Flower's See Everything

Child of the Devil

A firm grip on the back of his head, his hair tangled into his father's fingers. Pulling his hair back in a harsh manner as Jalen gasped for air, tears swelling in his eyes as his head was dunked in almost burning hot water. His eyes remained tightly shut, then a minute passed. He opened his eyes and fought back against his fathers grasp trying to gain a breath. The flailing and squirming couldn't help him, the lack of air began to make his vision blur and spin in circles.

He tried desperately to keep himself conscious, alive. He thought about everything he could in that moment. He mostly reminded himself of how he couldn't die, not yet, or not like this.

Another minute passed and blacks fuzzes came into his vision. He tried to look up at his father, it wasn't as quiet and lonely as drowning was usually depicted. His father was hissing in anger, slurring, cussing under his breath. The water was still running into the bath... an then he closed his eyes. He didn't want to, he was terrified. He knew he couldn't last much longer. His ears began to ring and his lungs were in desperate pain. His sobs being washed away in the water.

Then for a moment the world fell completely silent, and the Earth around him faded. It was the most peaceful moment in Jalen's entire life.

A moment was the only period of time that could properly explain this, it wasn't short, it wasn't long. Nor was it necessarily any time in between. It wasn't quite the feeling of death either, or strength, nor did it even feel as if he were weak. The only thing that he felt was peace.

After this moment had subsided, he opened his eyes. He was choking out water onto the floor, he was on all fours, grasping the cloth on his chest. Jalen's vision slowly went back to normal and he could properly grasp his surroundings. The ache in his lungs, the ring in his ears, it was gone now.

His eyes looked around the room as he had tried to understand what changed, did his father give up? Of course not. One of his older brothers, Stephan, had pulled his father onto the floor and brought Jalen away from the bath. His mother was standing over him,

"Get up." She said in a neutral, but somehow chilling tone. Was she mad? Jalen asked himself and quickly got onto his two feet. He couldn't make eye contact because what if she were mad? He couldn't bear that fact. His mother placed a hand on his shoulder, and did a weak and tired smile.

"Fuck you."

She said in the darkest and coldest of tones, her eyes blank. It was chilling and Jalen was terrified. What did she mean? Her hand left his shoulder and Jalen walked out of the bathroom gasping for a breath. The beating in his chest going from a slow, average pace, to quick and speedy.

Soon after he had left the room, his mother had closed the door and locked it. At this point, he could vaguely remember what had triggered his father to attempt to murder him. Was it him asking for help to bathe maybe? That was a possibility.

Jalen decided to stand by the door silently, gently placing his ear against it to listen in. The water had stopped running at this point and assumably his father was off the floor.

"Stephan what the fuck, you shouldn't have intervened." His father said in an agitated tone, but he wasn't angered enough to hurt him.

"YOU TRIED TO KILL HIM, YOU TRIED TO KILL YOUR SON!" Stephan sobbed and hiccuped, and was soon silenced by the mother's hand.

"Do you not hear yourself? He's our child, this wasn't right. If we were to have a child it shouldn't have been Jalen. If we were to have a child- No we shouldn't have had one. He was a mistake Stephan. Don't you see that? We needed to kill him. If he survived it was God's plan for us to have him. You ruined that for us by intervening. He truly is a child of the devil." His mother corrected Stephan, and moved her hand away from his mouth. She approached the sink and rinsed her hands under the cold water before continuing to speak,

"We cannot sell him if he is our own, we would need to use him for examples. We would have to use him from the most unholy of experiments- examples- punishments- do you understand? It's how a trafficker treats their biological child. It hurts a bit compared to hurting you all, he is ours after all. Yet in a way it makes us both beyond angered and want to hurt him more. The things we want to do to him- must do to him, remind me of those we did to Kal."

Kal Delarose was a special child as they said, who had been sold to a family. He only visited every so often. Jalen thought he would be the one to save them all.

Stephan began to speak once more, "No... You would have to do worse to your own child.. wouldn't you? Or you would've just attempted to kill Kal too."

The father sighed and placed a hand on Stephan's shoulder, "We almost did kill Kal, but yes you are right, except now we cannot try to murder Jalen again. At this point we accept our fates and finally let him understand Hell."

Jalen had heard the whole conversation, he hadn't felt the tears fall down his cheeks until now. He felt a tap on his shoulder and he was startled, he quietly turned around to see the blinding figure. However it seemed interactive and not dangerous, it took Jalen's wrist and led him to his dwelling.

"Thank you-" He wanted to say more but the figure had then disappeared, he was used to these by now. He was only occasionally thanking them though, most of the time he had been approached by the figures because the figures wanted to hurt him. Jalen, after the encounter, had creaked open his own door and peaked out. He had seen that Stephan and his parents had left the bathroom.

"So that's why it led me here... So I would have not been caught..." Jalen whispered under his breath before closing the door and sitting against it. He had taken this time to cry, whether it be from the near death experience or from the conversation he had overheard. He didn't care- he just needed to cry.

He dozed off in his hopeless sob and snapped out of it when the tears were dried and gone. The door handle was being fiddled with, his heart sank in fear as he moved away from the door. It opened after he had moved and Jalen was relieved to see it was just Stephan,

"Are you alright...?" Stephan asked, he shook his head "Of course not." He opened his arms and held Jalen in a tight hug for minutes.

Jalen had heard what he had said, his brother understood his parents actions. He didn't even object them. No, instead of objecting them he corrected his parents into a worse train of thought.

How could he trust anyone again?