Can someone help me?

I watch the fight through the crack in the door. “It’s all your fault!” screamed mom. Her fists clenched. Then dad growled “Don’t blame me, you’re the one who wanted a daughter in the first place.” Then mom's arm shot out and punched dad in the face. I watched as blood poured from his nose. I began to shake in fear. Dad screamed at mom then he punched her to the ground and grabbed her neck. My body stiffened like a wooden plank. I listened as mom began to choke. I wanted to jump out and help her but I knew that I could not. I waited until the last possible minute. Mom was chocking and I couldn’t take it anymore so I quickly ran through the door and grabbed my dad by the arm. I tried to get him away from mom’s neck but I failed. He turned to me and grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently. I felt dizzy and unwell. When he let go of me he punched me in the face. I had two black eyes, a cracked lip and a blood nose, as soon as I could, I escaped to my bedroom where I closed the door panting, afraid. I am all alone in this terrifying world.
The next day, I went to school, luckily it is only just down the street because I can’t rely on mom or dad to drive me there. When I walked in the door, the teacher looked at me concerned. She pulled me to the side and asked me if everything was alright at home. When I heard the word home my back stiffened in fear. When nothing came out of my mouth, she pulled me close and stared straight into my eyes. “Nobody is going to hurt you. You are safe with me” A tear drop left my eye and I nodded, reassured. “Come with me to my car and we will take a drive.”
When I got in her car I asked her where we were going. I’m going to get into trouble with my parents I just know it! Once I buckled my seatbelt, she began to drive in silence. In the silence my head was hammering with questions and uncertainty. About halfway through the drive while stopped at a traffic light, she turned to me and asked if I was okay. I didn’t feel okay. I asked her where we were going. She told me that she had some nice friends who love kids who would like me to come and live with them. I didn’t understand what she was saying. The rest of the drive was in silence. Tears fell rapidly. Was I in trouble? Were my parents in trouble? Would I ever see mom and dad again? Did I want to see them again? When we arrived, I opened the car door and walked slowly towards the front door of the house. The lady rung the doorbell and in what felt like hours the door opened revealing a thin young lady in a bathrobe and white fluffy slippers. She invited me in and asked me some questions about me. I was unsure if I should answer her questions or not so I gave in and answered them truthfully. After the lady left, the kind woman named Jeanne walked me through to the kitchen and presented me with a bag of chips and a glass of milk. I devoured the chips and drunk the milk very quickly. Jeanne looked slightly shocked but soon recovered and then offered to show me to my new bedroom. I followed her down the hall and through the third door on the left into a small cozy room with a small leopard print bed, a small wardrobe and a writing desk and chair. I took off my coat, changed into the night gown that was left on the bed. I turned on the TV across from my bed and cried my eyes out. What had I done wrong? Disney channel was playing on the TV. Why were all the kids on the show laughing when life obviously wasn’t a joking matter? After about half an hour of the show I began to drift off to sleep. I dreamed that I was in a cage and I couldn’t breathe. The cage was closing in on me and I was fighting to survive. I woke up panting at around 3:30am in the morning. I was starving. I knew that I could get into trouble by stealing food though and I didn’t know how Jeanne and her husband Rob would react so I stayed in my warm bed until sleep consumed me once again. In the morning I was presented with a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with sliced tomato and sliced avocado on toast. It was so much more than I imagined. Jeanne and Rob were really nice. I was already starting to get used to them when the doorbell rang presenting some pretty scary news. I was told that I would have to face my parents in court today so that Jeanne and Rob could gain full custody of me. I was so afraid. When the time came, Rob and Jeanne and I rode in the car to the court house. I was crying, I was so unsure of what would come of this court meeting. When we arrived, Rob turned to me and told me to relax and breathe slowly in and out. When we walked through the door and took a seat, at first it was really quiet. Then something took me by surprise, a hand grabbed me from behind and shook me violently. Where did I know that shake from? I hesitated, then I turned around slowly. I was right, it was my father with his fists firmly clenched and his jaw tight. The judge told the courtroom to take their seats. In the end my parents were charged with child abuse and neglect and were sent to jail. I was officially adopted by Jeanne and Rob. As we left I felt like a dagger of anxiety had been removed from my body. Suddenly I felt like things would be okay. Except that’s not what happened. The week after the event in the courtroom I became violently sick with Influenza. Jeanne and Rob were arguing in the kitchen and then all I could hear was a whispering sound. After about thirty minutes of this, they entered my bedroom and Jeanne yanked me out of bed. I fell on the floor beside my bed. Rob began to kick me, cursing out loud. I was afraid. What had