Fighting The Storm

Crystal's eyes were glazed over with tears, she stood, slumped against the brick wall that seperated the parking lot from the beach, scratching her arms excessively, ripping off old scabs that resided on her arms from her mother. She had a thing for scratching herself, hard, when she was nervous, or under a lot of stress, and that seemed to be the main reasons she was scratching hard at her irritated skin. Her mother never cared what Crystal had done with her body, as long as she had some sort of punching bag, sex slave to sell out to her customers, she was fine. If Crystal died, her mother would be furious, not because she had died, because her business was ruined.

She let a long sigh and stared around, people were coming in and out of the beach constantly, some looked happy, some looked sad. But most were happy, a small smile came onto her lips as she saw a mother holding her five year old daughters hand, leading her into the parking lot, where she tripped and her mother seemed so worried about the little girl. She rubbed the falling tears from her face, hearing manly laughter to ruin the small moment she had just watched. She turned her head slightly to the side, men were walking her way, and a couple of them were staggering around like drunken idiots. She dug her nails into her skin as she scratched harder backing up firmly against to the wall, hoping not to be noticed by the men.

One of the men staggered towards her, but he probably did not even notice her presence he was too drunk, and he tripped over her bags, causing him to fall first into the hard cement ground. He let out a groan and looked up at Crystal, glaring daggers at her. "What the fuck was that for girl?!" He yelled at her, she could see the fire in his eyes, that reminded her much of her mother, and the moments where she'd get so angry at her, she'd push Crystal down the stairs, or lock her in the basement for days with out food, water and shower and somewhere to go to the bathroom. It was horrible.

She flinched as he got up, wobbling around, "Answer me!" He yelled in her face, feeling his hot alcoholic breath on her face. She turned her head, to avoid eye contact with him. He growled and reached out to grab her bruised arm, keeping a tight grip on her arm. He was yelling at her, her mind blanked, and memories of her mother flashed through her mind, causing her to start crying, "I-I-I'm sorry! D-Don't hit me!" She whimpered, bringing up her free hand to scratch hard at the back of her head.

"Hey! Get lost!" Someone yelled, the man whipped around, and stared at one man running over, he seemed to look even more angrier then the man in front of Crystal. The man let go of her arm and surrendered back, after seeing five others run up behind him. She let out a small, unheard sob and looked down. She slid down the wall, on to her butt. The man that had just saved her was now kneeling down in front of her, he reached out, she flinched, but he only rubbed the tears off of her cheeks. "I'm James, but you can call me Jimmy... I'm sorry for the awkwardness on the phone, I was just in shock, I'd never think I'd be able to see you again... " She stared at him, with wide eyes.

"T-Thank you" She choked out, sending him a small hurtful smile. "C-Crystal, can I H-hug you?" the words that came out of his mouth shocked her at first, but she softened up, and nodded, she opened her arms and he pulled her into a hug, a tightly fatherly hug, for the first time of her life, she could remember the warm feeling of his arms, from when she was younger. This man made her feel safe, he made her feel wanted, all of those unwanted worries she felt deep down, were gone. She dug her face into his shoulder, tears flooding down her face, I really found him... He's really alive, this is all real.