Guilty

Chapter Eight: The Disturbing Truth Part 2

        I didn't understand, it was probably written all over my face how confused I was.

        Abby sprung off the mattress like it was on fire. She started pacing in front of the bed and wringing her fingers together.

        "Abby wait stop-" I waited for her frantic movements to stop before I continued. "I don't understand-"

        "Of course you don't understand. And why should you, I shouldn't have even said anything-."

         "Abby just shut up for a second, and don't interupt me again." She snapped her mouth closed so fast her teeth made a clicking sound. I then climbed off the bed so I could look into her eyes. "Just explain it to me, what do you mean he looks like his father so what!" She was silent. Eyes wide.

        Then quietly, so quietly that I almost didn't hear she whispered. "He's beating me Em."
        Time stood still, as I looked at the relief my sister was overcome with after she finally told me. It looked almost as if a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

        I stood frozen as her words registered in my mind.

        Then I numbly sunk down onto the bed behind me.

        I don't no when I realized that Abby had continued talking, but when I came back down to earth she was a blubbering mess. "-and he always gets angry when he cries so he hits him. I tell him to stop because he's just a baby and he hits me for that."

        "Wait he hit Tristan too?" She look at me and shook her head then fell down to her knees sobbing.

        She was crying hard, barely taking the time to breathe, curled into a little ball clutching her stomach. Muttering to herself, "I'm a failure, I can't even protect my own son. I'm just so scared of him. I do everything right, I swear I do." I was messing up, she confided in me and here I was sitting there while she lay there degrading herself on the floor.

        I quickly flung myself to the ground ignoring the pain in my knees because it seemed so minuscule in comparison to what my sister has been through. My sister. Oh Abby! I reached down and gently grasped her in a hug. She seemed so much more fragile now.

        "Abby hush of course your not a failure. Stop that I'm sure you tried your hardest, no no I know you tried your hardest to protect him. He is your son."

        She slowly rose her tear stained face to meet mine. "Emmy I would die for him, but I don't think that's enough. He's a monster. And I feel like giving up everyday, but I can't. I can't give up what kind if person would that make me." I didn't know what to say. What could I say to make her feel like everything is alright when it so obviously was a not.

        I didn't even suspect that this was going on. I felt sick to my stomach just remembering how I thought all this was her fault. I thought they were a couple just having problems. Or maybe there problems weren't as obvious, either that or I was the most oblivious person out there.

        Wait a minute... the sounds from last night!

        "Abby look at me." When she looked up I whispered, "Last night?" Her head fell forward as she sadly shook her head yes and my heart clenched painfully in my chest.

        The bastard was beating my sister across the hall from me last night, and I was making sex jokes about it.

        I was going to be sick, but then I took one look down at my big sisters defeated face and realized  that I had to stop thinking about myself. I had been selfish enough.

        "Shh, I'm here. The fact that you haven't given up yet tells me that you are the strongest person I know.And I'm here now and I'm going to fix this. Get your shoes on and I'll grab Tristan, and then we are going down to the police station."

        I went to go stand up, but she held onto my arm and pulled me right back down.

        When I looked back at her she had an almost desperate look in her eyes, "Please Em we can't."
        "Yes Abby we can and we will. Now come on let's go."
        "No Emily we really can't!"
        "Yes we can. We even have proof look at your arm. It's in a fucking cast!"

        "No we can't because his Uncle is the Chief of Police Emy. Believe me I've tried I talked to his Uncle myself, he told me that he's probably just stressed about his job. He told me that it should pass, and to tell him if it got worse. Well guess what? It did and I did, but he still didn't do anything about it."
        "Wait you're telling me some other son of a bitch knew about this and he didn't do a damn thing about it?" Furious could not begin to describe how I was feeling.
        "Yes Em but please calm down."
Looking down onto my sister's pleading face I realized that she has had enough. Getting angry would solve nothing.

        "Okay, okay no cops but you're sleeping in here with me tonight, and no I don't want to hear any objections."

        As I tucked her into bed I was going over what had all been revealed tonight.

        And hating myself for being so blind.

        It must have just started the last time I was here, because I distinctly remember a huge ass bruise on her face.

        The asshole probably didn't know how suspicious bruises on the face were yet.

        Laying down next to my passed out sister I couldn't help but to start crying again, thinking of everything that she has probably been through all by herself. Without anyone to talk to.

        My strong older sister. Carrying this huge burden on her back by herself for nearly two years.

       Stroking her hair as I thought to myself I would be lucky to amount to even half the woman that she is when I grow up.
        Anger might not solve anything.
        But maybe getting even would.