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Kalea 'Ruth' Kingston New York City, New York
"You even smoke now?" Reverend Kingston asked his daughter as he played gospel music, rocking side by side on the sofa as the Bible was spread across his lap.
Kalea glanced up from her phone to look at him before she sighed, "They're a friend's. I don't smoke."
She'd gone to pick her father up three days ago and it had been the worst three days of her life. Every day she fell further and further into the darkness that she'd worked so hard to escape from. Kalea began to resent Trent, she began to resent this damned holiday and she felt her anger towards her father get deeper and deeper to the point where she felt she was suffocating.
Drowning in hate. She wished he didn't have an effect on her but just his voice made her tremble with rage, just his face wiped any smile off her face. Nothing about him made her happy, besides the fact that he was human, so he was due to die just like everyone else.
"Why are you surrounding yourself with people like that? I raised you better than that." He mumbled to himself, turning the page of the Bible as he continued to gently rock his body to the gospel.
"Because they're my friends and they care about me. So what they smoke?" Kalea mumbled back, feeling venom begin to fizzle in her mouth.
If he kept speaking, she spit it all over him.
"You're a Child of God and also, you're my child." He turned to face her, she'd been sitting on a different sofa as she nonchalantly scrolled through her phone.
"Of course, daddy. It's all about what people think. It would be the end of the world if people knew the reverend's only child had friends that smoked." Kalea rolled her eyes before getting up from the sofa, as she tried to walk away, the Reverend shot up and snatched her by the wrist.
"What the hell have you become?!" He shouted, his black eyes drowning in anger that he tried to wash away as concern.
Yanking her arm away from him, Kalea looked at him up and down before storming off to the kitchen to check on the turkey. He'd never ever helped out. Growing up she'd clean, cook and do everything for him. She was the housemaid for as long as she could walk, he'd told her that men didn't do housework, that he was a higher being.
She dished up the food, dragged her feet to the living room and handed him his dish before sitting back on her seat. His eyes were burning holes on her forehead as she ate her food, she'd always thought the next time she'd meet him, she'd be consumed with fear like she'd always been.
This time, she was just disgusted.
"I changed your flight for tomorrow." Kalea announced, stabbing the turkey and taking a bite before looking at her father with narrow eyes.
Now that she was really looking at him, old age had been starting to set in. Although his eyes were on the much smaller side and his skin was the exact same as her's, wrinkles began to cover his skin. Smile lines formed and his eyes were saggy. She could also tell he had become physically weaker, his grip didn't hurt the way it used to. Although he was slightly taller than her.
"I don't want you to come visit me anymore." Kalea started, she put the plate on her coffee table before looking at him with her arms crossed, "I hate you and I don't want you in my life."
The Reverend could only stare in bewilderment before he became consumed with rage. He threw the plate at the wall before he shot up, the Bible falling on the floor but he didn't care. After all, he'd never truly been a pious man, he just liked the respect and admiration.
"You hate me?!" He shouted, Kalea stood up and nodded, standing her ground. "I did so much for your ungrateful ass!"
"I raised you even after you killed my wife! I fed you even after you sucked the life out of her!"
He inched closer to her, lifting his hand and struck her face. She screamed as she held the left side of her face, it stung as her eyes welled up with tears. He struck her once again, until she was on the floor and then began to kick her. One kick turned into two, two turned into three and three turned into a bloody mess.
Kalea simply took the hits, feeling her body begin to ache as she began to bleed all over. His grunts as he would kick her rang all around her, they drove her insane. He'd never changed.
Actually, he wasn't hitting her as hard as usual.
Kalea felt as if this had gone on for hours, but in reality it hadn't even been ten minutes before he stopped and slumped down on the sofa. He stared at her bloody body, his black eyes void of any emotion. A groan escaped his lips when he realised some of the blood had gotten on his Bible, he reached over and carefully wiped it but instead it just smudged.
Tears dared to fall from Kalea's eyes, she held back her sobs as she curled into a ball on the floor. It had been so long that she'd forgotten what her actual life was like.
A knock on the door caught both of their attention, the Reverend glanced at Kalea before walking to answer it, at the door stood two police officers and Sky in-front of them. As Kalea heard their footsteps and watched as they took in the sight, she glanced at the camera she'd placed on the corner of the ceiling, feeling that God had finally released her from this prison.
-XX-
Sky quickly wiped the tears from her face and composed herself before she walked into Kalea's hospital room. Kalea had been given sleeping pills so that she could recover from the injuries, Sky sighed as she stared at her.
When she'd gotten the text from Kalea to call the police, she didn't know what to expect. She'd never run so quick in her life, that feeling when she saw her on the floor just coated in blood. Sky had tried so hard but in the end, it didn't even matter, Kalea had lost consciousness.
"You okay?" Skylar asked, she rubbed her sister's back as they stood in the room, the occasional beep was all that cut through the silence.
"Apparently she has old scars and bruising all over her body, the doctor thinks this has been going on for years." Skylar explained, "She even had bruising on her internal organs."
Sky covered her face with her hands as she felt the uncontrollable tears roll down her face. The guilt she felt from breaking up with Kalea, treating her so harshly and viewing her as someone who had broken her heart. She felt guilty...after all, the girl had overcome years of emotional, physical and religious trauma just to tell Sky that she had feelings for her.
"I knew she was scared of her dad but I never knew why." Sky sobbed, "I never knew."
Skylar wrapped her sister and rubbed her back as she bawled her eyes out, completely unaware that Kalea could hear everything.
