A girl sits in her room. She listens to her father's footsteps as they slowly come towards her room. When her father opens the door she pretends to be asleep, but he knows he makes her face him.

When she opens her eyes he kisses her hard on the mouth. He begins to slowly unbutton her PJ top. She bits his lip hard and he backs away long enough to undress himself. He takes what little clothing she has left off and begins to touch her.

After a few moments of making her squirm and moan he forces her to touch him. He kisses her again harder bruising her lips.

Both the girl and her father hear a car door slam. The father dresses quickly and runs into the den. When she is sure her father is gone for the night she pulls her PJs back on.

Silently she thanks her mother for coming home early, but also curses her going to the pub every night. She thinks of what life had been like before her mother went out every night.

Tears fill her eyes and she begins to feel tired. Closing her eyes she hopes she wakes up early the next morning.

***

With the sun barely risen, the girl slowly, quietly creeps down the stairs into the kitchen. When she finally thinks she won't wake her parents while making their breakfast, she gets down to work.

With the eggs frying in their pans her eyes fall on the cutlery. A freshly sharpened knife catches her attention. As she picks it up she smiles. A voice in the back of her head tells her she can end it. Slowly she presses the cold blade to her soft skin.

Suddenly she drops the knife and screams in terror. Her father wakes and runs down the stairs. Seeing his daughter screaming at nothing he becomes enraged.

The mans fists come to her face as he hits her as hard as he can. Her eyes fill with tears as the voice says to kill him.

Her eyes fall once more on the knife. Her father kicks her again and she reaches for it. Her hand clamps down on the sharp blade causing blood to flow from her hand.

A smile forms on her face as she pulls the knife closer to her. Her blood splatters on the floor and on her clothing. Her grin grows as her father steps back.

She puts the knife into her other hand and looks at her palm. She brings her hand to her lips and licks some of the blood off.

'Do I scare you daddy dearest? You know I was afraid every time mother went out to the pubs. I know that you aren't a bad person, just lonely but I will not be used like this, I am not a toy!' yells the girl at the man she hates so much, 'now I am in control, you can't hurt me any more.'

The girl watches as her father backs slowly into the wall, trapped. She smiles at the fear in his face. She takes the knife to his jaw and traces it lightly, not cutting him in any way. His face falls as she runs the knife down his chest slowly with just enough pressure so he can feel it.

'Please, Linda don't do this to me. Please, I never meant to hurt you. You're right I was lonely. And you were always there, always nice. You never said no, so I thought it was okay.' He says pleading with her. But he could already see he had lost.

She leans over to him and snatches a rope from behind him and ties up his arms. He struggles to get free but Linda overpowers him. Linda wants to kill him.

But Linda just went on with her 'game'. She was enjoying the pain her father was in. He would never again hurt her. Slowly she presses the knife into his arm and watches the blood flow onto the floor.

The blood quickly soaks into her socks. She looks at the man in front of her and screams. She never wants to have him get her dirty in any way again.

The knife trails from his arm to his chest. He screams in pain as he realizes he will die. Linda begins to cut a shape into his chest, a heart.

'You cannot hurt me. This knife will be under my pillow every night. I won't let you hurt me anymore. If you do I will hurt you worse,' was all she says as she walks into the den.

~_^

Linda watches as her mother and father drive off to the pubs. She picks up the phone and dials her boyfriend's number. The ringing makes her smile.

She hears his father yell for him and she smiles again, his voice as he says he'll be over quickly. Linda picks out the knife from the drawer. Humming she puts it down and waits for the door.

As the doorbell rings she walks to get it leaving the knife behind. Smiling at her boyfriend she opens the door and kisses him hard. Putting her fingers though his belt loops she pulls him into the den. She pushes him onto the couch and whispers for him to stay put.

Linda walks back into the kitchen and picks up the knife in her good hand. Slowly she walks back into the den. Smiling she sits on her boyfriend's tummy and smiles at him wickedly.

'You cheated on me. You hit me; you forced me to do things I didn't enjoy. Now you will pay,' she says as she kisses his neck. Watching the fear in his face makes her smile. She puts small cuts onto his arms and laps the blood off.

She forces him to take his shirt off and she cuts the same heart into his chest. His cries of pain are ignored and she cuts deeper then before. With the boy she loves squirming under her she cannot stand it any more.

