided she'd only stay for an hour or so. With the instrument of her soul, she went into the practice rooms and just played. She played her heart out. Lizzie was playing Bach's Largo. Her teacher Mr. D. heard her playing as he walked by. He told her how good she sounded, Lizzie just blushed and thanked him. An hour and a half later, she looked at the clock. Oh, no! she thought, I have to get home! Putting the violin away, Elizabeth rushed out of the school and raced to the bus stop. She had to catch the city bus since she stayed after.
     As Lizzie was running from the bus stop to her house, she saw her step dad's car drive by. A surge of panic rushed through her veins. She ran to the house. When she got there, she saw her step dad waiting outside his car. It was what she was afraid of, he had seen her. There was no way to get around him. When he was looking the other way, she ran to the other side of the car. "Hello, Elizabeth," she heard, "Where have you been? Hmm?"
     "School," the girl replied.
     "Oh, Elizabeth, you must think I'm some idiot, I know school gets out at 3:20, and right now, it's 5:30, no one stays after school that late."
     "I lost track of time, and my mom said I could," Lizzie was trembling, they were still on opposite sides of the car, so luckily, he hadn't seen her in her fear. She heard footsteps. Quickly straightening up and stopping her shaking, Elizabeth turned to face her step dad.
     "Get in the house," he growled. Clutching her violin to her chest, Lizzie ran into the house, up to her room, and hid the violin in a secret, safe, place. After dinner that night, Lizzie went up to her room to work on her homework. After working on it for a bit, she needed to go to the bathroom. As she was about to open the door to leave the bathroom, there was a loud crash from downstairs. Quickly, Lizzie locked the door, and put her ear against it to see what was going on.
“Why did you let her stay after school?” Lizzie's step dad yelled.
“I thought it would be nice for her,” replied her mother, “why do you have such a problem with it?” The front door slammed and there was the sound of a car driving off.
     Lizzie came out of the bathroom and went down the stairs. Her mom was cleaning up the remains of a broken plate, “Need help?” the girl offered.
“Thank you, sweetie, but that won't be necessary,” replied a disgruntled mother. Lizzie got the broom out for her mom and headed back up the stairs to her room. When she got upstairs, Lizzie took out a piece of paper and began to write a poem. Soon, she came to a road block in her  mind, but it was getting late anyway. She could sleep on it.
At about 3 am, Elizabeth woke up to the sound of the garage door opening. It was obviously her step father. She tried to go back  to sleep but then heard her door open. Lizzie pretended to  be sleeping, hoping her wouldn't do anything. There was the sound of paper rustling, then her door shut and he was gone. What was that all about? Lizzie thought, I'll see in the morning I guess.
     The next morning there was a piece of paper on her dresser. All that was on it, was  a poorly drawn violin. “What's this supposed to mean?” Lizzie says aloud to herself. Quickly, she hides the paper and heads downstairs for breakfast. Her step dad was making sausage, hash browns, and eggs.
“Dumb shit,” she heard him mutter as she went to grab the cereal and milk.
     When she got to school, Lizzie was going to tell Kayla, Cara, and Harry all about the night before. She felt she could always tell them anything. "Lizzie," she heard, it was Harry, "We need to talk," he said. That was never a good sign. Kayla and Cara were there too.
      Cara said, "I think it would be best if we weren't friends anymore."
     "I'm guessing that goes for all of you..." Lizzie replied solemnly. They all three nodded. "May I ask why?" Lizzie inquired.
     "Well," Kayla began, " You've been a bit clingy lately, and we can't really take all this drama, also, we haven't exactly been getting along lately. We're really sorry Elizabeth."
     "Yeah, we still care about you," added Harry.
     "We're sorry," said Cara. Lizzie slowly walked away, trying hard not to cry. It was near impossible to keep up her happy appearance. Laura knew something was up, so when they got to math, she asked what was wrong. Lizzie just shook her head. She had gone the whole day without talking other than in the morning.  Danielle had an idea on how to get Lizzie to speak.
     Mr. H. put a math problem on the board like always for the class to work on. "Hey, Lizzie,  do you get this?" Danielle asked her hurting friend. Lizzie nodded her head. "Do you think you can explain it to me?" Said Danielle. Again, Lizzie just nodded her head and continued doing her own work. "Will you?" Danielle pressed on, getting frustrated.
     "Fine," Lizzie finally gave in, explaining the problem trying hard to keep her happy disposition, finding it more and more difficult with each word. Tears crept closer and closer, her voice began to tremble. Suddenly sat back down at her desk, putting her head down, she began sobbing. Danielle grinned smugly, glad that her plan had worked.
     "What is it?" asked Laura.
     "Harry..... Kayla...... Cara..... not..... my friends..... anymore," Lizzie replied through sobs.
     "That's four friends in one week Lizzie, geez, what did you do?" said Danielle, trying and failing to make a joke. It only made Lizzie cry harder.
    "Danielle, be quiet, you're not helping," Laura said, defending her friend. "It'll be okay Lizzie, you still have us."
     "I feel awful!" Lizzie said, "Last night was horrible, and now my three best friends have left me."
     After school, when Lizzie got home, she decided to continue with her poem. About an hour after, along with many corrections, she finished it. The poem was called violin. It read:

