School Days

Our Mangled Household

Our Mangled Household

After a particular invention goes wrong, Fianna suffers the expected abuse, and we see the typical life of the Fox family.

Fianna's P.O.V.

"Hi there Ms."

"Hello Fianna. Regarding your story for our segment, could you tell us about your home life?"

"My home life? Why? That has no relevance to what happened on Friday at all."

"Well, your older brother wrote that you were abused at home when we had him write his account of the events leading up to Friday and we want to have a talk with the therapist about it."

"Why? How is that relevant to Friday at all?"

"We are concerned for you and believe the abuse could be a factor as to why Friday's events happened."

"Um, I don't follow."

"It's hard to explain, if you could please talk to our therapist Dr. Alton that would be helpful."

"I guess I can speak with her about it. Do you want something specific?"

"Anything that happened between the start of school and this Friday? It's a several week gap so something must've happened."

"Well, something did happen in the gap but it was during that week we were baking with Chica, nowhere near Friday's build-up events but it's something so you want me to tell you don't I."

"Precisely. Dr. Alton is in the other room, go speak with her and we'll interview Seán in the meantime."

"Alright"

*Fianna leaves the interview room*

"Are the cameras on?"

"Cameras recording as requested, we'll be able to see the entire conversation."

"Good."

INTERVIEW SWITCH: Wilma Attenbore to Dr. Alton.

"Good evening, Dr. Alton

"Hello Fianna. I assume you know what's going on?"

"Yeah, I just have to tell you about an incident at home."

"Yes. When you're ready, go ahead."

Well, our story starts on Wednesday during the week when we were doing the whole "food cooking thing" Chica wanted help with. I was in the garage building a toy robot I had been given for my birthday. As I put it together, I messed up something; now I don't know what it was but whatever it was it exploded and sent large pieces everywhere, including the door of our van. Yeah I-I...dented it, not badly though, it was easily fixable and only a half inch in diameter and not even a sixth of an inch deep, but Mom didn't care. We knew she would lose it. And lose it she did. Oh boy, where do I start?

She heard the explosion and came running in to see what happened, noticed the new-but-really-hard-to-see dent and freaked out. She started yelling at me, calling me all sorts of names and stuff before running back to the kitchen, grabbing a freakin' KNIFE and chasing me around the house. She was yelling an' screaming and threatening to cut me up or mangle up my body. I tell you, she got me a few times; I got cuts and slashes and mess of bruises from tripping and falling over objects, and when she traded the knife for a FIRE POKER! Overkill much? She didn't think so, in fact when she was done, she told me she went easy on me and I deserved way worse. The rest of my siblings did the smart thing and grabbed me then ran off as quickly we could. We knew it would be bad news if she caught us, so we took off to someplace called "Moonriver Garden." It's actually the name of Bonnie's side garden, and the name was some old movie reference. There wasn't a door or entrance into the field, so we jumped the fence (well most of us, we just handed Eli over the stone wall) and sat there in a lot of flowers for a couple of hours until Dad picked us up. In the meantime, Mr. Brian came out to chill with us, and so did Bonnie.

"How did your father know where you were?"

"Jason called him as we left the house, letting him know what happened and what was going on. It's now protocol to get out of the house and run to Moonlight Garden whenever Mom gets too intense.

"I see. Continue."

After Dad picked us up, he asked us all sorts of questions to figure out everything that had happened and took us home.

"He took you back home? To your knowingly abusive mother? Why exactly?"

"Oh, it's because with him there, Mom doesn't try anything and it's the only place we can go really. Sometimes we go to our friends' houses but we can't stay long and eventually have to return home and all of our relatives live hours or even states away. Besides, that's where all of our stuff to record evidence is. We can't record and save evidence without it."

"And where does the evidence go?"

"Freddy's dads. I don't know where, but he has it."

"Hm, I understand now. If you would continue?"

"Yeah, sure."

Once we got back, Dad told us to document everything and hide it away in the evidence box and we did just that. We took pictures of the bruises and marks and assorted injuries before Dad treated them and hid them away. He intended to bring the box to Freddy's house for his dad to put in the safe deposit. Afterwards we did our usual chores: took out the trash, swept and mopped the floors, dusted and washed dishes. Fionn and I talked a lot about school while Evan and Jason just cleaned the house while saying nothing. It took a long time, especially when we had to do Mom's chores too. Soon Dad came back from Freddy's house and let us know the evidence was safely stored.

Later that night, after I was supposed to be asleep, I heard Mom and Dad fighting really badly. It was terrible; there was screaming, shouting, yelling, hitting, punching etc. I don't know what or why it happened exactly, but I know that Mom stopped the physical abuse towards us and Dad had a black eye and badly hurt arm for the next few weeks so I'm guessing it involved the abuse somehow.

"Your father is abused too?"

"Yeah, we're all under my mom's control. She abuses him really bad, worse than us sometimes. Sometimes it's so bad, Dad will tell us to stay with some friends until 10 or 11 o' clock at night while he stays at work as Mom goes to sleep at 9 or 10 at night. He does this so all of us don't have to worry about getting beaten or hurt when we come home. He's been doing this a lot more actually.

"I see. May I ask why your mother hasn't been arrested or had any legal proceedings done?"

"I don't know. I heard dad mention that mom's family is helping her stay out of trouble, but I can't say for certain."

"I see. Thank you for talking about this with me, it certainly sounds awful. There is hope though and don't ever lose that hope. It will get better. Now, why don't you go back to your friends, and I'll deal with the rest of this."

"Thank you. Goodbye, Dr. Alton."

"Goodbye Fianna."

*Fianna leaves. After 20 minutes, Dr. Alton removes a phone and takes a call, speaking quietly.*

"The recording is done and taken care of. Yes, it will be fun. I'll send it to Becca; she'll know what to do with it. Yes, I assure you, she will be perfect. Becca is a great lady with the skills necessary to clean up those annoying loose ends. Don't worry, everything will be OK. Now, tell Ness that everything has been taken care of and to keep that flash drive on her."

*Outside, Fianna records with someone's phone, listening carefully.*

Author's Note

Re-edited Moonlight Garden to Moonriver Garden and changed the location. It fits better if it's Bonnie's house than some random unnamed farmer's field, and Moonlight Garden was never a field. In its original concepts from 2015 for a different series, it was a hilltop tree.

There are quite a lot of clues for you to find. Most are obvious though.