~Chapter 1~

(Mabel's POV)

It was freezing outside. I always wore sweaters but since I was now up north during the winter... Well, it was just really cold. The sweaters didn't offer as much warmth as they used to. And I was stuck outside in this weather. My body was shivering its skin off trying to warm up! But I guess things could be worse. At least it wasn't snowing.

I rubbed my hands together and breathed into them. It helped a little. The rest of my body had a chance to get warm, but my left ankle wasn't so lucky. The metal cuff around it only let the cold eat away at me.

That cuff was a reminder that I could no longer do whatever I wanted. I belonged to someone now. My boyfriend, to be exact. I met Josh when I was twelve. For the first several weeks, things went smoothly. He was very nice. He took me out to dinners and went with me to see some movies. Sometimes we would hang out at his house and play a board game. Other times we would sit outside and stargaze. He acted like a boyfriend should. But one day everything took a turn for the worst. Josh wasn't nice anymore. He didn't so much as smile at me now. He looked at me often enough, but not for the reasons I wanted him to. He only liked me for my body now, and the only thing he wanted from me was sex. The first time he tried to get me in his bed, I refused and told him I wasn't ready. It made him furious. Two days later he invited me to his house. I didn't know what compelled me to come.

And now here I was, trapped. I was allowed to live in the Mystery Shack, but it felt like most of my time was spent at Josh's house. And his house was the last place I wanted to be. But what choice did I have? I was too ashamed to tell anyone what went on here. Gruncle Stan was just as obsessed with money as he was three years ago. Wendy was always hanging out with her friends in her free time and during work hours she had her head stuck in a magazine. Dipper was too absorbed in that book he always carried around to notice something was wrong. And worse, they all liked Josh. He always acted sweet and caring when anyone else was around. They never saw how controlling he really was. Gruncle Stan and Dipper both approved of him, and as far as Wendy knew, I was still in love with him.

Part of me really hoped someone would discover a bruise on me and start sniffing around. I knew it would be bad if that happened though. If someone found out, Josh would blame me. I didn't want to think about what he would do to me if he thought I told someone. To be honest, I would never have the courage to tell anyone. I wanted out of this relationship but there was no way out. And I could tell him I wanted this to end; it would only make it worse. Turned out, even the smallest of things could set him off. A breakup would definitely be one of them.

"Mabel!" Josh called. "You can come in now!"

The snow crunched under his feet as he walked up to me.

"Learned your lesson yet?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Good." He pulled a key out from his jeans and inserted it into a lock on the cuff. It unclasped and I was set free. "Now go home."

I scrambled to my feet and ran. He would be back tomorrow to pick me up, claiming we were going to "hang out" or "have fun". Oh, he had fun all right. Too much fun if you ask me. Probably because I had no fun at all. I was just his toy, just something for him to play with. If he got stressed or angered, he took it out on me. If Dipper knew what Josh was really like, he would never have let this happen. Dipper would get more angry than Josh could ever hope to get. He would beat the living daylights out of that demon.

I tentatively opened the door and walked inside, careful to be quiet as I closed it back. I was always afraid I would slam the door by accident. If someone heard it slam, they would suspect something was wrong. I kind of wanted somebody to know what was going on, but it was best that I held my tongue. I wouldn't put it past Josh to kill me.

Dipper looked up from his book and waved at me. "Hey, Mabel. Where were you?"

"I was at Josh's. We were playing games and I lost track of time," I answered.

"Oh, alright. Don't stay too long next time, you had me worried," he said, returning his attention to the book.

Ironic that the time I'd spent there was of essence to him but the soft bruise on my forehead went unnoticed. Granted, it was light brown and looked more like I'd put too much makeup on, but it had been there for a few days now and nobody had said anything. What, did the bruise have to be black for someone to see it? Because I had those too. They were under my sweater.

"Hey, something wrong?" he asked.

I looked at him. "Huh?"

"You've been kind of quiet lately," he said. "Is something bothering you?"

"No, I'm fine." Don't believe me.

"You sure?"

I nodded. Can't you see I'm lying?

"You know you can talk to me, right?"

I wanted to say yes, but I looked the other way instead and tried to blink away unshed tears. Keep pressuring me.

"Is it Josh?"

I didn't respond. You're getting there. Keep watching my reactions.

He chuckled lightheartedly. "Don't worry, Mabel. You know how Josh is, he'll make things right again."

No!

He was so close, too... He was right on the brink of finally figuring out something was wrong. Very, very wrong. More wrong than he thought. Josh wasn't hurting my feelings, he was hurting my body. Why couldn't Dipper, of all people, see that? He was my brother, we even slept in the same room! How could he still think Josh was a loving person?

And tomorrow would be the same... The routine visit to the clinic... The slap in the face for doing something wrong... More "fun"... Everything else I hated...

And no one would ever hear my screams.

A/N

More of a prologue, just to give you a feel of what's going on. I was challenged by a fellow author to write one of the most emotional stories on fanfiction. Tell me what you think so far.