Fingers dancing up and down your smooth neck
Bow gliding across your strings
Sweetly playing the most beautiful song
Starting at near silence
Slowly getting louder and louder and louder
And faster and faster
Then STOP!
Notes resume
Serenading the audience as a mother might sing to her child
Telling the story of ones life
Painting pictures in the mind of the audience
Whatever they can imagine
A story of their own lives
From birth
'Til death
The notes continue on
Telling the story of each and every person in the theater
The bow moves faster
The notes get louder
The beats of the hearts speed up
Suddenly all is calm
Fingers still dancing
Vibrato has entered
The violinist is one with her violin
The song fades out to silent nothingness
The room is silent
No one says anything
Everyone rips into applause
The concert is over
They want more
One more song can't hurt
Thinks the violinist
Immediately she become one with her instrument again
Playing another sweet serenade
Fingers dancing along the strings
Her bow and body moving as one.

Lizzie decided to post the poem on her wall, but it had to be some place her step dad wouldn't see it. After looking around her room, she decided that behind her door was the best place.
     When Lizzie's step dad came home, things were rather uneventful, other than the random  muttering of "dumb shit." After dinner, her step dad left for the bar as usual. In the morning, Lizzie found another mysterious note, this time it was a poorly drawn picture, of a broken violin. On the back side, it said, Pick one, violin first? Or you first? Lizzie gasped. Other than that, her morning was uneventful until her step dad purposely bumped into Lizzie and after telling her to watch where she was going, called her his favorite name for her.
     At school that morning, Lizzie went and met Laura and Danielle. "Hey," Laura said to Lizzie, “How come we never hear you talk about your dad?” Danielle knew the answer to that but didn't say anything.
     “Come over after school today and I'll tell you. My step dad has to go out of town and won't be back until tomorrow or the day after,” Lizzie said. Then she told them about the mysterious note her step dad had left that morning.
     At lunch Elizabeth called her mom to ask if Laura and Danielle could come over after school. Her mother said yes. It was a day two at school so Lizzie didn't have any classes with Laura or Danielle. She had to text the two about after school and them coming over. After she texted them saying it was okay, they said they needed to ask their parents. They ended up saying it was okay.
     When they got to Elizabeth's house they were faced with an unpleasant surprise. “You guys have to be very very quiet. I didn't know he'd be here, but if he hears us, I'm dead,” Lizzie whispered. Laura and Danielle nodded their heads in understanding.
     Once in the house, the three made their way towards the stairs. Going through the kitchen door, making a shortcut to the stairs, Lizzie's step dad popped out, seemingly from nowhere. Lizzie and Danielle gasped out of shock. Lizzie was trembling. “Who said you could have friends over?” asked the  Asian, bald man, also known as Lizzie's step dad.  
     Grabbing hold of herself, Lizzie straightened up and said, “My mom said I could.”
     “Well I didn't,” replied her step dad.
     “We thought you were going out of town for a business trip and wouldn't be here,” said Lizzie beginning to lose her calm seeming nature. The tall Asian man just stood there and glared at the girls. Lizzie and her friends backtracked and went to the stairs the other way.
     Once the three girls were in Lizzie's room, Lizzie shut the door and they all sat on the floor, Danielle was sitting against the door, Laura against the lime green wall, and Elizabeth against her bed. “When I was six, I was cooking a father's day dinner with my mom. I got out all the ingredients, and put them all in the food. After he ate it, he got a bad stomach ache, that night, I was staying the night at his house....” Lizzie's voice trailed off.
     Suddenly the door burst open, knocking Danielle to the floor. “Wha-what are you doing Dean?” Lizzie said, stunned at her own use of his name.
     “What did you just call me?” Dean, her step dad asked angrily.
     “I called you D-dean, your name,” replied Lizzie, becoming afraid, but doing her best not to let it show. Danielle and Laura weren't sure what to do. Next thing they know, Dean lunged for Lizzie.
     “Hey!” Laura yelled.
     “What are you doing!?” Danielle screamed.
     “What were you going to tell them?” Dean asked as he held Lizzie to the floor.
