SIBLINGS

[1]

Indigo Chávez

"Indigo. Get your ass over here." My stepmom yells.

"Alright, alright!"

She's smoking a cigarette and stops talking occasionally to take a drag.

"The client said you were uninteresting and barely tried. Do you know how bad that looks for me!? "

I take a step back.

"Do you? Do you boy!? Or are you too retarded to even know?"

I shake my head no.

"You know Indigo, I don't care what they do to you, just do it right or I don't get paid! I give you everything but you can't even pleasure the clients?!"

"I-I'm sorry. What else do you want me to say?"

I see her hand swing before my head turns to the right. I stayed there for a few seconds, I don't really know why. She's really not that strong, but when you're both crackheads it's whoever least high who wins.

"Stop that fucking stutter. I know you don't stutter with anyone else, I can't even hear what you're saying!"

She grips my chin and turns my head before saying, "Fucking look at me when I speak."

"Yes ma'am."

"That's better.

Now take your fucking shirt off."

"Please, I'm sorry. I'll do better. I'll do better next time. I promise. You don't have to do this. Please don't do this."

I wouldn't believe me either. I'm not fucking sorry. It doesn't sound like I'm begging or anything, I sound more like a toxic ex or something, trying to convince my girl that I didn't cheat. I know that's a weird comparison for me to my stepmom, but if you heard me you'd think it too.

"You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do!"

"No! Oh my god, how did you get that fro-"

She pushes me to the floor and digs her foot in my collarbone.

"FUCK!" I cry out in pain.

She forcefully lifts my shirt up and uses the same hand to force me to stay down. I'm trying to scoot myself away and push her off. I'm kicking and basically wrestling her, but she keeps kicking me down, and since I'm already underneath her, there's no chance of escape.

While I frantically try to get away, she shoves my head into the corner of the electric fireplace. Everything goes black for a second, and then my vision comes back, but everything is blurry and spinning. Everything sounds muffled or, in some way, muted. There is a high-pitched ringing in my ears that comes on and off. The back of my head feels wet.

"Had to almost knock you out for you to stay the fuck down. You piece of shit."

She lifts my shirt back up, takes a puff, and lights the butt out on my chest.

Its not too bad at first but then it becomes unbearable. I can't hear myself or really anything super well but I feel a horrible a scream tear out of my lungs. It stings so much, it feels like the heat is eating at my skin, peeling at layers. My throat hurts. The pain of the burn just fucking sucks.

After what feels like hours, it's over.

Until she pulls out the lighter and lights it on my chest in a different spot. I gain some strength, purely from adrenaline to squirm and desperately try to get up. The squirming only causes her to burn me in a larger area. The air hitting the cigarette burn hurts more than the burn itself. It's throbbing in pain, but the lighter hurts hundreds of times worse than the cigarette. I can hear my screams only slightly now. My neck now feels wet. Layers of skin being burnt off. I think I'm being dramatic?