“Why do you always do this to me?” I screamed at him as I stomped up the stairs of our house. “Autumn,” he shouted, “Get down here right now!” I ignored him, ran to my room, and slammed the door shut. With tears pouring out of my eyes and broken sobs breaking out, I dived onto my bed and made a mound of blankets and pillows to cover myself. Why does he always choose to talk or say something mean to me first, why does he always say stop doing that when my sister is doing the same thing, at the same time? Why does he need to do this? What reason does he have? No reason whatsoever.
     “Autumn, get down here right now,” he yelled again. When he heard no answer he started running up the stairs to come at me yet again, like he did downstairs. The sound brought another wave of tears. Can’t you just stay away and let me be? Why can’t you just let me be alone with my own thoughts? “Autumn!” he growled as he ripped off the blankets covering my face, “By tomorrow I want to see not a single book in your room or in your hands, you got it?”
“Yes,” I whispered too afraid to say no. He left me in my room to work on something. He was the one who brought all my torment, my sorrow, and my loss. He was also my supposed father. I always thought of him as a rock, hard and stone-cold on the inside and the outside. It always like that when I said I wanted to do something, he would say “It doesn’t matter”. It was always like he didn’t care about anything except his own well-being and happiness. Then when I did my favorite hobbies or my favorite activities he would always somehow be able to force me to do what he wanted me to do. I had never felt this way except when my mother passed away when I was young. She had received multiple shots to her head. They had found her in her bed. I still suspected him of murdering my mother.
     That hour left me wondering why did I never fight back?, why have I did never try to run away from him? Then I remembered all the times he hurt me both emotionally and physically. He has threatened to and has taken away everything I have loved or liked to do. My hobbies, my books, my social activities, everything. He always blamed it on my favorite hobbies or things to do instead of things like swimming or after school activities. He has hit me for something, I have no control over, such as remembering something. Remembering something is hard to do it’s always my memory that gets in the way. He says I could improve my memory, but how can you improve something you were born with? I don’t have amnesia, but it feels that way, never able to remember anything. This time was different from the others, before it was only either emotionally or physically, today it was both.
     After finishing my rant of anger my throat felt dry and parched, I got up and quietly walked downstairs, to the kitchen. On the way to the kitchen I passed my father. As a passed him I clenched my teeth and my hands balled into fist, as I tried to stop the image of me throttling him. Throttle until he can’t hurt me, until he can’t touch me. After I safely passed him, I sighed in relief, and allowed myself to continue with my violent fantasies. At the kitchen I prepared for the next day, then went back upstairs. Once I got up stairs I quickly brushed my teeth and changed, hoping my dad wouldn’t pass me again. I choose a book to read even though he forbid me to read he forgot to close any loopholes. He forgot I could still read today. Surveying my bookshelf I choose Black Beauty by Walter Farley, a thin book in comparison to the rest, but still one of my favorites. Holding the book, I closed my eyes and remembered the last hour.
  “Hey Autumn, can I talk to you about something?” my father asked.
  “Maybe, what is it about?”
  “It’s about school, you need to talk to your friends more instead of keeping your head in your books.”
  “If you are saying I have to return the books, no way.”
  “Return your books.”
  “Were you paying attention to what I just said? I said no way”
  “If you don’t I will,” he said calmly
  “NO!” I shouted at him.
  “Fine, I’ll do it.”
  “Why do you always do this to me?” I screamed.
     After he bid me goodnight I carefully closed the door and turned to back my book, sighing as I sat down on my bed and began to read. The book helped me ease into the night. After reading the first five chapters I set the book down on the ground, turned out the lights, and went to bed.