     “Nothing, I wasn't going to tell them anything!” replied the struggling girl.
     “Why not? They deserve to know the truth about their friend, don't they?” Dean said with an evil grin on his face.
     “What's he talking about Lizzie?” asked Danielle.
     “Tell them,” Dean said to Lizzie. The girl just shook her head, and struggled even more to remove herself from his pin. He placed a hand on her neck, “Tell them,” Dean said again, applying pressure to her airways this time.
     “Okay, okay!” Lizzie whispered, “I killed my father.”
     “So they can hear you!”
     “I killed my father,” Lizzie said, this time loud enough for her two stunned friends to hear. Laura and Danielle gasped. Dean got off Lizzie laughing manically. As he did, he walked over to the Lizzie's violin case, got the violin out, and smashed it to pieces. Lizzie screamed. Dean just laughed harder and walked out of the room.
     “The guilt of my father has been eating me alive, I understand if you don't want to be my friends anymore,” said Lizzie, trying to focus on the reason her two friends where at her house. Just the thought of losing them filled her with languor.
     “What would ever give you that idea? Of course we'll still be your friends,” said Laura.
    “ Yeah,” added Danielle, “Don't be crazy.” Lizzie smiled that rare, but charming smile that everyone loves. The feelings that ran through her at that moment were impossible to explain. She didn't know why, but somehow, Lizzie felt that no matter what happened, everything would be okay. It didn't, however, take away the guilt in the pit of her stomach, or the sadness from her violin being broken to pieces.
     “I love you guys,” Lizzie told her two best friends.
     An hour or so later, Laura and Danielle had to leave. This saddened Lizzie, but she knew she'd see them Monday, if not sooner. She went up to her room to look at the broken piece of art. A few hours later, Lizzie's mom came home. Lizzie told her of what had happened when Laura and Danielle were there. “I'm sorry honey, he told me he was going out of town this weekend,” sympathized her mother.
     “I said that, but I never said when exactly,” they heard Dean say as he walked by.
     All the fear left Lizzie's body and was replaced with rage. She lunged for Dean, knocking him to the ground. She started hitting him with all her strength, even clawing at him a little. “Elizabeth Woods! What are you doing?” yelled her mother. Lizzie dug her nails into Dean's neck. Her mom tried pulling her off, but Lizzie just dug her nails in deeper.  Dean yelled the whole time to get her off. Mrs. Wood's, Lizzie's mother, then pushed Lizzie from the side, which worked on getting her to fall off. Dean's neck was bleeding in multiple places. “Go to your room Elizabeth Myra Woods! Go up to your room right now little missy!” yelled Mrs. Woods.
     “But mom!” Lizzie yelled back.
     “NOW!” said her very angry mother.
     Once in her room, Lizzie could hear her mom and step dad talking downstairs. "You need to do something about your temper," she heard her mother say.
     "I know dear," her step father replied with a sigh. Lizzie gagged and turned on some music to tune the world out.
     In the morning, when Lizzie went downstairs to eat breakfast, both her mom and Dean were sitting at the table. When they saw her, her mom said, "Lizzie, Dean has something he would like to say to you."
     "Elizabeth," he said, "I've been a huge jerk, especially to you. I'm very sorry. Starting today, I'm going to get pills and counseling. Please, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
     All that day, Lizzie thought about what Dean had said. Could she really forgive him? And what if it was all an act? But if his apology was sincere, then would Lizzie seem like the jerk? She talked to her friends about it on the phone. Before she could get their opinion about it, Dean came in the room. "Lizzie," he said, "can you please get off the phone now? I need it for work." The young girl obeyed and told her friends she had to go.
     Maybe Dean did change, Lizzie thought to herself. Dinner was abnormally pleasant that night. Dean even ate with her and her mom, and he wasn't rude. "Uh.... Dean?" Lizzie said, unsure of how to go about speaking to him.
     "Yes, Elizabeth?" the nice seeming man replied.
     "Why did you break my violin?"
     "That is a matter for another night, my dear," replied the man with a dark grin.
      "May I be excused?" Lizzie wondered if it was too soon for dinner to be over.
     Mrs. Woods looked at Dean expectantly. To everyone's shock, Dean said, "of course you may."
