There is nothing to fear but fear itself, Becca A [good book recommendations TXT] 📗

"Bree, go hide under the bed, hurry!" I whisper, pushing her in the room. "Why? Whats happening?" she asks, her eyes wide. "Dad's drunk, remember what happens when he is? You have to hide, right now!" I say, rushing to get her safe. "What about you? You have to hide too!" She says stubbernly. "No, I cant. Im going to make sure he dosn't hurt mom" I say, giving her a little push.

"Cindy?" our dad calls out, his words slurred. "Go!" I hiss, and Bree dives under the bed. "Im right here" mom calls out, she sounds concerned. I go a little ways down the stairs, so I can see them. Dad goes on, swaring and yelling unapproite things. When he starts accusing her of cheating on him, thats when he starts hitting her.

She keeps saying she didn't, and she didn't, she never would. I run down the stairs, and push him. "Stop!" I scream at him, trying to make him stop hitting my mother. Shes on the floor, trear mixing with blood on her face. "Becca, don't do it" she cries quitly, pleadingly. He slaps me across the face, sending me backwards. I can taste blood in my mouth, and I feel my cheek throbbing.

"Richard! Please don't hurt her" mom pleads when he comes twords me. He kicks me once in the gut, and goes over to mother. He grabs her hair, and continues hitting her, ranting on like a mad man. "Run Becca, please, just leave!" mom manages to croak out. I get up off the floor, and run up the stairs

"Bree! Come on, quick!" I say, throwing open the bedroom door. She crawls out from under the bed, and she barely flinches when she sees my face, we're used to seeing it. "Whats happening?" she asks. "We have to leave, Mom told us to run" I say, throwing random clothes in a bag that I always kept handy.

"Why?" she asks, almost crying. I don't answer, and throw some of her clothes in the bag too. Tears are threatining to spill over in my eyes. "Come on" I say, grabbing her hand, and pulling her after me as I run downstairs. When I see it, I almost can't belive it. Shes dead, blood on the floor, a puddle around her. Father is kneeling next to her, cursing and crying.

Thats how it always is, he comes home drunk and takes it out on us. He feels bad afterward, but he still keeps yelling. "Dont look" I whisper to Bree, shealding her away from the aftermath. She already say, and is bawling. We run out the door, and out into the dark night, crying and not caring where we're going.

When we stop, we're out of breath and even worse, lost. In the woods. Me and Brianna colaspe, ghasping to catch our breath. "I-Is mommy dead?" she asks finally. Thats how I know shes scared, she only says mommy of daddy when shes scared.

"Yeah, she is. But don't worry, we did what she wanted us to do, she she'll be watching us" I said, trying to comfert her. "But we'll never see her again" she sobbed. I was crying myself too, but it was more silent. "Don't think of it like that. We will, she'll send us signs, just look really close at things, and you can see her" I said, putting an arm around her trembiling shoulders.

I wasn't really positive about what I had just said, but it seemed to calm her down. "Where are we going to go?" she whispered. I didn't even know where we were at the moment, so I didn't bother thinking of the future. "We'll keep walking, and when we find someone, they'll help us." I said. But there was the 'if someone finds us' part I left out. Im pretty sure she already knew that too.

We both curled up close, and used the blanket I threw in the bag. Brianna fell asleep after a couple minuntes. I stayed up, unable to fall asleep. I recaled everything that had happened tonight. He killed her. She was dead on the floor, her own blood puddiling around her. But I listened to her, I took Bri and ran. I did my job, but what about her? Her job was to protect us, now she can't.

I stared into space, those thoughts running ramped in my head. Slowly, I dirfted to a timeless sleep.

When I woke up, I noticed the space next to me was empty. I jumpped up, alarmed. I quickly survayed the area around me. Bri was going through the bag I had grabbed in our hurry out of the house. She had changed clothes. I almost smiled at the thought, I really couldn't belive she would change ourside.

I however didn't mind staying in my jeans and red tank top with my blue areo hoodie. I relaxed, and I heard my stomach growl. I was regreting not to pack food. "Now what?" Bri asked, as if everything was normal. I admired her courage. "We walk" I say, grabbing the bad and swinging it over my shoulder.

