Dave Pelzer. First Draft.

Sarah lay on her bed. Completely still. Quiet as a mouse. It was a glorious Sunday's evening. Sunlight poured through the thin, pink childish curtains that remained drawn. There was always a definite division between the outside and the house. She was supposed to be meeting her friends Tamsyn and Sam that night, but as of yet, hadn't had the courage to leave her room to go and ask her Dad.
The smell of a Sunday's roast dinner had wafted up the stairs and lingered in the air of her bedroom. Her tummy rumbled. 'Shush!' She thought to herself. She couldn't make any noise. It was the school sports day tomorrow. 'Hopefully Dad will have bought extras for my packed lunch.' Sarah began fantacising about the big cheese and onion pastie that she would have as her next meal. Her Dad didn't have the time or the commitment to make her a proper lunch to take to school, so she always got a cheese and onion pastie. Most days, she'd just throw it in the bin at lunchtime. After eating them for so long, she'd grown tired of the same dry pastry and thick chunky filling that left an awful stench on her breath. But tonight, she felt especially hungry. 'A pastie would be delicious!'
Back to reality. Sarah focused her gaze back on the pages of the book she was holding. Malory Towers. Must of been the fifth time she'd read this same book? She loved her books. She would just get herself lost in them in the evening, and go to bed dreaming that she was head girl at a boarding school far away.
Suddenly, the voices from downstairs became audiable. They were on a crescendo. Her voice, then his, then hers. Sarah froze, like a deer in headlights. She tried to slow her breathing but couldn't. She knew what was coming. Cutlery crashed down onto porcelin and suddenly, there were feet ascending the staircase. Stomping. Sarah closed her eyes. Closed them so tight. At the speed of light, she began wondering what she could push against the door so that it wouldn't budge, but then the handle creaked downwards and the door flung open hitting the wall and bouncing back. It was too late.
Sarah didn't say a word. She just looked. Her eyes said everything. She was petrified. She stared at the towering man, and clenched her fist around her book.
"WHY?!" he bellowed.
She didn't respond. She had been here a thousand times before and she didn't know the answer to the question. A year of this had given her quite a thick skin.
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?" he asked again, raising his voice even more. Sarah still said nothing. She did not cry. She did not blubber. She did nothing, thinking that was the best thing to do. He approached her bed in the corner of the room and gave her one hard smack across the face.
This, was new. In doing this, he had opened the flood gates, and her glassy eyes began to pour out floods of tears. She looked up at him, her eyes asking, 'What are you doing?!'. She felt a sudden flash of pain again as her head jerked ther other way.
"Stop it Daddy, please!" Sarah begged. She didn't know what to do. She was cornered.
"WHY WONT YOU TALK? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?".
"I...don't...know!...I...don't...know!...Nothing...is...wrong." She stuttered through tears.
A whack against her thigh. Sarah yelped out in pain, only to notice another figure standing in the doorway. She had a sort of sadistic smile on her face. And for some stupid reason, she looked to the woman for help. Pleading. Surely even she could see that this wasn't right?
The book was snatched from Sarah's hand making her look back at her father. He forcefully walked over to the window, flung the curtains back, opened one of the windows and threw the book down to the ground.
Thud.
"LET ME SAY THIS NICE AND SLOWLY FOR YOU SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND. WHY.....WILL.....YOU.....NOT.....TALK?".
Sarah could barely breathe for her crying. She didn't have the answer to the question. What could she do?
Slap. She felt the pain running through the coarse of her body from her leg to her head and she winced, recoiling her bruised leg. BANG. Her yellow clock from her bedside table shattered into pieces as it hit her leg.
She lost all control of her breathing. There was no way out. She closed her eyes and just hoped that if she closed them tightly, then maybe, maybe she'd wake up out of this nightmare.
There was movement in the room. The single silent audience member was on the move. Sarah peeked her eyes open. The woman walked over to the end of Sarah's bed and grabbed a hold of all of her treasured teddies and threw them out the window onto the grass below. It was a massacre.
Sarah had no grip of her thoughts. They were racing at a million miles per hour. She just wanted it to stop. The man smacked her on the knee again to bring her back into reality.
"I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU FIVE MINUTES TO THINK OF AN ANSWER, AND THEN I'M GOING TO COME BACK AND YOU ARE GOING TO TELL ME!"
She stared up at him. Searching his eyes. Where was her Daddy. Oh why hadn't she just had the courage to ask if she could play out, then this would have never happened.
The couple left the room as abruptly as they entered it. The squeak of the door handle. The descent down the stairs.
Sarah fell silent. She didn't want them to hear her wimpering. She nursed her legs the best she could. And she lay there. Waiting.