     Slowly, Lizzie got up from the table and went up to her room. For the first time, her mind was blank, she didn't know what to think, about anything. In her room, Lizzie got out her iPod and listened to her favorite song to play, Bach's Largo. She wondered that if she still had her violin in one piece if he would allow her to play it.  
     At 10 o'clock, Lizzie went to bed. Long after falling asleep she was woken up by the shaking of her bed. "Elizabeth," came a whispered voice from the darkness.
     "Huh?" Lizzie said groggily.
     "Wake up," said the male voice.
     "What?" replied Lizzie as she opened her eyes. She saw that it was Dean.
     "I am going to make your life a living Hell," he said, and then left the room. Lizzie gulped as she was filled with fear. It took her an hour to fall back asleep, and by then, it was almost time to get up.
     "Mornin' kid!" Dean said cheerily as Lizzie walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. "We have to go on a little trip today, I packed your stuff for you last night." Dean pointed to a bag by the door leading out to the garage.
     "It's okay, Dean, I don't really want to go," said the confused girl. The kitchen smelled of burnt eggs, bacon and sausage. Lizzie went upstairs to find her mom. "Dean's lying about trying to change mom," Lizzie said when she found her.
     "Nonsense, dear, he just has a chemical imbalance," Mrs. Woods replied. "He's going to get help for it."
     "But mom," said the girl, "last night he came in my room and said he's going to make my life a living Hell."
     "That's ridiculous, you were probably just dreaming."
     "No mom, it wasn't!"
     "You're probably just having trouble accepting the fact that he's a changed man." Lizzie just rolled her eyes to the last statement from her mom. She went back downstairs to the kitchen.
     Sitting on the table, was a plate of eggs, bacon, and sausage with a glass of milk. "Those are for you, Elizabeth," Dean said, gesturing towards the food on the table.
     Lizzie said, "No thank you, I'll have cereal."
     "No, Elizabeth, I think you'll eat it!" Dean said fiercely. Lizzie sat down and began eating the burnt food. It was disgusting, and the milk had gone bad. She thought she was going to puke. A minute later, Lizzie did puke, all over her food. "Aw, poor Lizzie, did you throw up on your food? Too bad!" Dean said.
     "That's disgusting!" said Lizzie a little louder than Dean.  
     "What's going on down there?" shouted Mrs. Woods from the top of the stairs. She came down the stairs and into the kitchen.
     "Nothing, dear," said Dean. He took the food off of the table and put it, along with the sour milk, down the sink.
     Lizzie ran upstairs and into her room, locking the door as she shut it behind her. Looking at the clock, Lizzie saw that it was about 6:30. Dean did say his flight leaves at ten, but not the day. The garage door opened below. Lizzie looked out the window and saw her mom's little black Saturn leave the house for the grocery store. There was a rattling at the bedroom door. Dean was trying to get in. The rattling stopped, and about a minute later, the door burst open and Lizzie jumped onto her bed. "trying to lock me out?" Dean said. Lizzie screamed and tried to get around him, but her grabbed her as she went by and held a cloth to her mouth and nose.
     When Lizzie woke up, she was tied down to a bed with black sheets, she was in a white short sleeved shirt and shorts. Her hands and feet were tied to the bed posts at each end of the bed. Lizzie looked around. She was in a wooden building. As far as she saw, it was one roomed. Lizzie tried to get up and get her hands free. Then she heard the rattling of metal and realized it was chains holding her down.
     Lizzie screamed in frustration. She heard the door at the end of the room open and then close. "You're awake, I see," Dean said calmly as he came into the room. He was holding an object that he was rubbing with a black towel. The object shined in the dim light of the room. Lizzie glared at the man with a hatred that was hiding her fear. For the first time, the girl noticed a small table next to the bed with a white cloth on it.
     "I noticed you never smile, Elizabeth," I'm going to fix that fore you. You know you have such a pretty smile," Dean said with a sinister look in his eyes. He took the white cloth off of the small table, and beneath it, were sharp looking tools. Lizzie screamed at the top of her lungs and pulled against the chains holding her down. Dean laughed a short, dark sounding laugh, "No one will hear you scream Elizabeth. Not out here, we're in a shack, in the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere.