We start our walk. It looks to be about mid-morning, birds are chirping, and you can smell the spring air. I could hear the leaves crackling under our feet. I honestly had no idea where we were going, but it was better than staying put. I looked over at Bri every once in a while, she was looking at everything, concentrating on each thing. I relized she was taking my advice from last night.

I looked too. The small white flowers, I saw our mother in there. She loved flowers, she grew them in her own little garden. Thinking about her made my eyes feel misty, and I thought of somthing else.

We walked in silence for the most part, once in a while Bri would point things out. I suddenly stopped, seeing movment in the bushes. I saw brown fur. I motioned for Bri to stay quite, and threw a rock in front of the bush. A brown wolf left out. Its green eyes were bright, but oddly fimiler. Me and Bri jumpped back, so did the wolf. Itf fur looked soft, more like a pet. It didn't look dangerous at all. But looks can be deciving.

The wolf sat down, and watched us. It almost looked relived. I shook my head, "Walk backwards" I told her quitly. We took small steps back. The wolf stayed put, and we turned around, and walked away.

Let me tell you, that scared the hell out of me. I didn't look back, just kept walking forward, but kepts my hearing sharp for any sound of the wolf fallowing. When we were atleast a mile away, I sighed in relif. "I dont think it would have hurt us" Bri said, seeming sad to leave it. "I know, but we couldn't take the chance" I said. Neither of us said anything else for a while. We walked until it was dark, nouthing more eventfull happened.

We settled down, hungrey and tired. When I heard Bri's stomach rumble, I decided to at least try to look for food. "I'll be right back" I said, standing up briskly. "Where are you going?" she demanded. "Im going to look for food, if anything happens, scream, I won't go far" I said, and left without more words.

I walked around, seeing nouthing. Finally, I went back. On the way back, though I noticed a bush of berries. I knew them, but forgot the name, they wern't poisons. I grabbed as many as I could and went to where I left Bri, she was there. I handed her half of the berries and sat down next to her.

"You know, we're proubly going to die out here" Brianna pointed out. "Yeah, but there is no way Im going to die by giving up" I said. "and Im not letting you eaither" I added. She nodded, and ate the berries. I ate mine, they were tangy but sweet, and the juices gushed over my tough. I licked my lips when I finished. It wasn't nearly enough to fill me, but it did some edge off the hunger.

It was dark down, the sun was gone. I looked over at Brianna, she was staring off into space. I relized shes changed alot in a day, she used to never shut up, not she was quite, and she seems to have aged years in a day. I didn't know this Brianna, and Im not sure if I like it more than the old one.

"It'll all end up being okay, no matter what" I say, looking off at the sky. Silance passed through us. "Yeah, sure" she mumbled, and grabbed a blanket and curled up, slowly drifting to sleep. I leaned back aginst a tree, and watched the trees. The birds were gone, no more sounds. My eyes slowly closed, and before I fell asleep, I heard a howl.

I opened my eyes, and suprised that I wasn't cold. I looked at my clothes. I was clean mostly, just some leaves, and when I looked closer, brown fur. I shook off the idea of the wolf comming back. I brushed myself off, and went over to where Brianna lay, sleeping. I gentaly shook her, "Wake up". She jumpped up quickly, confussion crossed her face, then reconization.

"We have to keep going" I said, it was the afternoon already. Bri didnt show any emotion, just stood up and started walking. I think I missed the old, talkitive Bri. I went in front of her to lead. After I while of silent walking, I about lost it. "Say somthing Bri" I said, looking forward. "There is nothing to say. Moms dead, we're lost, and have some mystery dog stalking us" she snapped at me.

I stopped and wizzed around. "Why do you have to be so down about everything?" I ask angerly. "Because there is nothing good about this, and we wouldn't be lost if you would have paied attion to where we were going" she snapped. I was taken aback, she had just blamed me for all of this. "You proubly could have saved mom, too. But you didn't, and its all your fault!" Bri screamed at me.

I honestly didn't know how we