*****
     Later that night I woke up, unsure of what woke me. Outside was still dark and the clock on the table said 2:23. I rolled out of bed to make it seem like I was still asleep and walked to my window to look outside. The pale crescent moon shone coldly upon me and the stars twinkled. Suddenly a sharp pain brought me back to my room. It started with my head and slowly worked its way to my toes, all while it froze me. My mouth was slowly opening, opening to let a scream out. I shut my mouth and locked the scream inside of me. The scream would surely bring him to my room.
     It seemed like forever when the freezing finally stopped. The little warmth I conserved, returned. I thought about walking downstairs to go read a book or do something I wanted to do since he was asleep. Creeeeak the door suddenly opened. I spun around quickly to face to door, to face my father. My hands balled in fists to protect myself from him. When I turn around no one was by the door. Is there a ghost around here? I didn’t believe in ghosts, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist. Maybe I should get a glass of water, I must be hyperventilating.
     A glass of water moved around the corner of the hall. However, it was suspended in mid-air with nothing supporting it. I’m sure I didn’t see that there. When I saw it glass of water, the glass dropped to the ground, but neither broken nor any water spilled. Either there is a ghost or something has happened to me. I picked up the water and carefully observed it to make sure it had not been tampered with or had any poison in it. Unknowingly, I flicked my hand quickly and without any notice one of my pencils flew out of my pencil holders and pierced the ceiling. Better get it down before he finds out. I carefully stood on my bed and plucked the pencil from the ceiling. Making sure the noise didn’t wake him up, I rolled quietly into my bed and began dreaming of revenge.

*****

     Wind whistled through my window and the sky turned a bleak gray. Red, gold and green leaves fell from the tree outside my window. It seemed like only just yesterday when he took away my favorite things in life, reading, drawing, any creative activity he said was rubbish. It seemed as though he had torn a hole out of me and myself, my hobbies, my friends, and my true family were leaking away through that hole. I had no way to patch it up. The only way to stop it for a short while was books. Books of wizards, goblins, fantasy, and fiction. The library was too far away to get there by walking. There was only one way to get there yet it was risky. Telekinesis.
     I had been experimenting for about a month now since I had got the power. I would wake up in the darkest part of night and experiment with moving small items like pencils to my liking. After one week of tiring experimentation I moved to larger items such as my bed. Lifting up my bed was the hardest thing I have ever done. After lifting it for what seemed like forever, I tried to carefully set it down. The bed hit the wall as soon I had almost completely set it down, the hit cause the bed to groan and rattle. I barely managed to push it back in place when my supposed father came, dragging his feet to my room scold at me yet again. “Autumn, go to sleep it is in the middle of the night!” he roared, angry to be woken up in the darkest hour of the night. I rolled back into bed and blink, the world I knew was once again shroud in darkness.

*****

     Saturday, finally; no homework, no school, no yelling. My parents were outside the house, driving to go to grocery shopping and maybe get a quick bite to eat without me and little sister. Squid is now what they call my sister. She was in some volleyball class with her friends. She was almost, if not as mean as him. I would have gone too, but I needed time to sit and think with my own thoughts. Maybe a book is what you need my brain whispered. “How am I supposed to get an actual, good book if I have no transport?”, I asked myself aloud. The answer came to me as soon as I asked it. Telekinesis. I sucked in a deep breath, closed my eyes and focused on my destination, the Library.
     I opened my eyes to find myself in front of a large building filled with books. Behind me a number of fountains sprayed water on a group of kids standing in swimming suits, who squealed when they realized they were going to get wet again. My hair was knotted from the wild ride and sprinkled with leaves. Not as bad as I thought, a few leaves, but no blood I thought as a inspected my hair. So glad I remembered my library card, at least this visit will be more interesting than the last.
     I strolled through the doors and walked to the fiction section, pausing only to stop by the “new books” section. Ah, they finally got that new book Winter. I plucked it from the shelves and continued to the fiction section. I already had a book list stored in my brain. “Ok, Warriors, Hunger Games, Heroes of Olympus...”, I muttered to myself as I picked them up from the many of bookshelves at the library. After finishing my list from downstairs, I moved to the second level. Titles flashed by as I put the books in my bag, Twilight, Lunar Chronicles, The Maze Runner, Charlotte’s Web, Iron Trial, The City of Ember. I walked downstairs lugging my heavy bag of books. I checked out my books, strided out of the library, and used my telekinesis to get home again. I had just quickly stashed away my books when I heard the garage door open and my parents come home.
  “Autumn, I saw that books!” he yelled.
  “What book?” I asked innocently. I just put away my books in my hiding spot, when I realized he was coming to my room, he must have seen it. Notice sooner I scolded at myself.
  “Give me that book right now, so I can rip it up.”
  “That’s it I’m going, I’m not going to end up dead like Mom.”
  “How do you know about that?”
  “I guessed, I didn’t know, but you proved me right.” The harsh words caused him to freeze in place all while I prepared to run away. I brought my backpack and packed my few belongings and ran to the forest outside of my house.

