Meet Me At the Swing Set

Chapter 4

Guys please check for triggers in the chapter. I'm marking the start and end of the scene for y'all :))

Catalina’s POV

*Trigger Warning* (Physical Abuse, Verbal Abuse)

“Dad, I tried to get her out of there as soon as I could.” I said, trying to calm him down. He slammed his hand down on the table, making me flinch.

A small sound of fear escaped my throat, and I placed my hands in front of my face.

“Why didn’t you tell me immediately when you didn’t see her in class? What if someone had seen her?” I didn’t mention that Sarah had seen her.

“You always do this. Even in sixth grade, you were just lost to the world! When will you start being conscious of your surroundings?”

I blinked at him, confused and dazed. “I was?” I asked, slightly timid.

He rolled his eyes, looking like he was restraining himself from doing some damage to my face. “When you took up swimming? You literally fell into the water because you were looking at a butterfly.”

I tried. I really tried to rake the darkest corners of my brain to remember something. Anything. Maybe a memory associated with it.

But I came up blank. When did I take up swimming?

“I used to swim?” I furrowed my eyebrows, and a slap was delivered to my cheek. I gasped, holding a hand over the stinging skin. “Don’t mock me. And don’t try to get off topic. Why did you not keep an eye on her?”

I bowed my head down, fumbling with my hands in my lap. How was I supposed to respond to questions like these? 

I didn’t flinch this time when he landed a punch to my shoulder. He wasn’t big on hurting my face, since it was harder covering that up, but he slipped up occasionally, leading to a gash or a blue mark under the eye.

He stood up from the chair, towering over me, and he pushed me off my seat. I fell on my side, the breath knocked out of me, and I held up my hands over me again in a pathetic attempt to protect myself.

This seemed to anger him even further, and he landed a punch to my mouth.

The rings on his fingers cut into my gums, and I did nothing to prevent the blood from dripping onto his carpet. He had enough money to get a new one anyway.

He was only angry at me right now because he didn’t get to hear her behavior from me.

I stared him down. “I do not blame mom for doing what she did. I would kill myself too rather than endure you.” I spat out the last word like it was poison on my tongue.

The rational part of me warned me, to be a good, obedient puppet, take the beating, and then get the hell out of that cursed bedroom.

But I knew I had angered the beast, as his eyes darkened, and he shrugged out of the suit jacket that he still wore over an ironed dress shirt, never taking his eyes off me, sprawled across the floor.

Bringing her up was a mistake. Everything I did was a mistake.

“You like pain, don’t you, Catalina?”
I did, actually. It helped me feel. I was desperate to feel something, anything.
 
*End of scene*

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I held one hand over my throbbing eye, as I quickly shuffled back to my room. I’d crossed a line today.

I deserved that. I deserved everything, for every horrible, mean thing that I had done to Beth, to so many other people whose names were whispers in the farthest corner of my mind.