Marked mature for possible ideologically sensitive material; not really sure, marked it just in case.

I was going to say, it didn’t need a mature rating. Was a great beginning to possible sequels??? I liked it, showed great description of characters and depth.

I agree with Reaver. I don’t think this merits a Mature tag. In my opinion, that should be reserved for stories with particularly strong language and adult content. If you feel obligated to provide some kind of warning to something like this, you might add a “(Trigger Warning)” at the end of the story title.

That said, this is a nice exploration from the viewpoint of the abused. I’d actually be interested in seeing if you could write the same story, but from the viewpoint of the abuser. It would be interesting to see what’s going on his head, what sort of things have led him to this kind of violence and to justify lashing out at a child like this.

Poor thing. It’s amazing what our characters can live through.