Ripped Me Apart

I was only 14 at that time and it was around my birthday, my mom and I lived with her sister. the village that i lived in was a dangerous area. the day for my 14th birthday my neighbor asked how old I was and i replied 14, after that he started to look at me differently, not to long after he would start speaking sexually with me. i was really shy so i never said a thing i would just listen. one day my mom went hospital so it was just me alone, my neighbor came and it took me by surprise he hold me and carried me to the kitchen and starting feeling me up and was kissing me at that point i did not know what to think, eventually he stop but i never said a word to anyone. he repeated that for months yet i never said anything. one day his brother came and did me the same exact thing but he had started fingering me. it would hurt a lot but i kept quiet. i would keep quiet when he calls because i was very scared of them hurting me more than they have already did. they did this with me until i finally left that place that i used to live. now i am 17 my stepdad which is a old guy wants to be with me and does talk sexually with me sometimes and i cant even speak up because i am scared something might happen to my family. about a week ago i saw the two guys that sexually harassed me and since then i have been getting panic attacks. they had followed me that day when i went shopping in the mall. i tried quickly to get away from them as fast as possible. i am really scared something happens to me again because i see them more often now. i just feel like things like this would repeatedly happen to me and i am fed up living like this. i hope gives me the courage that i need.

— Tanesha, age 17