I heard the crack of my head against the wall and, for a brief moment, wondered why it hadn’t hurt. Very quickly the pain burst from my skull, curling through my brain and seeping through my thoughts. For a few seconds I lost awareness of the rest of the world. Forgot the hand around my throat and the girl screaming from the floor in front of me. A few seconds of nothing but that one blinding pain searing through my nerves, crawling through my skin and leaving me forcing back the bile in my throat. My eyes snapped shut, squeezing out the violent blur in front of me and my muscles tightened, pulling against each other. Tendons in my neck pulled like ropes against the hand at my throat, hurting more and more as the pressure increased.

The colours slowly bled back into my vision, the sounds came thudding through my mind and the hand tightened again.

His thumb was pushing against my voice box and I could hear it crunch softly in my throat as I gasped for air. It ached and itched from the inside, forcing me to swallow only to injure it more. On the other side his fingers dug into my neck, fingers gripping harshly and nails biting into my skin, using all the strength in his hand to squeeze my throat while his arm forced me against the wall even harder. Pressure was building under my skin as my veins were squeezed closed, the blood trapped in my head, pushing out and adding to the confusion of sensations caused by that one hand. It was pointless struggling now. I was weak, just a kid, and he was much, much stronger than I could ever hope to be.

His eyes glared up at me, following the line of the arm that held me off the ground by my neck. They never left my face, keeping their steady, accusing focus on me at all times. His eyes narrowed as he spoke. The words came out as a harsh snarl. Growled through gritted teeth and forced out with enough venom to keep me still. His free hand smashed into the wall beside my face and he lunged towards me. Speaking low, eyes just a few inches from mine as he let the words wash over me,