So here's my WitFit entry from January 2nd. Just a warning, the following snippet contains the suggestion of domestic violence and it's briefly described. The word prompt was 'Roots' and this is what my brain came up with.....

You promised to always be here, Eric. Damn you! You promised you’d take care of me. ‘Roots, Bella, we’ll put down roots here. This will be our home and we’ll make our own history right here’, the memory of Eric’s words crashed in on Bella as she holds back the sob. The memory of when she and Eric bought their home and began their life just the two of them and their baby, of what could have been left a gaping hole in Bella’s chest.

So long ago…..seems like a lifetime already. Bella thinks as she contemplates the options available to her and her 12 year old daughter.

At thirty-two Bella has seen more trying times than she cares to remember. She was on the streets by fifteen, married by eighteen, a mother by twenty and a widower by twenty two. Eric dropped out of college when he and Bella got married because his parent’s stopped paying his tuition and turned their back on him completely. Disowning him when he married the ‘street urchin’, so Eric picked up and became a long haul truck driver. He fell asleep at the wheel on his way home from a week long haul and drove off into a ravine just outside their home in Denver, Colorado. Bella and Shaina have been on their own ever since, Eric’s parents never offered Bella or their granddaughter any assistance when their son was killed in a motor vehicle accident.

Eric was an independent driver and hired himself out to various companies. The insurance company ruled the accident driver failure and didn’t pay out. Eric’s life insurance policy only gave Bella enough money to bury him. Bella’s meager earnings from the local diner barely kept food on the table when Eric where alive, now that she was on her own there was no way she and Shaina could keep living in the home she and Eric shared. Shaina was only two at the time.

Though she’s not alone now it infinitely makes the decisions she needs to make more complicated. Bella doesn’t have just herself to think about now, she has a child, a child that she wanted to provide things she never had herself.

A stable home life was the thing she every wanted her daughter to have most. A mom and a dad and the little white picket fence in the residential neighborhood with a dog and all the friends she could keep up with.

God knows, Shaina, has enough to deal with. All she needs is a little bit of normal.

Bella was sure she found that with Mike. He was a good guy, so she thought. Mike Newton provided the illusion of the roots Bella craved for herself and her daughter. When she met mike five years ago he was the answer to prayers Bella had been sending out to a God she wasn’t sure existed any more. Mike’s family connections ran deep in the little town outside of Jackson Hole Wyoming. His parents ran an outfitting company and supplied tourists with the required equipment for everything from Skiing to hunting and fishing. The Newton’s were well known in the community and for all intents and purposes they were well liked and respected. The problems were underneath the façade, behind closed doors the Newton men were overbearing and ruled their house hold with an iron fist.

Unfortunately for Bella and Shaina this was a well guarded secret. By the time it was apparent Bella and Mike were married and starting what she thought was the fairytale ending to the hell her life had been up to that point.

Roots. Bella thinks to herself as she picks the broken glass up from the marble floor, the shattered remnants of the vase she dropped when Mike’s hand connected with her face, all over the entrance of her home. A home she thought would provide what she wanted for her and her daughter. The metallic taste of blood on her tongue and the sting from the cuts on her hand the reminder of yet another time she has disappointed her husband.

I only wanted roots for Shaina. I wanted something better for her. At least she wasn’t home this time. Bella’s mind is in a thousand different directions all at once.

We can live like this anymore. I’ve got to get Shaina out of this house. I’ve got to get out of this house before he kills me.

The barking of Shaina’s little feist dog alerts Bella to her arrival. Bella had gotten the dog for Shaina as a birthday gift just a few months ago. The beating she took that night for going against Mike’s instructions about not getting a dog was one of the worst. But because the neighbors had been there and seen the dog Mike couldn’t get rid of it without notice.

Shaina kept the dog locked in her room every night for fear that Mike would harm it when she was asleep. Bella knew that the only thing Mike liked to hit was her and figured the dog was pretty safe at the present time.

‘Mom?’ Shaina called as she entered through the back door followed closely by the yipping puppy. ‘Mom?’

‘In here, Shaina,’ Bella called out as she dumped the pan of sweepings into the trash bag tying it off to take out to the curb.

‘Mom, you’re never going to believe what ha-‘ Shaina’s words stopped abruptly as she took in Bella’s stance.

Bella stood with her back to her daughter. Truly afraid to turn around and face the little girl who she loved with all her heart.

‘Mom?’ Shaina was hesitant as to how to approach her mother. She was sure she knew what had happened, that her step-father had hit her again.

‘It’s alright, Shaina. Just go on and take Jesse up to your room and get started on your homework, okay? I’m going to take this out to the curb and get dinner started.’ Bella didn’t turn around but made her way to the front door. ‘Go on now, honey.’

Shaina opened and closed her mouth several times before she bent to pick up Jesse and carry him up the stairs to her room. She was so angry she could feel the tears of frustration burning in her eyes. She didn’t understand why her mother took that from Mike. She didn’t understand how Mike could do that to her mother. Shaina wiped angrily at the tears as they fell down her cheeks. The little feist puppy squirmed and licked at her cheeks causing her to giggle despite herself.

Roots. That’s what her mother had told her as to why they were moving yet again. When her mother explained that she was marrying Mike that’s how she explained it, they would have roots, a place to call home, a place to feel safe. But all Shaina felt was anger, hurt and confusion. Her chest tightened with the anxiety and she reached for the inhaler on her desk shaking it before taking a quick shot of the medication that would make her breathing easier.