malefaction : awsten knight

1

TW: Abuse, guns, death, violence 

December 2009

Awsten Knight never had the most glamorous childhood, he grew up in the suburbs of Houston Texas with his sister.

His mom and dad had been together his entire life, and his mom was a loving woman. 

A little too loving if you asked anyone who knew her, she would of given her children the world on a silver platter if she had been given the opportunity too and she did for the most part. Her only downfall was also giving her husband that same love that he absolutely did not deserve. 

Melissa Knight protected Awsten and Laura from the world to the best of her abilities, unfortunately she fell short when it came to protecting them from her husband Andrew. 

Andrew wasn't always a rotten, secretive man. Melissa never would of married him if he had been, the best way she could explain it was like a light bulb burnt out once day and once she replaced it, it was never exactly the same shade of light it was in the first place. 

As the kids got older, he got less patient with them. Lashing out for the smalls of mistakes or accidents, becoming more and more strict with them and implementing rules that they had never had before. 

Melissa protected the kids as much as she possibly could, sticking up for them as any mother would and as a result she was often left with bruises that not even the fullest of cover concealers could hide from the nosy neighbors. 

When it came to the kids, Andrew would leave bruises where no one would ever see them. 

Awsten was 16 years old now, old enough to understand the full weight of the dynamic that his parents had even if his mother would never fully be honest with him about what went on behind closed doors. 

In part he felt like he was responsible to protect his mother and sister, the way he looked at it was if his dad wasn't going to be the man he should be. Then it would be his turn to step up and step in whenever he could. 

There were many nights spent at the kitchen table, helping his sister do her homework while his went untouched and overdue. 

He had gotten a job at the local deli, about a five minute walk from his house and while the money wasn't a lot right now. It would get better once he was done with school and could work full time. 

He wasn't a bad kid by any means, in fact teachers loved having him in their classes. He was helpful and attentive, the assignments that were done in class were typically done with little to no mistakes on them, it was just outside of school where his academics would slip and fail to a point that affected his grades to an unforgiveable amount. 

Teachers would pull him aside, ask if everything was okay at home and if there wasn't anything that they could do to help but they knew there was no point. 

Awsten would shrug it off, pretend like he just didn't care enough about school to do his homework and that was why things were never done. 

Most of them could see directly through the facade like he was a sheet of cellophane, completely transparent. 

Laura and Awsten were home from school for the last week due to the winter break, and things at the start were oddly normal.