*****

     Pant, pant, pant. I had been running for about a day. Trees flashed by me as I ran. Maybe some food? my stomach wondered. I concentrated and a bunch of salmon flopped out of the river. I held out a piece of flint and steel, I had only seen my father and a few of my cousins who were boy scouts do this before. I tried to copy what I had seen, soon after I started scraped the flint against the steel got tired. Concentrating, I held the flint and steel using my powers and scraped them together, quickly making a fire. I skinned the fish using a knife I stored in my backpack, scrape, scrape, scrape. After skinning them as best as I could, I put the fish over the fire and began to cook them.

     The next day I travel to the marketplace which was located only five blocks away from where the forest touched the town. I was browsing marketplace for some more gear for my campsite when I heard a strange noise. Clomp, clomp, clomp, a suspicious looking man walked swiftly towards me. I turned to run away, but he caught up to me in a few seconds. “Um, miss? Is your name Autumn?”
  “Yes,” I answered the suspicious figure cautiously.
  “I have a package from your father, I believe.” He handed me a briefcase.
  “The letter is inside.”
  “Thanks.”
I quickly walked to my “campsite”, which was not far outside the city, and slid into my tent. Opening up the briefcase I saw there was a letter, just as the man said. “Dear Autumn,” it read, “I want to talk to you. Meet me on Autumn Rd. First building on the right.”
“Love, Dad” How could he say love when I feel like this? Maybe I should meet him and end him. It could be a trap. But it would be better to turn and meet my fate instead of trying to run away from it. Either way, one way or another I’ll meet him by my terms or his. I walked to the nearest bus stop and got on the first bus to Autumn Rd to meet my fate.

*****

     As I stepped into the building on Autumn Rd, bright, white lights flashed on. When the lights flashed on, illuminating a tall figure, clothed in black, standing across the room. “Glad you could come, I was wondering when you would get here,” the person uttered in a hoarse voice
“Take off your hood,”I commanded him. His hood was flipped off and the face was illuminated by the lights. This face was not exactly the same one I knew from when I ran away, it seemed to come straight out of my nightmares. My father. He face was the same as when I last saw him except for a new red scar which stretched across his face and stopped just beneath his eye. There was another scar, tiny and half-healed, resting next to his eyebrow.
  “You do know why I met you here right?”
  “No,” I said cautiously.
  “I called you here to use your powers for the greater good.”
  “How do you suppose that?”
  “I provoked you to see if you have powers, to awaken them and use them for the greater good.”
  “Liar!” I shouted,”You never knew I had powers, and if I did, you would use them to gain power, not to help those in need.”
  “Ha,” he laughed, “As if I needed your powers when I have greater powers than you!” Great. Just what I needed, someone trying to kill me.
     His scarred hands reached out, palms up and he concentrated. Dead hands reached and clawed their way out of the ground, breaking the wooden floorboards. After the hands came heads and torsi, the rest of the skeletons’ body. The army of skeletons shambled towards me, eager to kill me and rip me to death. I ripped some the poles which held up the ceiling from the ground, then hurled them one at a time towards him and his skeleton army. After using up all the poles I used telekinesis to fly to avoid his undead soldiers. Pulling up pieces of wood from the ruined floorboards I hurled them towards him. A few pierced through his clothing and into his flesh. “Agh!” he yelled.
     He spread his palms out again and used his power once again, more floorboards cracked and dead bats wrestled out of the ground to kill me too. More enemies, just what I needed, at least they aren’t as dangerous as the skeletons below. His hands must be what he uses to summon his dead beasts. I dodged the dead bats, killed a few of them and kept throwing more shards of whatever I could find, dodge, slash, throw, slash, slash, dodge, throw.
     After he slumped to the ground, unconscious, the skeletons and bats stopped pursuing me, dropped to the ground and crumbled into piles of bones and dust. I raised my hands and willed myself to fly yet again, however, nothing happened. What happened? Why don’t I have my powers? A voice that sounded like my mother’s answered me, “These powers only come when there is a great evil nearby” I looked around for my mother, but she was nowhere to be seen. After overcoming my disappointment, I stepped out the building and walked into my bright future, leaving my past behind.