east of eden 𑁋 salvis.

VII

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Travis woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. His head was pounding, his room reeked of sex and.. Puke. God, fucking disgusting. He sat up, looking around his room. The events of last night were vivid in his mind still, every detail imprinted there. Deborah was no longer in his room, having left immediately after... everything. Travis was naked and the scabs on his wrists were bleeding and stinging, he'd been up most of the night, sobbing and picking at the scabs until there were none left to pick at.

Vomit was caked in his hair, on his face, it was on the floor. He was a mess. Travis had thought the worst thing that could happen last night was death, yet Deborah proved him wrong.

There was shouting downstairs, and it seemed to be something about him. Travis heard his name getting thrown around a lot as he laid in his bed for a bit, fighting back another wave of tears as he remembered last night. He thought life couldn't get worse. And yet, here it is, getting worse. He forcefully lost his virginity to his step-mother. If that's not worse, he doesn't know what is.

Travis eventually got up, knowing if he didn't Kenneth would come and get him, and he really doesn't want anyone to see him in this state. In this half-awake, hungover state. That would be the most embarrassing thing ever, for someone to see him like this.

He first took a shower. Long and hot, scrubbing himself over and over until his skin was red and bleeding and he couldn't take the pain of the hot water hitting his wounded skin anymore. Then he got dressed, brushed his teeth, scoured his room for painkillers and took them. He cleaned the vomit, stripped his bed, and went downstairs.

It was chaos the moment he reached the downstairs, Kenneth and Deborah were shouting, Kenneth was throwing things, there was glass and blood and they were yelling and it was just so much for Travis to handle with his head hurting as badly as it was. Regardless, he tried his best to ignore them with their shouting, going to the laundry room and putting his bed set in the washing machine.

Once he'd done that, he came back out to the living room. The shouting died down as Deborah scrambled out the front door, seeming to think that now that Travis was out, Kenneth could just use him as a punching bag instead of her. Travis couldn't blame her, he'd do the same if he was her.

"Travis." Kenneth muttered lowly, glaring at the boy in question. Travis swallowed thickly, nodding at Kenneth. "Yes sir?" He asked softly, meekly. He was obviously scared.

"You need to pray." Those four words said all they needed, Travis understanding them immediately. He nodded and practically ran for the prayer room- a room set out for exactly its name, praying-with Kenneth close behind him.

Travis had no idea what he'd done-or what Kenneth thought he'd done-this time around, but he also had no interest in asking. Right now is one of those moments when Travis knew he had to keep his mouth shut, or he'd go through Hell for it. Although he was probably about to go through Hell even if he kept his mouth shut.

Kenneth did not do as usual, push Travis onto his knees and demand he pray. Rather, he shoved Travis into the middle of the room, walking a few circles around the shaking blonde. Travis was fighting back tears, he was so afraid of what Kenneth may have in store. Yet, he didn't let the tears flow. He knew better than doing such a thing, knew doing that would label him as a no good pussy boy.

"You're absolutely disgusting. Doing such a thing with your step-mother? That's no better than being a faggot." Kenneth muttered lowly, taking a long stride toward Travis and kicking him in the ankle. There was power in the kick, power and anger. There was a snap, and suddenly Travis was falling, holding his pain filled leg close to his body. A single tear fell from his eye, but he quickly brought the crying to an end. He didn't want to get in more trouble.

Kenneth muttered something else to himself, staring down at Travis. The blonde, in a sudden rush of courage, opened his mouth and spoke angrily up to his father.

"She did it too! Why aren't you mad at her?!" He shouted, glaring up at the other blonde male in front of him. Kenneth, rather than answering, sent a harsh kick to Travis' nose. Another snap, then a rush of blood from his face to the floor. Travis couldn't hold back the tears this time. Tear after tear streamed down his face, mixing with the blood and pitter-pattering onto the wooden floor beneath himself.

"Because, you were tempting her. You tempt everyone to do unGodly things." That sentence just made Travis sick. Did others think of doing that to him? Did even his own father think of that? Have other people done it and he just hasn't remembered? It raised so many nauseating questions, questions that Travis was too busy to think about to notice his father pulling a razorblade out of his pocket and walk towards Travis.

Kenneth pushed Travis down, pulling his shirt up and placing the cold edge of the razorblade against Travis' stomach. He made one, two, three cuts. Took a moment, moved his hand to the right, then made one long cut. Moved his hand to the right again. One, two, three. To the right. One. Two. Three.

And then he was done.

Kenneth wiped his now bloody hand on Travis' bloody shirt, placing the blade next to Travis and standing. Travis assumed he was probably trying to pin this as self mutilation, in case anyone were to come in and see this right now. Not that anyone would, Deborah seemed to be long gone and no one else could come in the house.

There was a knock at the front door, successfully grabbing Kenneth's attention away from Travis.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll leave while I see who the fuck's at the door." He muttered, walking out of the room immediately after murmuring those words. Travis took a moment to compose himself before slowly standing. The movement sent electric shockwaves up and down his leg, which just caused more tears and a grimace of pain.

He didn't know where he could go. The hospital was off limits, if anyone were to find out what his father did to him then he'd be in major amounts of trouble. Kenneth has been reported for child abuse in the past, thanks to Travis, but Kenneth was a damn good liar, which just resulted in CPS shrugging them off and Travis getting the punishment of a lifetime.

Travis also didn't really have any friends. He only pretended to get along with Sarah, and he was sure she wouldn't want him showing up at her house suddenly.

He slowly walked out of the prayer room, sneaking past Kenneth at the front door and going up to his room. It still reeked of sex and vomit, but he'd worry about that later. For now, he had to leave. Travis quickly changed his shirt, although he knew the new one would just get soaked in blood as well, and cracked open his bedroom window. Looking down, he figured he probably couldn't acquire that much new damage from the fall, so he wiggled his way out the window and took the small fall to the ground.

He tried landing on his feet, although thanks to his injured ankle that wasn't too possible, and instead he ended up landing on his side. Travis grimaced from the pain of trying to land on his ankle mixing with the pain of everything else, but quickly stood and started a slow walk away from his house.

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