Benefits

Ch. 92: Bury A Friend

"Yeah... where's mom?"

"No more questions, Jake. How bout you head out and see if Serena wants to go get ice cream." His shaky fingers fumble into his pocket for change, "Stand up." I get up, my brows confused by his haste actions. "2 dollars should cov- cover it -righ- right?" He stutters. He's nervous I could tell.

"This isn't the 90's dad." I scoff. "Serena is eating dinner with her family; it's too late."

"Jake-"

"DENNINGS! OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR!" A voice booms from outside.

"Shit. Hide." He pulls my arm into Terry's and my room. Only two beds and a tall dresser accustoms to the place. One perk being one walk in closet. My dad pushes me into the closet, and I thrash where he threw me on the floor.

"Dad what's going on!" I yell.

He pushes me down once again, my head smashing against clothes and the back wall.

"Don't make a sound, Jake, or we're both dead." I hear the tears at the back of his throat.

"DENNINGS! Do I have to break the door down!" The sounds become louder.

My dad slams the closet door in my face. He shuffles around my room, and I can tell he's pushing the dresser across the closet, concealing any light that could ever be possible. Darkness was the only thing I knew.

"I'M COMING!" My father yells out.

My tears sting my eyes. Where's Terry? Where's mom? The inner demons of me consumed my thoughts as I heard the men conversing with my father. I didn't understand much; the cover of the dresser blocked everything to my knowledge. Simple yellings here and there. I blacked out after what I assumed to be a few hours.

"Where is he!?" The familiar voice jolted me awake.

I raise my head from the back wall. My eyes registered to the darkness.

"Terry, he's fine."

"You're fucking sick. Both of you!" Soon the light spread across the blinds. The closet door swings open, Terry's body towers over me. The light in our room is causing me to squint. I so used to the dark, that once the light was revealed to me, my eyes couldn't accept it. "Are you okay?" Terry bends down and grasps my arms.

I don't move for a second until his fingertips brush against my arms. I thrashed and thrashed. "You're okay! You're okay!" Terry hugs me to him as he crouches down to my level.

We use to be close. It was him and me against the world. All that changed though when my parents passed, I didn't know why. It was him who pulled away.

But at that moment, he was the anchor to everything. My eyes stung of fear. Being open to the whole room, my eyes could barely meet my father's eyes. Maybe it was the light that blinded me, or perhaps because he died that night. Not physically, but something in his soul died.

Now

Jake P.O.V.

I've broken her again. The stories might be disheartening, but they are only the truth. That was the start of my fear of light. Light helps you see things, but it didn't help me see anything for what my father did that ruined our family; that has put them in the ground along with my mother.

"Hey, I'm right here." I cup her cheeks with my hands.

"I bitch and complain about my life, but you had no better." She sobs.