I done to make these extremely nice people turn on me like this? It was all too much. Once Rob was finished, Jeanne picked me up and threw me inside a dark cramped closet and locked the door. As time passed I slowly got used to the darkness and the cold. I lay on the solid concrete with nothing to eat or drink, fading fast. I lost track of time completely. One day there was a loud banging sound on the closet door. I felt like I was going mad. Someone called out 'Is anybody in there?' I slowly began to realize that they were talking to me. I raised my head and screamed out. That was the moment that they knocked the door down and light poured in. There were two officers standing outside the closet. One who was handcuffing Rob and Jeanne and one who as soon as the door came down and he saw me ran in and grabbed me in his arms. At this point I was bruised and pale, unwanted. The next thing I knew, the officer took Mark and Jeanne into police custody and placed them in the back of the Divvy van and drove them away and an ambulance arrived and drove me to the hospital. I could barely move on my own. I was dazed, unsure. When we got to the hospital I was placed in a hospital bed and the nurses gave me a nasal gastric tube, checked my blood pressure, checked my temperature and placed six IV saline bags in my arm via cannula. I was petrified. I was dying. They saved my life literally just in time. When it was time for me to leave the hospital I was placed in another foster home. This time the woman running it seemed nice, but then again so did the last one. The women’s name was Nix and she was an older woman. She wore extreme amounts of makeup. What was she covering? I wonder. She showed me to the kitchen table where we ate a huge and delicious meal of roast chicken, vegetables and baked potato. I had never felt more loved in my life. She showed me to my room and I changed into the gown that she gave me and tried to sleep. It was the best night sleep that l had in a really long time. In the morning, I woke up with a burning sensation shooting through my body. I was so confused. Was I dreaming? I went to sit up but found it far to painful. I began to cry. I was burning. Who had done this? It can’t have been Nix. She was so nice to me. The pain became unbearable. I started to scream. The neighbor who happened to be walking past heard my screaming and ran to the window. He looked inside, concerned and what he found was almost unbelievable. I was lying on the bed, covered head to toe in fire burns. When he saw me he smashed the window with his fists and jumped inside holding his wet jacket over a few of my burns. It had been raining outside, I guess that was a good thing in the end. He rang the ambulance and when they arrived and saw me covered head to toe in blood red fire burns they jumped into action. When I told them how much pain I was in, the Ambulance officers placed a pain killer Wafer under my tongue and let it dissolve. They carefully placed me onto the Ambulance trolley and rolled me into the Ambulance and then they got in and they drove me to the nearest hospital. I was well looked after there. As soon as I arrived, I was rushed into an emergency room where they looked carefully at the burns and then they decided that I needed to have them carefully dressed and I needed to be placed on antibiotics. Following the dressings I was sent home in a wheelchair. But the only problem was that I didn’t have a home. So I waited once again until another care facility was right for me. When I left, while I was on the way we passed where Jeanne and Rob lived and a shiver went down my spine. I had been placed in a wheelchair because of the burns so I couldn’t really move. I was still in pain. When we arrived at the next foster home, we rung the doorbell and instead of facing a woman and man alone, I was standing face to face with four young children and a woman and a man. This is promising, I told myself. The woman’s name was Willow and the man’s name was Rick. The other children ran off to play and called out to me and asked me if I wanted to join them. They were playing hide and seek and I decided to be it and began to count to ten as the other children ran and hid. While I was searching for the other children I realized that I had never truly ever had fun before. There’s a first time for everything and with that thought a big smile lit up my face. Smiling hurt me because of the burns but I actually didn’t care. For the first time in my life. When it was time for dinner, we all ate macaroni and cheese and I enjoyed every single bite. We all stayed up and had a movie night. It was a Disney Marathon. Bedtime came to soon. When it was actually time to go to sleep, I fell asleep and didn’t have even one nightmare. I also didn’t wake up until it was morning. I felt so rested and happy. Breakfast was pancakes with ice cream and strawberries which was by far the best breakfast that I have ever eaten. After breakfast we all went shopping and I purchased five stuffed toys and two tops, two pairs of pants and three dresses. I also got two pairs of new shoes. I was amazed at how well they were all treating me, after all I wasn’t born to Willow and Rick. Following the long shopping day we all had a delicious dinner of Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. I was just overwhelmed with their kindness because I had never had someone be kind to me like this before.
Great days, turned into great weeks following and now that I think about it, even though I was hurt horribly every time I turned around, I guess I was strong enough to beat it after all.