The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Chapter 5

Brooklyn's dad stomped over to the bed and bent down, looking under it where a shirt was already sticking out. He pulled out a pile of clothes and stood up. "Adam you should leave," Brooklyn whispered as her dad stumbled over to the closet where the door was half open.

"I'm not leaving you here to deal with him alone" Adam replied, putting his arm around her protectively. Brooklyn watched helplessly as her dad opened the closet the rest of the way and pulled out the suitcase. He picked it up, studying it and not comprehending why it was there.

"What the f--" There was a loud thump as Brooklyn's father hit the floor, hard.

"Dad?" Brooklyn asked wearily as she walked up to her dad and felt for a pulse. She held her breath as she felt nothing but warm flesh until she felt the flutter of a pulse under his skin.

"Is he okay?" Adam asked.

"He'll be fine, he's just passed out drunk. He should wake up in a few hours. Help me carry him downstairs?" Adam said nothing and went to Brooklyn's father, grabbing under his arms and half carried, half dragged him to the living room downstairs.

Brooklyn walked out to her dad's truck and opened the driver side door. Bottles clattered onto the gravel as the strong smell of alcohol rolled out of the truck and stained the air. Her eyes started to water at the strong odour hanging in the chevy. She took a few of the bottles and brought them inside placing them on the coffee table next to her dad. "Will he remember any of that?" Adam asked while helping Brooklyn set out the bottles in a natural looking way.

"No, he won't even remember coming home." There was a moment of silence as Adam looked at Brooklyn with an expression of fear and worry.

"Let's put off leaving for now, we shouldn't risk getting caught." Adam suggested and Brooklyn nodded in agreement.

"Adam, thanks for putting up with all this for so long. You're the only one who keeps me sane."

"You keep me sane too, I love you Bryn." Adam said as he pulled Brooklyn into a hug. Bryn was Adams nickname for Brooklyn when they had first met. He only called her it when they were alone, it was like a secret that no one else could know about.

After cleaning up the clothes, putting the now empty suitcase back in the garage and helping fix Brooklyn's door, Adam went home. Brooklyn ensured that everything looked normal so her dad wouldn't suspect anything when he woke up. That night Brooklyn cried herself to sleep.

The next night was when the first cut happened. Brooklyn had been in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner. She was washing the dishes and the last dish was the big kitchen knife. Brooklyn was mesmerized by the gleam in the knife and ran her hand along the blade feeling the power it gave her.

She suddenly dropped the knife into the sink with a clang and ran to her bathroom upstairs, the blood rushing down her arm. She didn't know why she did it and didn't like what she had done but she liked the feeling it gave her. Brooklyn was standing in the bathroom, the blood rushing down her arm into the sink, and for the first time in many years, she felt at peace. It was like all her emotions flowed out of her with the blood and gave her a sense of power and control. She hadn't felt that way ever before. When she washed all the blood away and cleaned up the wound she put on a hoodie to cover up the bandage and went downstairs to finish the dishes before her dad came home. She had made a mark on herself that would be always be there, forever reminding her of how terrible her life was.