Abuse: Not Always Physical- Pt 2

(Note: While this story is 100% accurate, names have been changed for various reasons.)

Ann tried hard to make things better, but it was a losing battle. She tried to just lay low at home to avoid her stepdad, and for a while that worked. True, she didn't get to use the computer or television, but at least she could isolate herself in the basement, or walk down to the creek. Besides those small reliefs, Ann also used cutting as a method of 'self treatment'. After a while, Nikki seemed to be starting to understand that Ann was having problems, that Ann wasn't well. So she started doing little things to cheer her up.

Late one night, Ann was crying an unable to sleep because of it. Nikki noticed and stayed up with her, talking to her softly. She managed to get Ann to calm down, and soon even got her to laugh. Dwayne opens the bedroom door and yells at them for being too noisy, then goes back to bed. Nikki noticed that it made Ann's problem worse, and realized her sister wouldn't sleep at all unless she did something about it. They spoke softly, and managed to keep much quieter, but it wasn't good enough. Even whispers were not allowed. Dwayne came in, and dragged both of them to the family room. He put Nikki on the exercise bike and Ann on the treadmill. Fifteen minutes in Ann was complaining about her bare feet hurting, and asked several times to get her shoes. Dwayne refused.

It was an hour before he let them stop and go to bed. The next day Ann couldn't walk- she had huge blisters on her feet, almost covering the entire sole of each foot, from spending so long barefoot on the treadmill. Still struggling with depression, Ann blamed herself for the entire thing. Her mom saw the blisters, and rather than speaking out against the punishment, she merely told him to let both girls put shoes on if he did it in the future.

For the next few weeks, she hardly got more than a couple hours sleep any night, and Nikki didn't dare try to help her with her sorrows. Things showed no signs of change for quite a while.