     Lizzie stopped screaming.  Dean put the object he had been holding down on the table with the other objects. "I hope you know what a Glasgow smile is. Do you?" Lizzie didn't respond. "What about a Chelsea grin?" he said. Lizzie didn't respond to this either.
     Dean grabbed a strange looking metal device. Lizzie became more frightened. He walked closer to the girl. Bending down over her, he put the metal device in her mouth. It was holding it open so she couldn't move it. Dean grabbed what he had been holding when he first walked into the room. It was a small razor. Suddenly, when trying to open her mouth more in an attempt to get the metal object out, she couldn't move her at all. She screamed. "I see my paralyzer that I injected you with is finally working," Dean said, "right on time too." He took the sharp metal razor he had been holding and brought it towards her mouth. Lizzie screamed again shaking her head, it was the only thing she could move. A tear rolled down her face. Dean smacked her across the cheek, "SILENCE!" he yelled. More tears poured from Lizzie's eyes.
     Dean bent over Lizzie again, bringing the razor towards her mouth. He placed the razor at one corner of her mouth. Slowly, he sliced upwards towards Lizzie's ear. She tried hard not to scream in pain. More tears spilled out. He kept cutting her mouth very slowly until it was a half an inch towards her ear. It went all the way through to the inside of her mouth. Blood got everywhere. Dean moved to the other side of her mouth. Slowly, as he made the first part of the incision for the other half of her Glasgow smile, blood trickled down the side of her face and down her neck. The pain was excruciating, no words could describe the pain she felt. Slowly, Dean made the incision so it went half an inch towards Lizzie's other ear. The strength it took for her to not scream was so immense, she thought she might explode.
     Dean took the metal device keeping Lizzie's mouth open out. Slowly, Lizzie closed her mouth and winced as she did it. Blood was spilling out everywhere, it covered her white clothing and only showed up as a darker spot on the black sheets of the bed. Dean then punched Lizzie in the stomach. She cringed and tried not to scream. Dean took another silver device off of the table. It was a carving knife. Dean laughed maniacally.
     Dean put the point of the knife so it was poking the upper part of Lizzie's stomach through the white shirt. He pushed down until it broke skin. Lizzie cringed. Slowly, Dean pulled the knife horizontally across her stomach. Lizzie cringed again. Above the middle of the first cut, Dean sliced down vertically so it looked almost like a plus sign in the girls stomach. This time, Lizzie couldn't hold back her scream When she let it out, her bleeding face ripped open even more. Dean made another incision on her stomach. Lizzie screamed even more. Dean stopped after making several more deep incisions. Lizzie's salty tears got inter her cuts on her face. She screamed again. Next, he made an incision on the on the upper part of her arm, it was two inches long. Lizzie struggled less and less, she was growing weaker. He made some more random cuts on her arms and then moved to her legs. He must have done a dozen on each leg. Lizzie let out one last shriek before passing out.
      Some time later, Lizzie woke up, light was shining through cracks between the wood in the wall. I must have been out for awhile, Lizzie thought. She had bloody bandages wrapped around her arms and legs, and one around her head. It hurt severely to move her jaw. She tried pulling against the chains holding her down, she was too weak to hardly move at all. Her shirt was still bloody and cut. It was stuck to the cuts on her stomach, so if she moved the shirt would pull on the now scabbing incisions.
     Lizzie lay on the bed for a few hours just staring at the ceiling. Dean came into the room."I see you're awake. I was almost afraid I let you bleed too much and you had died," he said with a look as if he loved the idea of that.  Lizzie just glared at him. "What? You didn't seriously think I was going to kill you, only make you wish you were dead. Now, we're leaving soon, and I swear, if you tell anyone about this, you will regret it. If you think this is the worst I can do, you've got another thing coming." Just before Dean left the room again, he turned back and said, "and one more thing, I put poison in your father's food all those years ago after you had put it in the oven. I killed your father." Lizzie gasped. Dean laughed evilly and walked out of the room. Lizzie just lay there and cried.

