Hideaway [h.s]

141

"I don't get it. If she didn't want us down there when why were we for eighteen fucking days!" I yell in confusion.

"She tried numerous times Harry. Axel just beat her every time. She was the one throwing in food for us everyday when he did see. The day we got out, was the same day he almost beat her to death because she was yelling at him to let us out." Elizabeth tells me.

I hear yelling again, making me turn my head back to the kitchen to magically see our parents suddenly yelling again, a beer clenched in my fathers hands as slashed her in the face with it. She falls to the ground as he shatters half of the bottle on the counter top, getting on top of her with rage on his face. She cries as he holds her down by her hair, pointing the broken jagged bottle to her face and screaming threats at her. She cries in fear, her eyes pinched shut as the glass hovers millimetres away from her face.

"Why didn't she call the police!" I turn back to Elizabeth.

"Because she didn't want us taken away from her. Between his drinking and her coke addiction- she would've lost us." She tells me.

"If she cared about us then she would've let us go and you know it. She let her kids get fucking beat and rot into nothing because she didn't want to let us free." I shake my head in disgust.

"We were all she had Harry. We were her children and once we were gone, she had nothing left." She argues.

"Why are you defending her!" I shout.

"Because I got to see her outlook on everything. I got to see her again." She exclaims.

"Then where is she now? I want to hear all this shit come from her."

"You're not ready to see her Harry." She shakes her head. "Come with me." Her direction turns towards our bedroom again. I follow her to our childhood room, my mind coursing with so many things that I feel frazzled.

Elizabeth opens the door to see us sleeping in our beds again, not a sound to be carried out into the room. But sitting on the side of my bed was our mother, her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail.

I don't remember this at all. Maybe because I was asleep.

I walk in the room and stand near the head of my bed to see her face, and she was just quietly watching me sleep. She had dark bags under her eyes and dark bruise along her jaw. She brought her hand out to my forehead, turning my head ever so slightly to reveal my bruised eye socket that was the aftermath of Axel's fist. She clamped her eyes shut and let a silent tear roll down her face once she sees the bruise on my sleeping face. He pulls her hand back and falls her head down to her palms, quietly crying to herself.

I am stood tall next to the bed, my eyes wide because I cant comprehend what I'm seeing right now.

"I'm going to get you both out of here, I promise." She whispered to my small unconscious frame, her eyes full of grief. "It will just be me you and Elizabeth. We don't need him, not after everything he's done to you both. Your father just gets angry sometimes.. he can't control it but I won't let him keep tearing this family apart. One day the three of us will leave this town and start fresh. You won't have to ever see him again." Her voice was so faint and broken. "We can maybe stay will my mother for a bit until I land on my feet and get a job. It's never to late to start fresh and I will give you both a good life. You and your sister are all I have and I w-" She stops talking and turns her head to the closed door, something catching her ears.

It must've been the sound of Axel, because she became all shaken and got up. She quietly scurried to the door as left without another word.

"She loved us Harry. And you need to see that." Elizabeth says in her white dress.

I stand frozen, not sure what to say next. Things I've thought about my mother all this time weren't all entirely true. I thought she hated us as much as our father- I thought she didn't give two shits about us.

"She was trapped-" Elizabeth began. "She wanted to give us a good life with her, and when we eventually were taken away from her by the police, her addition got worse and she died." She explains.

"She died because we left?" I whisper.

With a slow nod from Elizabeth, my tray became dry. "She couldn't live without us, she was hoping to overdose."

"H-how do you know all of this?" My voice can't find the words to speak.

"Because when I died, she was here for me like how I'm her for you right now. She loved us both so much Harry." Her voice also narrowed down to a whisper.

My body runs cold at her words, my anxiety crawling to an all time high. I knit my hands in my hair and pull at the roots in stress.

"I need to get out of here," I shake my head.

"You can't Harry."

"I need to!" I shout- the bedroom we were once in turning to the black abyss again with just the spotlight.

"You need to relax." She says calmly.

"I need to go! I have someone I can't leave yet! I love her to fucking much to give u-." I stop my sentence when I feel my ears start to ring and my body feeling fatigued. She looks at me questionably, my body draining of energy. My eyelids became heavy and I felt like I was going to pass out.

"Looks like you got another chance.. take it." The whisper filled my thoughts.

My vision became blurry and I felt like my heart was slowing down. I shut my eyes to see light and my body started to relax from the adrenaline.

When my eyes shot open, I was face to face with Amelia who was soaking wet. Her bloodshot eyes burst with joy as our irises met each other. Water spilled out of my mouth as a coughed repeatedly.

She was blurry to me, and my ears couldn't adjust to what she was saying but I knew that in this moment I was back. I see a hazy image of Louis head come over next to Amelia, both of them looking down at me but I can't hear really what their saying- it's like their at the opposite end a long tunnel.

I was alive.

//

thanks Harry for not dying we appreciate it.