One... A loud barking. Two... A hail storm. Breathe. Three... The smell of liquor. Four... An earthquake. Breathe. Fi-... Lightning strikes. There are times in life when these things fade away; moments when the pain fades and something sweeter takes its place. Similar to when you add coffee cream or half-and-half to coffee. Doing so makes the coffee sweeter, but it doesn't take away the underlying bitter taste.
My face stings. I look at my father whose mouth is moving, but no words are coming out. His face is red and a vein on his forehead threatens to burst. I can feel pressure on my forearms where he holds me. Throwing me onto the floor, he raises a hand in a threatening position. It is like the blade of the guillotine before it makes its descent.
Just then, the front door bursts open and Jaes charges in, his face alight with fury and his teeth bared in an animalistic snarl. He pulls my startled father away from me and shoves him in another direction, then kneels down to raise me to my feet. His voice reaches my ears and it reminds me of when we first met, the day he saved me. It draws my attention to his face and it warms me to see his soft expression, despite the tinge of anger in his eyes. My father had left the room and now returns with a shotgun, pointing it at Jaes and yelling at him. Everything is muffled and I feel so numb that I don't know what he says or how to react.
Quickly ripping the gun away from my father's grasp, Jaes points it at him, causing him to step back. With a piercing glare, Jaes says something and inches backwards while still aiming the gun. The familiar warmth of his hand graces mine and it leads me out the front door. Once out of the house, Jaes sets the gun in a bush and rushes me toward his car. Ruth helps me into the back seat while Jaes runs to the driver's seat and takes the wheel. By this time, I begin to hear what is going on while we peel away from the curb. The car's tires screech and a few seconds later a gunshot sounds.
"Shit!" Jaes curses and glances past Ruth and I at the back window. A bullet hole marks the start of where glass splinters off in every direction. Looking back at the road, Jaes asks "Are you two alright?"
"Yeah, we're fine." Ruth replies. She had covered me with her arms when the gunshot went off. Beginning to examine me, her expression grows full of sympathy. Now that she has brought my attention to it, my body starts to hurt even more. Most of the pain is coming from my arms, face and head although there is one spot on my side that hurts. My dress is torn at the bottom and my hair hangs down from a bun that is falling apart. "You poor thing..." Ruth remarks.
At Jaes's apartment, Ruth and I sit on the couch while she lightly dabs my bruises with some ice cubes wrapped in a wet towel. Jaes paces around with his palms on the back of his head, probably shaking off the leftover adrenaline from earlier. "What happened?" Juran asks. He was sitting on the couch with his computer when we walked in, but now he's sitting on the armchair next to it.
"Jaes dropped Bernice off at her house and we were about to leave when we heard yelling from inside, so Jaes knocked down the front door and came out with Bernice. I don't know exactly what happened in there, but poor girl looks like a bruised banana. Her dad shot a hole through the back of Jaes's car." Ruth explains.
Juran in turn looks at me and I think its the first time he has ever really looked at me. The attention from him makes me feel uncomfortable. However, its quickly drawn away when his brother says "I need a shower" and walks into another room. It catches my gaze as well.
Ruth leans against me and whispers, "Don't worry, honey. He just needs to cool off for a little while". Then she says a bit louder, "Let's get you cleaned up as well".
After guiding me into the kitchen, she helps me clean the make-up from my face and let my hair down from its disheveled bun. The slightest grace against the bruises sends painful shocks through my face, but she takes care to have a gentle touch. "Do you want to tell me what happened," she asks and I shake my head.