Linda runs to the kitchen in total pain. When she gets there she suddenly feels better. She calls nine-one-one and finally lets go of her breath. She tells them of the accident and says she can't remember what happened. That she woke up in her kitchen with her boyfriend in the den.

She kneels by the counter and hits her head hard. She puts her hand to the back of her neck and feels blood. She stands woozily, and walks over to the door near the den and collapses.

As people came in Linda pretends to have fainted. As they poke at her with interest they find nothing wrong in any way. The boyfriend says nothing as they poke at him. He was losing blood fast. He is dying. The thought makes Linda smile. Finally free of his abuse.

Linda sighs and says she is fine again. But the doctors want to look again. Looking again they discuss the possibility of mental illnesses.

'The boy said she was the one who did it to him. But she knows nothing of it. She was hit in the head, but it could have been her. She also seems afraid of her father. Maybe sexual abuse. But she seems sane, I don't know,' says one of the doctors as if Linda can't hear him. He walks back over to Linda and tells her they will have to take her with them.

Linda sits in the front seat of the van as they drive back to the hospital. She laughs at the stupid jokes the men make and smile lightly. She pretends everything is fine. That they don't think she is nuts.

As the hospital comes closer she sighs and begins to think up a story.

Linda looks at the man in front of her. He tells her to smile and she says nothing. It's been three years she's been in this place. She never bothered to learn names of the people there. Why should she? They'd just hate her anyway. They'd hurt her like everyone else.

The man looks at her with worry and says, 'you could be acting right now. Or singing. You could be famous, just tell me what's wrong Linda.' He looks at her again with pity this time. He takes her hand in his and looks at her, trying to get her to open up.

Linda just looks at him. Finally he stands up and walks over to a box with her name on it, 'your mother sent this to me.' Was all he says as he pulls out her sketches. He flips to the back. To the ones of her old boy friend. She looks at them in awe as she realizes she loved to draw. She doesn't care about who the pictures are, just the pictures. The simple lines. The colours of the different shapes.

The man breaks her thoughts and says, 'they said you love him, is that true? I heard he died.'

'He was stupid. Her trusted some one he shouldn't have. He was stupid.'

'Who was it that hurt him?'

'Me, I killed him. I cut that stupid heart into his chest. He hurt me and I hurt him back.' Linda says looking at the man.

'Linda, do you know who I am? My name even?' asks the man. Linda shakes her head. He looks at her for a moment and says, 'my name is Jake Miller.'

Linda thinks for a moment and looks at him. Joshua Miller, her boyfriend's name comes to her mind.

'Well sorry Mr. Miller.' Linda takes another look at him and laughs, she just keeps on laughing..

They say if you listen carefully, you can still hear her laugh. She died right here in this very room. It's the truth, my sister came here at midnight one time last year and heard it. She swears to god it happened." Said my friend as she looked at us wide eyed. She was just trying to scare us. She did it every time we went somewhere, "Brie, I dare to go in there for ten minutes alone."

She had to be kidding. Was I crazy or something? But I never backed down form a dare, "Nikki, you got yourself a deal. How much will I get this time?"

"Four hundred," she said looking at the small padded room. It seemed fair at the time. I walked into the room. Suddenly I could feel a presence in the room with me. It was kind of scary. But I wanted the money.

Five minutes into the bet I heard laughing. Not Nikki's laugh, or Ben's, Shawn's or Richard's. A girl's laugh. Some one who was angry, or just plain nuts. I closed my eyes. When I opened them the walls were dripping blood. A girl sat in the doorway. She had a knife; it was in her left hand. I screamed as she slowly walked towards me. She forced my shirt off and slowly cut a heart into my chest. It hurt, but she made sure not to cut too deep. She looked at me and whispered 'you hurt me too. You laid on my bed with out permission.'

You have to believe me. It happened, I swear, I'm not crazy. Please believe me. It's true," I said looking Mr. Miller in the eyes. Why won't anyone believe me? Suddenly I see a box with the name Linda Myers on it.

I ran over to the box. I pulled out the sketchbook and look at the back of it. I couldn't take it any more. I began to laugh; it was the funniest thing in the world. I couldn't stop laughing.

Silently I wondered if they would one day tell my tale.