My Schizophrenic Lover (Under Slight Construction)

Chapter 13 ♦ The Man In The Duct Tape Isle ♦

"Kaden... what. What, was. That?" she asked, trying to catch her breath.

I shook my head and tried to search for the words. What did I call those people? I sighed trying to fully regain my breath. "Those were my... parents." My voice shook.

Echo hugged me so tight I thought her arms might cut right through me. "They can't hurt you anymore," she said into my shirt.

I laughed humorlessly. "That's just it... they can. As long as that man and that woman have a pulse, they can always hurt me... what would stop them?  They did it for thirteen years, why not go another twenty?"

“Kaden they can’t hurt you,” She whispered trying to get me to look into her eyes. “You’re not their kid anymore, they can’t hurt you. And if they do they’ll go to jail, or possibly prison.”

“Yeah because that clearly got them away from me.” I sighed sarcastically.

“Kaden I promise they can’t get you,” she said resting her head on my shoulder. “Can I ask you something?” She whispered sitting up.

I hesitated but nodded softly and anticipated her question. “Did both your parents hit you? Or was it just your dad?”

 

***Flashback***

Staring back into her cold blue-grey eyes, I knew I couldn't stay mad at her. What had she done? Nothing. It was my father, and I knew she couldn't do anything to stop it without getting stuck in a fight herself.

"Baby, I love you so much. Can you please just try to do what he asks? That's all he wants Kaden, and then you'll be okay, and he won’t get so mad," My mother pleaded pulling my small six year-old body off the tattered blankets on my floor that acted as a bed. 

I rested my head against her chest as she cradled me in her arms. Silent tears leaked from my eyes and slithered down my cheeks; they dropped against her shirt as she hugged me tighter.  I tried not to whimper as she applied pressure to the bruises on my ribs. I knew she didn't mean to, and dad would kill me for crying like a baby. 

"Mama," I whimpered as she began to rock me back and forth.

"Yes baby?" she whispered kissing over my temple.

I heard my father's footsteps come crashing down the hall and before I could finish I leapt from my mother's arms and curled in a ball. Using my blanket as shelter I squeezed my eyelids together as tight as they would go praying he would be able to see me. 

When a pillar of light entered my dark shadowy room, I relaxed my eyelids for it to appear as if I had been sleeping, since my dad had told me to go to bed a while ago. 

Cracking my left eye open enough to get a blurry vision of my room, I saw my mom stand up as my dad flung open my door, just to have it ricochet off the wall and bump his shoulder. 

"Amanda! What are you doing in here?" he yelled, grabbing her by the wrist he yanked her towards the door. 

"Anthony, you have to stop this," she sighed shaking her head at him. "It’s is getting out of control. You can't keep hurting him like this," she pleaded with him like this ever so often, but it had yet to have any effect.

"That piece of shit has made my life a living hell, he deserves the same," he spat, staring at me.

Even through the shadows, I could feel the hate in his eyes towards me. 

Fear washed over me as he took a step closer. Hugging my stomach tighter pulling my knees into my chest, I just wanted to disappear, disappear and never come back. 

My mom placed her hands on his shoulders and began to massage them over and over. "Honey, just let him sleep. Please. Just come to bed with me, he needs to sleep," she said trying to pull him back out into the hallway.

When my door closed again, leaving me alone in the darkness, I began crawling on my hands and knees, I quickly began feeling around the floor for my only friend. 

When the plush artificial fur brushed across my knuckles, I gripped it immediately. Pulling him closer, I hurried back to my bed and hugged Max as tight as I could.

He was my only friend. 

The only one I could cry to.

Talk to. 

Tell my secrets to.

The only one I really trusted on this earth was that brown stuffed dog. 

***Present Time***

            "Kaden..." Echo sighed brushing the hair out of my eyes pulling my attention back to her. 

I was leaned against her bedroom wall, and she was sitting on my lap with her arms around my neck.  I sighed, still not sure how to answer the question she had asked me. 

"Kaden, sometimes it's good to get things you’ve buried in your past out too get past them," she sighed.

"No...” I started, answering her question that triggered my flashback. “My mom never hit me, just my dad. But mom never did anything to stop it either. She would just walk out of the room, or go outside to have a smoke. Then she would come into my room sometimes later that night and tell me she was sorry. But she never... she never laid a finger on me," I answered distantly. There were a few times that my mom had tried to hurt me but I didn’t feel like going into detail about that so I just left it at “no”.

"I saw how you looked at her... like you were almost scarred to see her eyes again. But you're not scared of her like you are your father," she said resting her head on my shoulder. 

She was right, I wasn't scared of her. I didn’t have much reason to be, all she ever did was let it all happen and try to help. Somewhere deep down, I knew she meant to make it stop. She wanted to run away but she was scared. She didn’t want us to get hurt and have nowhere to go. I remember listening to her talk to my grandma while I played with my spiderman action-figure under the table. She would say, “Sometimes I wish I had the guts to just pack up me and Kaden and leave Anthony. Go somewhere far away and start over.”

Why she never did leave him is still a mystery to me.