A Deadly First Love

Chapter 14

My eyes flash open. Heart beating fast. Covered in a thin sheet of sweat. Helena was sitting on the end of the bed looking at me worried.. “Bad dream huh?”

I looked at her confused. “I don’t know. I can’t remember it. Must be though. I’m scared brainless.” I smiled. “Anyways.” I got up and went to take a shower. When I came out Helena wasn’t in the room. I got dressed in cut off sweat pants and a tank top. I made my way to the kitchen to find it empty. On the counter was something covered with a napkin and a little note on top: We went out with Z’Damonds friends. Catch you later? Around six maybe.

So I was supposed to stay home alone all day? Great. I took the napkin off to find burnt eggs, burnt toast, and under cooked bacon. I looked at it like it had six heads. Obviously they made the food themselves. I threw the food away and made myself the same thing only cooked correctly. When I finished eating I went back to the room to finish the homework one of my teachers gave me. After that was done I grabbed a random book off the library from the work room and started reading it. It only had three hundred pages so it wasn’t much. I finished the book within a couple hours. I turned on the TV but there was nothing good on so I turned it off and went back to the room. I started jumping from bed to bed reciting poetry. I jumped from Helena’s bed to mine but my foot slipped when I landed and I fell onto the bed. Half my body was on the floor and the other half was on my bed. The bag that was on my bed had fallen and all it’s content’s had spilled out. I pushed my self off my bed and started cleaning everything up. I came upon an old video camera. It was connected to a wire and there was a disk inside. I found myself curious, and bored, so I went to the living room and connected the wire and the video camera. Before setting everything up though I went to make a sandwich and swallowed the whole thing in one bite.

I went back to the living room and started the video. It started off in a school inside the cafeteria. A group of kid’s sat center stage on movable blue bleachers, a handful of kid’s sat off to the right they held guitar’s in their hands and music stand in front of them, another much larger group of kid’s sat off to the left they held flutes in their hands. A tall boney pale man with long hair swept back in a pony tail came up and introduced himself to the crowd. After a few word’s the kids sitting center stage stood up. A couple held hands and other’s simply smiled at their neighbor as they began singing. After looking around some I found myself. I was standing on the middle step next to my best guy friend and behind another one of my guy friends.

Suddenly the screen went black. Up popped a nose. It zoomed out and suddenly I could see the whole face. Black hair. Black eyes. Cute male face. A face I wanted to forget. He messed with the camera for a while before a high pitched voice came from behind him.

“I wanna see!” He moved out the way and suddenly I was being filmed. I was wearing a short white skirt and a black tank top. My hair was in two pig tails. I had glasses and horrible teeth but baby smooth skin. I was about nine year’s old.

As much as I wanted to look away from the screen I couldn’t. I was paralyzed. I found myself unable to breath and move.

Off screen a loud argument started up. The boy gave me the camera and off screen you could here the water splash into a cup. I turned the camera around and started filming the boy as he did his homework and ate. He pushed me out of his way and told me to film my parents. The camera wobbled away from the kitchen and into a hallway. It stopped at the door way to the living room. There was a man. Black hair. Black eyes. Ugly old face. Uncombed mustaches. In front of him was a woman. Caramel skin. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Glasses. Mole on upper right hand corner of her mouth.

I couldn’t register the words as the image flashed before me. The man took off his brown leather belt and started hitting the woman with it. She snatched the belt and threw it away in hopes the man would go and get it giving her time to get up and away. Only he started punching her. An audible crack was heard. The man picked up a glass vase and held it over his head. The camera wobbled and landed on the floor. Suddenly I appeared hovering over the woman. The camera was centered on the woman and me so I couldn’t see when the man brought the vase down. All I saw was the glass break against my back. Suddenly another set of boot’s walked into the shot. I was pulled away from my mom and thrown on the floor away from her. She tried to come back but my father held her back and started beating her again. The boy from earlier, my half brother from my fathers other marriage, threw me to the floor and began kicking my stomach. They kicked and swore in spanish at my mother and I.

The only thing that kept running through my head was ‘Like father, like son.’

I couldn’t watch anymore. But I couldn’t move either. “Oh my god.” A female whisper came from behind me. I gasped and my head snapped back. Standing behind the couch was everyone. Andy stood directly behind me starring horrified at the screen. For a few second’s I couldn’t look away from Andy’s crying face. But the scream coming from the speakers broke me out of the trance. I quickly stood up took out the disc that was inside the video camera and hid my face as I speed walked to the door.

I stepped outside bare foot letting my feet wither on the cold floor. I walked away from the house mindlessly only having one objective; Being alone. I somehow ended up in the clearing I had met Jonathan and Mario and the others. I stood there starring at everything not knowing what to do now. Suddenly two warm arms wrapped around me. I wasn’t scared or surprised. I felt it, when he came. The tingling sensation I got when ever he was around, started up right around the time I left the house and it followed me. His arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me to his strong chest. I was abruptly aware that I was trembling. A single tear worked it’s way down my cheek and landed on his arm causing him to pull me closer. He put his head in the crook of my neck. I somehow felt I was comforting him as much as he was comforting me.

I put my arms over his and leaned further into him. He dropped his arms and grabbed my hand leading me into the shadow of a tree. He sat down at it’s base with his legs open I sat down in between them and leaned my back against his chest. We sat their silently his arms wrapped securely around me keeping me from falling to pieces. He reached for the disk but I gripped it tighter. He didn’t ask for it and I didn’t deny him. Somehow though for some reason my grip loosened and he took it from me. He held it in his hands and closed his hand around it. The sound of crumbling plastic filled my ears. I grabbed his fist with both my hands and opened his hand. Tiny pieces of plastic fell out and landed on the floor. In his hand lay the shattered remains of that violent night. Seeing it crumbled in his hands made me feel like he was saying something… ‘It’s okay. Just forget it ever happened. I’m here. Always will be.’ I smiled, a small sad smile. I guided his hand to side, away from us, and tipped his hand over so the pieces fell off. I wiped his and clean and wrapped it back around my waist. I tilted my head back so I could look at him but he was looking off sadly into the distance. I sat there just looking at his face until he suddenly looked down at me. We stared into each others eyes for a while before he lightly kissed my forehead. I rested me head against his chest letting my eyes close against his neck. I felt his chin settle it’s self on top of my head and sighed. Somehow I felt so at peace.