The Night

Chapter X: The Interim

The Night

Chapter X: The Interim

---

May 17th, 2015

The uproar in the kitchen was the same as it always was: yelling, slamming cabinets, the occasional shriek, heavy fists and open palms hitting countertops. As usual, he laid wide awake in his bed, eyes fixed almost painfully on the ceiling, nearly unblinking.

The moon wasn't out that night, so the only light in the room came from the street lamps in town. The intrusive glow may have bothered anyone else, but he strangely found solace in the golden hue blanketing him as he lay motionless. Any minute now his little brother would knock, ever so gently, on his door. When mom and dad got like this, the 8 year-old didn't ever want to sleep in his own bedroom since it was the only room next to theirs. Cloud's loft—which is barely a loft considering it's just a third bedroom above the other two—is nearly as large as the master bedroom belonging to their parents. Cloud was always grateful for the privacy of it, as there was plenty of comfortable space to be away from baby brothers and stressful domestic disputes.

He never really knew who would start the fight, but it always ended with his mother laying in a crumpled mess on the floor, a new bruise to cover up in the morning. It was rare for him to ever sleep on nights like these, laying awake and staring at the ceiling until his eyes were sore and his body shut itself down from exhaustion. This torturous routine kept going on because he couldn't push away the feeling that these fights were somehow his fault. How did it end up this way?

Cloud was almost grateful when those soft knocks came to his door, knowing his brother wouldn't dare say a word until he was in the safety of his older brother's room. Quickly, Cloud went to unlock and open the door. He saw his little brother's face was wet with tears, as it usually was when their parents fought.

Once the boy was safe inside the room, Cloud pulled him into a hug and said, "Hey, Rox, it's gonna be okay."

"You always say that..." Roxas sobs, "but it's never okay."

Cloud didn't really know what to say to that. It had been a couple years now that their parents had been fighting, and the intensity of the brawls had only grown since then. He wasn't sure how much longer it'd escalate until something horrible happened, and he would have called the cops by now if his mother hadn't begged him not to. There didn't seem to be much hope in sight for any of them... he'd forgotten what his parents even still fight about.

Doing his best to find some kind of comfort, Cloud said, "I'm going to go to college, and then I'll find a way to come back and get you, okay?"

Roxas only sniffled before dejectedly responding, "What am I supposed to do when you're gone?"

He didn't really have a response for that either. His little brother continued to cry more silent tears, so he led the small boy over to sit on the bed. Cloud took a somber glance out the window, as if the light from below would speak the answer to him. He looked back to see the golden glow creating a silhouette of Roxas on the floor, and that was when the idea hit him.

"How about this: when I'm gone, you can have my bedroom."

In no time, his little brother's face lights up; Cloud could practically see the tears drying instantly. "Really?!"