Dean came in an hour later and injected Lizzie with something that knocked her out. When she woke up, she was tied down with rope this time, to a seat in a small private jet. “Remember what I told you, Elizabeth, you saw a word to anyone, and you will be begging me to kill you,” Dean said threateningly. When they got to the airport and landed, Lizzie was stuck in a wheel chair. Upon arriving home, Dean kissed her mother in a hello.

“How was the trip?” Mrs. Woods asked.

“Well,” Dean replied, “Elizabeth had a little accident.” Mrs. Woods eyes widened as she looked over to her daughter all bandaged up and sitting in a wheel chair.

“Oh, my poor baby!” Mrs. Woods cried and bent down over to hug her only child. Lizzie glared at Dean, who glared right back at her.

Dean wheeled Lizzie into the house and pretended to lose control of the chair and run into a wall. Lizzie had fresh bandages on, and a clean, un-ripped white shirt. When Lizzie's food ran into the wall, she automatically grabbed her leg and screamed with pain, which then opened all of her wounds except a few of the ones on her legs. Immediately, the bandages and her white shirt turned red with blood. Mrs. Woods turned around when she had heard the scream, then she herself let out a scream, “My baby! We need to get you to a hospital!”

“It's fine, dear,” Dean said, trying to keep his calm.

“No, she's not! A doctor clearly isn't the one who did her bandaging anyway, look how poor of a job that is,” Mrs. Woods replied.

“Fine, I'll take her.” When Lizzie heard Dean say that, her eyes widened with fear. She attempted to shake her head, but failed because the movement hurt too much.

Dean pushed the wheelchair back to the car and drove her to the hospital. They had to wait an hour before Lizzie got called back. After that, they had to wait another hour. During that period of time, every time Lizzie tried to talk, Dean would hit her where one of her cuts was, causing more pain, and some tears.

When the doctor came, he asked Lizzie what had happened. Lizzie tried to open her mouth to speak, but Dean, inconspicuously, touched a cut causing Lizzie pain, and to stop trying to talk. “She was run over by a semi that had many sharp objects hanging down underneath it,” Dean lied smoothly, “the poor girl was lucky to avoid the wheels, so she was just lying underneath it until it passed by.” Lizzie glared, Not only did it hurt to move, but with each movement, the blood on her bandages got darker and darker.

The doctor began taking the bandages off the girl. The wounds were bleeding like mad. When he got to her stomach, he noticed that some cloth was in the cuts on her stomach. It was the cloth of the shirt Lizzie wore when Dean was giving her those same cuts. “Well, young lady,” said the doctor, “I'm going to have to remove that cloth, but first, I need to re bandage all of your other cuts. I'll look at your facial wounds last.” The doctor hadn't removed the bandage from Lizzie's face yet, and she hoped that when he did, he would realize that someone, Dean, did this to her.

Once Lizzie was bandaged up, the doctor took another look at her stomach. “We're going to have to remove the bits of cloth in order to avoid infection,” he said, “this might hurt a little bit.” Lizzie prepared herself. She lie back on the bed in the room. The doctor asked her to relax. She thought about her broken violin. Well guess what, Dean, you broke me now too, if she were to say those words out loud, he would kill her. Suddenly there was a stinging sensation on her stomach. Looking down Lizzie saw the doctor with tweezers, pulling out a small bit of shirt from one of her cuts. It had begun to scab over the cut, so when he pulled it out, not only did it hurt, it began to bleed again. Then he moved to the next one, Lizzie couldn't help but to tense up this time, causing blood to gush out of the stomach wounds. The doctor stopped until she relaxed her stomach again.

After the doctor was done getting the cloth out of Lizzie's stomach cuts, he wrapped her up. Next, he took the last bandage off of the young girl's face. He gasped at the sight. “Looks like someone gave you the Glasgow smile,” he said, “We'll have to stitch that up, along with most of these wounds.”

“Uh, doctor,” Dean said kindly, an evil glint in his eyes, “We really don't have much time, we must be getting home, her younger sister, is really very, very sick.”

Lizzie shook her head and began to speak inn a panicked tone, “No! He's lying! He's the one that- Ah!” Dean discreetly and quickly, punched Lizzie in the stomach with a lot of force.

“She must be delusional from the massive blood loss,” Dean said to the doctor, trying to hide a grin.

“And the sudden burst of pain from shaking her head and talking,” replied the doctor, as more of a statement than a question. Dean nodded his head.

