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She was grabbed from behind and too shocked to even voice her cry of alarm. Taken off her feet and swung around, she was disoriented and couldn’t see who her attacker was in the gloom of the lane.

Two punches to her face in rapid succession skewed her senses and made her vision swim. She struggled and tried to fight back, but her assailant was so much bigger than she was and when she was pushed to the ground, the only thing she could do was curl up into a ball to protect her stomach and head as much as she could.

The attacker kicked her upper thigh and the pain of a dead-leg made her shout out at last, making the attacker pause to see if anyone had heard and more importantly, if anyone was bothered.

Another kick, aimed at Ash’s midriff could have been serious but for her tightly curled ball-like defence. A badly-bruised arm was all she got from that one, but the punch to the face had done some damage.

“Hey!” someone shouted and the attacker stopped long enough for one more kick and then ran.

Ash lay crumpled and broken on the ground. Desperately trying not to cry, she couldn’t help it. Her face hurt most, but everywhere seemed tender.

Realising no one was coming to help and the attacker might realise it for himself and come back to finish the job he’d started, she pushed herself into a position where she could finally get up off the stony ground.

When she got to the street light, just ahead, she inspected herself.

The heels of both hands were bleeding, with pieces of gravel and dirt embedded in the wounds. Her jeans were torn on both knees and the sleeve of her jacket was ripped.

She put her fingers tenderly to her eye and winced at the pain there too. Bringing her fingers into the light again, she couldn’t quite tell if the wetness was blood or tears.

Her nose was bleeding, however, and her jaw felt tender, teeth aching along one side.

“What a fucking bastard!” she whispered to herself. “What the hell was that for?”

There would be no chance for answers, she knew that… not yet at least.

Hobbling home, she didn’t know whether to hide in her bedroom or tell her parents what had happened.

The choice was taken from her as she opened the front door. Her mum was just passing and jerked open the door as Ash opened it. Ash stumbled as she was pulled with the door, her hand on the handle.

“Get up, you clumsy brat!” Ash’s mum couldn’t see the extent of the injuries inflicted by the attacker.

That was when Ash started crying.

Wondering what the commotion was, her dad came out of the living room, saw Ash bleeding on the floor.

“What the fuck have you done to her?” he said, genuinely shocked.

“Nothing! She fell over when she came in the door. I didn’t do anything!”

In a rare moment of tenderness, Ash’s dad helped her up and her mum gasped when she saw the extent of the injuries to her face.

“Who did this to you Ash?” she said, bending to Ash’s height in order to get a better look.

Ash shook her head. “I dunno…” she said and winced again. Her jaw was seizing-up, making it difficult to talk.

For the first time in as long as she could remember, her mother showed concern for her and perhaps, a little affection.

“Come on, let’s get this lot cleaned up,” she said, leading her up to the bathroom where the light was better.

“Jesus!” she said when the light stopped flickering and brightened up. “Whoever did this really wanted to hurt you.”

“Yeah… they managed that, at least.”

Ash’s dad came up the stairs. He blanched when he saw the state of Ash’s face.

“I’ve made some calls. I’m going to find out who did this and I’m going to make sure they know who’s kid they messed with,” he said with a snarl.

Ash looked up to him and said, “No, dad. I think I might know who did it and it’ll only cause me more trouble.”

“I don’t give a shit…”

“No, but I do and he’ll only do it again if you cause trouble for him. Please don’t.”

Pete looked at his daughter. Her face was a mess, bruising just starting to bloom on her jaw, her eyes already showing that they’d be black by morning.

“Fucking hell, kid, you look like you’ve been boxing and lost every round. As long as nobody thinks I did this…”

“Seriously, Pete?” Ash’s mum said. “That’s your main worry, that nobody thinks you did this to your own kid?”

“Yeah, well, you know how people talk…” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, I don’t care what she says, I want to know who did this to her and I want them sorting out,” she said as though Ash wasn’t even there.

Ash sighed and dipped her tattered hands into the sink of warm water. The stinging sensation made her jerk them back but again but she had to get the dirt out of the cuts.

She glanced up and caught part of her reflection in the mirror and gasped.

Both parents stopped their discussion of revenge and how to go about it and looked at her.

“Come on, Ash, crying won’t help,” her dad said.

“It’s not like you’re going to notice my swollen eyes from crying tomorrow morning, is it?” she said, a near-hysterical laugh escaped and she involuntarily blew blood and snot from her nose.

Her mum grabbed some toilet paper and wiped the blood from her daughter’s nose. Ash pulled back because it hurt when she wiped, but the majority of mucus and blood was on the paper rather than her face.

Ash woke up a couple of times in the night and the second time, she went down stairs to grab some painkillers.

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