NaNoWriMo 2014

Chapter Two

After the incident in the shop my father's temper simply got worse. It was only after I was signed on at the station that I learned that he was under investigation from the Kobald police. It seems that his friend Nurk had reported him on something and while they never caught him, the police certainly scrutinized my father far more carefully than before.

Time passed and things seemed to be getting better and calmer, the searches becoming less and less frequent until one day my father came home from the shop in a rage. Apparently the chief had just sprung a surprise inspection on the shop when there was a slave in the basement hold. By sheer luck they were called away at the last minute by some explosion at the square. My father was furious with from the fright, had they seen the slave they would have lopped his head clean off right then and there; no questions asked. I was eleven.

When he came in the door his face was eggplant purple and I, being young, asked him "Father, why is your face that weird color?"

"Never you mind, brat!" he replied, as he swept me aside with one arm.

"What's wrong, dear?" asked my mother kindly, "Did something happen at the store?"

He did not respond, he only stormed through the house and collapsed in his chair.

My mother walked slowly over to him and knelt by his feet and asked him again, "What happened, dear? Was it another search?"

He began to shout now, his words loud in the small space. "YES THERE WAS A SEARCH YOU STUPID WOMAN! I CAME WITHIN THIS CLOSE" here he held up two fingers an inch apart "FROM BEING PUT TO THE KNIFE!" His last words came out as more of a high-pitched shriek than a shout.

"Relax darling, it's okay now, it's okay." My mother said in an attempt to sooth my father's anger.

"NO! IT'S BLOODY WELL NOT OKAY, KOBALD POLICE CAME THAT CLOSE TO FINDING OUT ABOUT IT WHICH MEANS THAT THEY WILLL GET THAT CLOSE AGAIN! NEXT TIME THEY WILL PROBABLY FIND THE PIT EVEN AND THEN WE'RE REALLY SCREWED!" He shrieked, shaking with a combination of annoyance at his wife's attempts to calm him down and his fear-shock. I saw his fingers twitch from my place at the door.

"Just stay here and I'll get you a nice cup of something warm and a bite to eat." said my mother in a quiet voice.

That was too much for my father in his state. He leapt forward at my mother grabbing at her throat, my mother screamed; a long drawn out cry that was cut short by my father's hands finding their mark. I ran forward to try to help my mother but at my young age, me pummeling my father's back had no effect other then him booting me across the room. I saw my mother's hands scrabbling at his fists clenched around her throat but he was to strong for her. As I watched I saw her hands go limp but he did not release her yet. I knew that was the end.

I ran out of the house then and ran to the end of our street where I knew an officer was stationed. "Officer, my father is strangling my mother and I think she's already d, d, d, dead." I broke down towards the end of my sentence as my words made true what I wished weren't.

"Take me there," commanded the officer.

I lead him down the street at a run and stopped in front of my house. He had been talking into his chip the whole way there and I got the gist of the conversation that the police dispatch was sending out a van to collect my father.

The officer burst in the door and yelled, "STOP, THIS IS THE POLICE, STAND STRAIGHT WITH YOUR HANDS UP, AND DO NOT MOVE!" he said in a quieter tone, "Where is he, son?"

I told him, sobbing, "L, l, last door a, at the end of th, the hallway."

He rushed through the house just in time to see my father trying to make an escape out the window. The officer quickly froze him with his nerve-ray and quickly strode across the room the look at my mother.

"I'm sorry son, but she's gone." He said in a quiet, calm tone. "Wait just a few minutes and someone will come to take care of you while this all gets sorted out."

Ten minutes after the freezing of my father, a large crew pulled up; sirens wailing; to the curb in front of our house. A team of ten men and five crime scene autonomous scanners jumped out and came quickly inside. My father was transferred; still in his frozen state, to the van, my whole house was photographed and scanned, and an ambulance called to take my mother away to be put into an electric fusion chamber to keep her from decaying before the trial.

A kind woman arrived who told me that I was going to be living with her temporarily until better arraignments could be made. She took me out of the building that used to be my home. It now looked closer to an anthill with all the people running this way and that scanning and analyzing the scene. During the flight to my temporary home the news feed on the dash was showing a police raid being conducted in my father's shop alternating with clips of my old home.

The reporter was saying, "Kobald police have been searching this shop on main since the proprietor was arrested this morning for murdering his wife. We have the Kobald chief here at the station for comment. Chief, what have you been doing all day after getting the news?"

"We have been active all day clearing the shop owned by this man and getting all good catalogued and valued as well as photographing the man's house and property." replied the chief of Kobald police

"Could you give us a little more information as to the contents of his shop?" questioned the reporter.

"Yes, well, we have so far catalogued over two million credits in legal goods, 5 million in illegal goods and one emaciated slave that we discovered in a basement pit. This man has been under investigation for slavery and goods smuggling for years now but we've never managed to pin anything on him. He was good at hiding his activity that's for sure." answered the chief.

"Wow, I thought that with slavery was outlawed and all..."

That was when my new caretaker cut off the feed. "No need for you to hear all of that, darling. You've got a long life ahead of you to hear that it all."

I soon arrived at the home of my guardian. It was a nice house, small but with a clean, charming air about it that I took a liking to instantly. It was painted light, clean, airy colors that gave it an appearance of being much larger than it actually was.

"Your bedroom is the second door on the left." My guardian told me. "My name's Amanda by the way. Please call me by it. Go along; make yourself comfortable, I'll put something on for us to eat.

I headed down the hallway to check out my new quarters, it was a nice neat, clean room that matched the rest of the house. I took an instant liking to it. My dinner was a casserole that Amanda had made the day before. She was talkative and we chatted all through the meal until she finally said, "The trial's been set early for tomorrow, you'll be called up to speak so you should get some rest."

"Goodnight Amanda" I said and headed off to sleep. As I was lying in bed I thought again of my mother and remembered that I would never see her again. In that moment I hated my father, I hated him from the bottom of my heart. Then the thought of my mother's soft smile sent me into tears and I fell asleep crying.