Chapter 12

When I walked in, I didn’t know what I was truly expecting, but this was definitely not it. My mother, who I get my long white hair from and who was always there to shelter me from my sperm donor’s wrath, was gasping for breath on the floor in front of the staircase. She had her face directed away from the door, but I knew she wasn’t okay. Her hair was matted in blood, and her hand was clutching at the side I couldn’t see. Hoping it was just a head wound and not something even more serious I gently shut the door so I didn’t alert him if he was still around and placed my bag and suitcase against the wall next to the door. Just as I was inching toward her on my tiptoes, I heard him lumbering down the stairs in a slow, leisure-like walk. I knew right then that he had pushed her down the stairs not too long ago.

“Ple-please.” My mom said, an involuntary gasp interrupting her. My stomach dropped; in all the years I’ve watched my sperm donor beat the living shit out of us, never did I hear her plead for herself, only me. Something was wrong here, something that had never happened before.

That’s when I saw the knife he was holding as the light from the lamp on the other side of the room rebounded against the blade. The blood on it made my skin crawl before a wave of cold anger grew from the pit of my stomach to settle in the grinding of my teeth and clenched jaw. Instinctively, I felt for the earth’s energy under my feet and almost had it harnessed in my hand before I remembered.

I’m only twenty; I can’t legally use the elemental energy outside of school before my twenty-first birthday, which won’t happen for a few months. I have never cursed the fact I was the youngest in my year until now. The helplessness of the situation was my undoing. The loss of Nick, the way it happened, the confusing situation with Gideon, the bullying, the abuse, and the lack of quality of life I have in store for my future coupled with this scene? The scene where I know my mother won’t make it out of?

She was supposed to come with me once I graduated. We were going to live in an apartment together until I got my shit together. We would be able to restart our lives together and leave this sorry excuse of a man here to fucking rot.

He robbed us of that.

What was the point of this? What was the point of living? Nothing ever went my way, and not one single goddamn person gave me a fucking break. Now this motherfucker was going to shatter yet another dream of mine, the last of my comfort in this world.

Oh, fuck this shit…

Fuck him.

FUCK HIM!

He was bent over my mom, knife buried in her as she screamed. If she’s going down and I have nothing left to live for, you fucking bet I’m taking him with me.

I ran full force at him, and since he was bent over and not expecting me, he flew in front of us, the knife clattering on the ground where he dropped it. He groaned from his new position on the ground as I crashed to the ground and held my mom’s face in my hands. Her eyes were swollen and black, so he must have given her black eyes on top of black eyes. Her nose was broken again, and her lip busted. I’m not even sure if she was able to tell I was in front of her. There wasn’t even an ounce of awareness.

The rage grew even more intense in me as tears started to fall as well. “Mom?! Can you hear me?”

“You fucking bitch!” He groaned, having twisted around to see me clutching her.

Ignoring his words but keeping an eye on his form trying to get up, I stroked her cheek as my other hand moved to check her pulse. It was fast and weak, which confirmed there was no way for me to get help in time to save her.

He was almost to his feet. I needed to think quickly. Me being here and not running when I saw him with the knife decided my fate. I stroked her face for the last time, giving her a kiss on her cheek.

“Ma-ara,” she whispered.

“I love you,  mom,” I said, unable to tell her everything I wanted to tell her. It wasn’t enough time. Hopefully, she would stay around long enough for me to speak with her spirit once everything was said and done and I survived.

Throwing myself up onto shaking feet, I faced him. If mom wasn’t going to walk away from this and my life was fucked, I would be damned sure he wasn’t going to walk away from this either. It ends here regardless.

I was going to fucking kill him.