Sandcastles

Chapter One

Remnants of yesterday's brutal encounter were all over the house. When she tried to get up from her bed, her body felt stuck, she couldn't move a muscle. Mentally, she was tired, no longer in the mood to deal with anything. Being a wife and a mother stopped her sulking and with a great deal of force she got out of bed and opened up the curtains, letting natural sunlight into the dark room.

She tiptoed to her bathroom and took a long, hot, and steamy shower. As she cleansed her body, she ran over a bruise. It was now turning purple, another remnant of last night that she wished would go away. Fifteen minutes later she was out of the shower and rummaging through her closet for clothes.

Clothes had always been her thing, shopping for clothes and wearing a new thing every day made her happy. Today though, she opted for something simple. A nude ribbed turtle neck with acid washed jeans and her nude colored coach combat boots. She gathered her long black locks and put them into a ponytail. She could remember when her hair was dyed a dirty blonde color, she loved it, but after some years she decided to stick with black. It described her mood 24/7 as of lately.

"Mommy!" she heard her son scream from his bedroom.

She rolled her eyes and looked at her phone to check the day and time. It was Saturday, 7:45 a.m. She was up because she had things to do but why was her baby boy up so early? He was usually a late sleeper, just like his father.

"I'm coming," she yelled back, slightly annoyed.

She sighed out then walked into his bedroom. He was sitting on his bed, with his teddy bear in his hand. He was only 5 so he was still very much in love with his brown teddy bear. He had tears in his eyes and he was sobbing.

"What's wrong baby?"

"I had a bad dweam last night ma," he said with a sigh.

She hugged him tightly and sat down on his bed. She placed him on my lap, something I hadn't done in a while since she wasn't very affectionate towards him. It just wasn't in her to show him affection, even though she knows she should.

"Tell mommy all about it Hayden,"

He relayed the events of his nightmare to her and she realized it wasn't a nightmare at all. He had heard them arguing in his sleep. He heard her screams and his father throwing things all over the place.

"It's okay, we all have bad dreams sometimes Hayden, just go back to bed. I'll be back up later with breakfast,"

"Okay ma ma," he said and he kissed her on the forehead, making her smile to herself.

She went back into her room and finished getting dressed. Afterwards she walked downstairs and saw how messed up her house looked. She picked up the smashed dishes that were on the counter; along with the broken picture frames that were all over the floor. It took over two hours but her house was finally clean. All of the evidence of her and her husband's encounter had been erased.

She wanted to cook for Hayden but she didn't have the time, she had to be at her job in 45 minutes. Quickly she grabbed a bowl, poured some Cinnamon Toast Crunch in it along with some Soy Milk since Hayden couldn't drink real milk. When she walked into his room he fluttered his eyes open and she handed him the bowl.

"Mommy has to work today Hayden, Grandma should be here in a few,"

"Okay ma," he said, scooping up a spoonful of cereal and putting it in his mouth.

When she got up to walk out she turned around and kissed him on the forehead, remembering that she had to love him, she just had to. Luckily by the time she walked downstairs her mother had already came in.