The Missing Piece

by Kiersten Modglin

I grabbed my cheek, feeling more helpless than ever. My lips bled from being slammed onto the counter, and it felt like my front tooth had come loose. My head began to grow heavy, and the room felt dizzy. He hit me again and I felt my head slam onto the ground. It didn’t even hurt. This must be what dying feels like, I thought to myself, quiet and painless. I couldn’t see him anymore, couldn’t hear him, couldn’t feel the blows I knew he was inflicting. Suddenly, I heard a noise in the distance. I tried hard to pull my focus back, but it was no use. I heard glass breaking, wood cracking. I heard a voice, and then another. Mumbling, mumbling. Footsteps. My vision was so fuzzy. I wanted so badly to ask what was happening, why the room was going dark, why everything in me went numb. Instead, I was silent, staring at the flashing blue and red lights on my wall until everything went black. And then I was gone.