Eaton

10. Regrets

William p.o.v.

I scramble up the stairs, panting, out of breath and most of all, absolutely terrified. I trip on the last step and sprawl across the upstairs landing. My ankle aches, I can't get up. 

'You'll regret running, boy'

No, no no no. He's coming for me. I push on my wrists in attempty to get myself to stand up. Half way through, my elbows give out and I fall back down facefirst, with nothing to break my fall. He makes it up the stairs and smirks evilly. I try to get as far away from him as I can, but it's all useless, he's walking towards me and as soon as he's close enough, he crouches down near my face.

'I'll make sure you do'  He stands up, pulls back his foot and drives it into my torso, knocking the breath out of me. Again and again until I'm coughing up blood and my vision is black around the egdes. He crouches again but I can't even budge.

'Had enough yet, boy?' 

He grips my hair and turns my head so I am forced to face him. Tears well up in my eyes.

'Answer me! 

I can't. I can't even manage a groan of pain. 

'Fine then, have it your way.'

He unloops his belt and wraps it around his knuckles. I don't even care anymore, at this point all I can hope for is to die of pain, so that I wouldn't have to live this way anymore. 

'This is for your own good'

He raises the belt and I flinch anticipating the hit. But it never comes. 

                                                                     ******************************

I shoot up in bed and clutch the sheets. My fingers shake and my breathing is rapid. Twelve years it'd been. Twelve long years and I'm still afraid of him. The sad thing is that I know how that dream ends because it's a memory. The blow never comes because Marcus steps in between. He takes the belting, and several others beside it. I hold my head in my hands and try my best to calm down. Inhale, exhale. Images of my father flash before my closed eyes, hitting me, hitting Marcus. And our mother, just standing there and letting him do it. She'd never stop him, not out of fear of him hitting her, no, he never did that. She just didn't care. It was that simple. She just carry on cooking, reading or watching TV, as if nothing was going on. As if I wasn't limping, as if Marcus didn't have to sleep on his stomach every other night because the alternative was just too painful. In some ways, she was worse then him. He beat us senseless, but she just couldn't be bothered. The only one who kept me above the water was my brother.

I look up, at the clock on the wall. It's five am. I won't be able to go back to sleep anyway. I shuffle out of bed and make my way downstairs, into the kitchen to turn on the kettle. For some reason, I'm not surprised when I see my brother sat at the table drinking tea and reading some papers.

'What are you doing out of bed so early Will?'

'I couldn't sleep, dad wouldn't let me. Thank you Marcus. I feel like I don't say that enough, and you need to know how much I appreciate your actions; Thank you, for letting me live here, for taking care of me, for everything. I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you'

'You didn't cause me any trouble Will. What did you dream about?'

'Remeber when I was fourteen, and I broke mom's favourite vase. Then when he came home she... she told him and he got so mad.'

He nods, he remembers the day. How could he possible forget it, he couldn't walk properly for weeks.

'I tried to apologise to her. I begged her not to tell him, I told her, that I'd buy her a new one. She didn't listen. She told him anyway and he near killed me.'

Marcus stands up and puts a hand on my shoulder. This was the closest he would ever get to comforting me. I don't blame him. How could he possibly help me when no one had ever helped him. He takes his hand back and steps forward.

'Listen to me Will. He's dead. He can't hurt us anymore. Not me, not you and Thank God, not even Tobias. Both of them are gone. You can't let him control your life from the grave, don't give him that satisfaction.'

I nod, and he leaves the room. I can try to let go of my father, to forget about him, but I know deep down that I will never be able to, not completely. Marcus pretends to be above him. He pretends that the minute our father died, he stopped thinking about him althogether, but I know that's not the truth. He has nightmares too, I've seen him. On those days he is especially irritable and somewhat jumpy. I just hope, for both his sake and for the sake of Tobias' well being, that those days don't come around frequently. I pour my tea and start up the stairs. As soon as I'm in my room I switch on my laptop, at least, if I can't go back to sleep, I'll use my time well. Re-read those damn lecture notes. A notification comes up on my screen, I've got mail. It's from Cara. Cara is doing the course with me, except she actually enjoys it. She sits next to me sometimes and we often share notes, the perfect college love story. Her email reads:

William-

You left your notepad behind last time since you left in such a rush. I collected it for you, to keep it from being lost. I can hand it to you whenever you wish. 

-Cara

I reply asking her to meet me at a coffee shop for breakfast. Frankly, I quite like her and today, I need a distraction. 

Tobias p.o.v.

Three weeks. Three long, detention filled weeks, have finally passed. I still can't believe that Marcus never questioned me about my late arrival from school. The only drawback that resulted from this whole thing was that, since everyday I got home at 4  p.m. Will had to do all the cooking. Don't get me wrong, my uncle is a great guy and I am grateful for his efforts to help me, but good God, if there is one reason for me to never get detention again, it's to never have to taste his cooking again. Everything is either half burnt or half raw, so that when I come home I have to cut off the crusts or microwave it. But still he tried, and better yet, my father didn't doubt. I am walking to English with Shauna, Zeke's friend. Well my friend too really. She keeps talking about how Eric is such an idiot and how I 'sure showed him'. I'm starting to regret ever hitting him. I feel like a hypocrite. I said that these people need to be taught a lesson to stop hitting and beating others, and how did I do that? By breaking his tooth, well done Tobias, you sure got that one right. My father is right about me. I am one failure after another, a mistake waiting to happen. I am such a screw up!

'What?' Shauna stops walking and turns to me.

'What' I ask her, what happened? Why did we stop?

'Why are you saying that, you are not a screw up. If anyone's a screw up, it's Eric'

I can't believe  I said that out loud. See? A mistake waiting to happen.

'Shauna, I.... I am a screw up. What kind of person stops a bully by beating him up? How did that ever make sense?'

'Seriously, Tobias. You are one of the best people I have ever met. Now come on let's go, we're gonna be late'

I don't argue with her, nor do I agree with her. Instead I just walk on, with my head down and my fists clenched.

Beatrice p.o.v

At lunch I notice that Tobias is quiet-er than usual. He only barely nibbles on his apple and sits slouched with his head lowered. What's wrong with him? Maybe I should do something, help him or comfort him. It's what my parents would want for me to do. But for some reason I don't. I just carry on eating my own lunch and listening to Christina and Will argue about whether honesty or intelligence are better. Neither of them are better than the other. They are both equally important. Asis bravery, I hope that Tobias knows that. Shauna told me earlier that he was feeling guilty for having hit Eric. How could he possibly? People like Eric deserve pain. I was horrified, watching Tobias hit him, and I pitied Eric for a brief moment. But then, Christina told me about how he would hurt all those kids. He'd beat them up, break them down, intimidate them, and I'm glad that I didn't stop him three weeks ago.

A/N

Three updates in one week... I hope you guys like it, a little more insight on William. Do you guys like Will/Cara? Anyway, please vote and comment if you liked it. See you next time.

xxRachele:)