The doctor found a special kind of glue that can be used to seal up cuts. For Lizzie's he had to put on extra glue, because Lizzie's cuts were extra deep. Generally the doctor would have used stitches because they hold better, but the glue will do if they're in a rush. Lizzie will just have to be extra careful, and maybe not talk for a few days. Also, the doctor told them that they'll need to keep her other cuts bandaged and move as little as possible. Lizzie nodded and Dean just got an evil smirk on his face. The doctor left the room to get the glue. Lizzie just sat on the bed, cowering in fear. Dean said to her, “I swear, if you tell anyone the truth about what went on during that 'business trip' I will kill you, but first, I'll kill your little friends, and you can watch them die.” Lizzie's eyes widened with terror, Dean laughed maniacally.

Then, the young girl said, “you can't! You just can't!” Dean hit Lizzie in the face, the pain cutting her off in mid sentence. Dean began laughing again. When the doctor came back in, he asked what was so funny. Dean told him that it was a joke Lizzie had told. Lizzie just shook her head miserably.

Once the girl was glued and bandaged up, they left the hospital and Dean sped twenty over the speed limit. Lizzie was scared of his driving. “Remember what I said earlier?” the crazed man asked. Lizzie just nodded. “What?” he said angrily.

“Yes,” the girl choked out through pain.

“What was it?”

“If I ever tell anyone what really happened, you'll k-kill me and my friends.” It hurt Lizzie to talk. The evil man nodded.

“Uh....” Lizzie wanted to ask him something but was afraid.

“WHAT?” he said, shocked that she would even attempt to talk to him. Lizzie flinched at his anger and decided to remain silent. Dean told her to go on now because he didn't want to have talked to her for nothing.

“Why are you doing this?” Lizzie timidly said.

“Doing what?” Dean growled back.

“Hurting me, mentally and physically. I don't think it's fair.”

Dean let out a short laugh, “because, my child, I hate you. Everything in your fault, it's your fault your father is dead, it's your fault you're all cut up, it's your fault I'm like this, oh yeah, and it's your fault that you can't seem to keep your friends. Lizzie gasped. “Yes, child, I know about you losing your friends. You are a fucking little dumb shit. The world would be much better without you.” Lizzie's eyes filled with water, she didn't talk for the rest of the ride home. The tears rolling down her face got on her Glasgow cuts, and they stung, which made even more salty tears pour out.

Once they got home, Mrs. Woods ran out the door to greet them. “Elizabeth! My baby, it's been hours! So how are you darling?” On a piece of paper, Lizzie wrote down what the doctor said she shouldn't do because Dean said they didn't have much time, so they glued her cuts shut with special glue. Mrs. Woods nodded in understanding and told Lizzie that there was a surprise in her room.

When Lizzie got up to her room, there, sitting on her bed, next to an open case, was a new violin. Slowly, she walked over to the instrument. Picking it up, Lizzie looked into one of the f-holes to see what information she could gather. Inside, in fancy letters, it read, Stradivarius. The 17 year old screamed with joy, which suddenly became agony as her cuts pulled against the glue, threatening to come apart. Dean raced upstairs to see Lizzie holding the beautiful work of art. “If your mother weren't hear, I'd break that thing, but since I can't, I'm just going to beat you,” Dean said as he rose a fist into the air. He brought it down hard into the girls stomach, causing a bruise. The angry man left the room.

Mrs. Woods came into the room, “Well,” she said, “let's hear you play it.” Lizzie pulled the brand new bow across the expensive strings. It was the sound of Heaven. Mrs. Woods smiled and left the room. Lizzie continued to play, it was a sad, but hopeful song. She didn't feel so lost.

At school the next day, Laura and Danielle saw Lizzie and couldn't help but stare, mouths agape. “What happened?” Laura finally managed to ask.

Lizzie looked around, and then whispered to her friends, “Dean took me to this shack and had me chained down to a bed.” her friends gasped and Lizzie continued on with the details of what happened, and what she was dressed in. She told them everything up to getting home after the hospital. From then on, if Lizzie had anything to say, she just wrote it down. The school day went by very slowly, and if anyone asked what had happened, she just told them the story that the jerk made up.

At home, Lizzie got an unexpected visit from her two friends, Laura and Danielle. She asked them what they were doing here, and they told her that they thought she texted them asking them to come over. Lizzie just shook her head with a puzzled look, but decided to let her friends in anyway, bringing them up to her room. A few minutes later, Dean burst through the door, and hit Laura on the dead with a frying pan and knocked her out. Before any of them had a chance to react, he did the same thing with Danielle.

