HOME AND AWAY

Chapter 11

"How is she?" Casey asked as Brax returned to the living room.

"Catatonic." Brax sighed, Summer had been in her room since they had returned from the surf club. Brax and Casey had both been checking on her periodically but their little sister wasn't uttering a word.

Heath was the same, he sat quietly on the sofa just staring at the wall ahead of him. Bianca had returned from work and Brax had filled her in on what had happened, she was angry with herself for allowing Summer to leave the school without her.

"It's not your fault, we weren't to know when he would turn up. Plus Heath wouldn't have forgiven himself if you had got hurt." Casey explained, Brax had tried to tell her but when he had opened his mouth nothing had come out.

Brax sat back down at the table, across from Bianca who was doing marking and next to Casey. Casey took a moment to study his eldest brother; he looked so defeated that it scared him. He had never seen his brother like this before and he didn't know what to do. Casey felt angry as he turned to look at Heath, it was becoming clear that Heath was lost in some sort of memory or flashback and perhaps Summer was too. How could an interaction with their father result in this? Heath had always been so strong and indestructible as far as Casey was concerned; to see him lost amongst his childhood fears was upsetting. He had to do something; Danny Braxton had to be removed from their lives. But the question was how was he going to do that? There was no way that he could kill a man, no matter how evil; there had to be another way.

"How Casey?" Brax said sadly, it was as if he had become a scared child again; so helpless and just trying to protect his siblings the best he could. "I don't think I have it in me to go through this again. It was nearly 18 years before we got rid of him the first time. You don't remember how bad it was Case."

Brax pinched his nose and tried to fight back tears, causing Bianca to look up from her marking. "You only remember me taking you out of the house whilst Heath copped it or me hiding you under the bed whilst Dad laid into me. You didn't live through it, you were mum's little angel, you were safe."

Casey recoiled slightly; Brax had a hint of bitterness in his tone as he reflected on their mother's favouritism towards him. He didn't know what to say, was he supposed to apologise? But he didn't get time to give a response as Brax poured his heart out, "No social worker ever checked up on us when we were kids. You would have thought that with the frequency me and Heath were admitted to hospital, someone would have sussed. Not even when Summer broke her arm three times in 18 months; no one bothered."

"Brax, it's different now." Bianca tried to comfort her brother-in-law.

"Is it Bianca?" Brax scoffed, "Today Summer and Heath both got hurt by dad whilst me and Casey were upstairs, out of the way. Now look at them! Both of them are lost in the memories they'd both buried!" Brax stood up and started to rant, pacing around the living room.

"You weren't to know that Dad would show up." Casey offered desperately, he hated seeing his brother so tormented.

"I should have! He's ALWAYS there." Brax pointed to his head angrily, "There's not a day that goes by where I don't remember and if my nightmares have returned, what about Heath's or Summer's? God knows that Summer has dealt with enough in her life and now this?!"

Brax felt hot tears fall down his face as he finally allowed his emotional barrier to crumble. He sank to his knees on the floor and began to sob; crying for his lost childhood, for the pain he'd gone through, for the pain his siblings had suffered, for everything.

No one had noticed Heath turn around and look at Brax, nor had they noticed Summer enter the room. It wasn't until Summer and Heath sat on the floor beside Brax that they realised his shouting had brought them back to reality. Summer lay her head on Brax's lap, where he gently stroked her hair and Heath pulled his older brother into his arms. The Braxton siblings weren't ones to show affection and had any of their neighbours walked in at that moment, they would have laughed at the awkwardness of their position; but to them it was comforting and an indication of just how dire their current situation was.