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"It started after my mom died," Ashley started. "he was just so upset that the first time he lashed out at me I thought that he was just heartbroken. I didn't realize the monster he truly was."
The policeman was sitting on one side of the table, video camera on and recorder on. Sitting in front of him were two beautiful girls. One of them had been brutally beaten by her father. That much was clearly obvious. The other one had on wings and he couldn't seem to take his eyes off them. He tried asking her to take them off, what does a girl need with wings that big on for? But she just shook her head. He tried asking her again but he could have sworn one of them had moved. He was afraid to ask again.
"We will get to that in a bit. I just want to say I'm proud of you for having the courage to talk today. I see a lot of girls your age come in here with bruises just like yours and they make a great show of pointing out all the bruises but they don't want anything to happen to the abuser. I have to tell you that if you go through with this, there will be consequences for him. There's no doubt about that. Are you still sure you want to go through with this?"
Ashley looked at Molly who had that same question in her eyes. It was because of Molly that she was here and she knew that speaking her peace would unleash a can of worms surrounding her family. She wasn't sure she was prepared for that, but as she stared into Molly's eyes, something clicked in her mind. Her dad might have been the one who raised her, but Molly and Molly's family was her family. She didn't have anywhere else to turn. Her father had kept her from any family she might have had. The only reason why he didn't keep her away from Molly was because he couldn't be bothered with home schooling. He might be her flesh and blood but Molly and her family did more for her than he ever did, even when Mom was alive.
"I want to do this. He might be related to me, but Molly's family has been more of a family to me than he has." She looked directly into the camera when she said that. The policeman looked a little worried at first, then cleared his throat. "Alright, please continue."
"I didn't know it was going to get so bad. I could always cover up my arms and legs on cold days, but during the summer I hardly ever went anywhere, except over to Molly's house. We would try on clothes and I would have to go into the bathroom to change because I didn't want her to see this huge bruise on my ribcage where my dad had dropkicked me a couple nights before."
Molly's eyes grew big as her friend said that. She remembered it being weird that her best friend since grade school was suddenly shy around her. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen her friend naked. Not like she cared about that kind of thing, but they were always very informal with each other. But it had been... maybe around last summer... that it started getting really bad. Her thoughts seemed echoed in Ashley's next statement.
"It was around August when I finally gave up on seeing any of my friends. My dad would constantly tell me I was too much of a loser to have any friends and if it weren't for school he wouldn't let me go out of the house at all. He didn't see the need for fresh air or sunlight or even freedom. He wanted me to take on the roll of my mother except I never remembered him treating her that way. Sure they had their arguments but I never remember her getting these---" she pointed to her eyes, "or this--" as she rolled up her tank top to reveal several bruises from being kicked down the stairs. The policeman had seen and heard enough. He was ready to do some dropkicking of his own. Instead he just said, "I'll be right back."
Ashley watched in astonishment as he fled the room. "Was it something I did?" She asked Molly, as more tears threatened to fall.
"No, of course not."
"Well then why did he leave? Does he not care at all?"
"of course he does. We all do." At the sight of her friend starting to cry again she wrapped one of her wings around Ashley's shoulder. Ashley looked at Molly and sighed. "thank you, Mol. Thank you for always being my best friend. I love you."
"Awww, I love you too, Ash."
From behind the glass the policeman watched as the one girl broke down and the other girl wrapped her wing (?!?) around her friend. He looked to one of his coworkers for advice. "I have half a mind to take out that girl's father myself."
"Now, Clif, we can't have you arrested for something stupid like that. We need you on our side so you can help that girl and get her safely out of trouble."
Clif looked at Amy, his partner. He knew from that serious look she always gave him that she knew what she was talking about, and beating up the guy who beat up that girl wasn't going to fix anything. But arresting him would.
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