“You told them what I did, I told you not to tell!” Dean yelled angrily. Lizzie shook her head, tears streaming down her face. The crazed man grabbed the two passed out girls and dragged them down the stairs, and down more stairs into the basement. Lizzie solemnly followed. When he turned on the light, she saw three chairs. Two were facing one way, and the other was facing the other two. Dean chained Laura and Danielle to two of the chairs so that they wouldn't be able to move when they woke up. “Sit,” Dean said to Lizzie. The third chair was a more complex chair, it had a metal strap for her head, along with arm and leg straps. When she sat, Dean strapped her arms and then her legs to the chair so tight, that it hurt. Last, he strapped her head so that she couldn't look away.

An hour or so later, Lizzie's two friends woke up puzzled and dazed. “Where are we?” Laura asked. Lizzie just shook her head, sobbing silently.

“It's not your fault,” Danielle said, struggling to break free. Dean came down the stairs, seeming all too excited. Lizzie just shook her head miserably, hating herself. Dean pulled a razor one might shave with from his pocket.

“Who to cut first?” Dean said. Laura opened her mouth, about to say something, but then Danielle spoke up, “I'll go first,” she said. Both Laura and Lizzie said, simultaneously, “Danielle, no!”

“Dean, just take me, spare them, kill me,” Lizzie said in severe pain, emotionally and physically. Dean shook his head and uncovered a table that had a white cloth on it. Underneath the cloth were sharp, silver, metal objects, much like what he had used to torture Lizzie with.

“If I killed you now, what fun would all these be?” Dean said turning to Danielle with the shaving razor. Bringing it to the girl's face, he pressed hard and ripped off a small bit of skin. It didn't appear that it had hurt Danielle.

She said, “Is that all you've got? Wow, that's pretty lame.” Lizzie shook her head at the idiocy of her friend. Dean set the razor down on the table and picked up another object. He brought it to Danielle's face where the razor had left skin hanging off of her face. He pulled down, tearing her whole cheek off. Danielle screamed this time. After she stopped screaming, he took a knife and jabbed it into her stomach, yanked upwards, towards her heart, and severing her lungs completely apart. Danielle screamed before her mouth filled with liquid, and then she coughed up blood. Then she stopped moving altogether.

Laura screamed, Lizzie cried harder than ever, “Don't do this, Dean!” The man was laughing maniacally. “I hate you! I HATE YOU!” Elizabeth screamed, tears pouring.

“SILENCE!” Dean yelled, smacking Lizzie and ripping open a part of her Glasgow cut. Laura gasped. Dean turned to face her. “Your turn,” he said darkly. With a clean knife off of his little table, he stabbed it into laura's arm until it hit bone. Tears filled the girl's eyes. Blood trickled down her arm, with a swift move down her arm, then up and out, Dean sliced off a deep chunk of skin. Then he grabbed another item from the table. It was a hammer, Lizzie became slightly confused. Then Dean razed the hammer and sung it into Laura's ribs. This time, Laura screamed.

Lizzie also screamed, “Nooooo!!!!” she cried. The rest of her facial cuts ripped open. Dean dropped the hammer on Laura's foot. The next item he grabbed was silver, and resembled the razor a barber might have used to shave a man back in the 1800s. With one swift movement, Dean slit Laura's throat. Blood sprayed everywhere, Laura appeared to be having a seizure and then suddenly her movement stopped. She too was dead.

Dean put everything away, and then unstrapped Lizzie and her two murdered friends and left the room. Lizzie slid from her chair and onto her knees. With her face in her hands, silently sobbing. The poor girl threw up as she tried to stand. Crawling, Lizzie made her way towards the two chairs, her bloody friends were in. She put an arm around each one, and hanging onto them to keep herself from falling to the floor again. She just cried there for a few minutes. Lizzie got some of their blood on her, but she was beyond caring. She just sobbed. Once the girl got the strength to stand up on her own, she closed the eyes of her friends lifeless bodies and kissed each one on the head. Slowly, Lizzie made her way up the stairs, using the railing for support.

Lizzie didn't care anymore, about anything. Slowly, and with a few stumbles, she made her way up to her room. With her door wide open, Elizabeth got out her new violin. She began playing the song, Largo, one of her favorites by J.S. Bach. She heard movement behind her, but didn't stop playing. There was a sharp pain in her back suddenly, Lizzie felt warm blood start to trickle. The pain quickly moved up her back. The violin dropped and broke. There was evil laughter coming behind. Elizabeth collapsed as everything faded into black.