Gray and Green // Michael Gray

Prologue

I've gotten used to the feeling of my heart pounding into my chest when the door opens every night. I've gotten used to the bickering sounds my parents make in the evening. I'm used to my sister coming into my room, crying, begging me to leave with her.

Tonight would be like every other night.

The door slammed shut, my fathers footsteps going into my parents bedroom. He grunts a little bit, putting his things away that he had from work. He was a gangster. A French gangster that scared the shit out of everyone.

"Lisa!" My dad yelled from his room, stomping his way out. I heard my mother sigh and face him. It started earlier tonight. He usually waited a couple hours.

"Yes, dear?" She asked. My father huffed, then smacked her.

"I thought fucking I told you not to touch the fucking cigars in the drawer." He yelled. "I need fucking them tomorrow." His speech was slurred, he was drunk. "Do you know how fucking important they are?"

"I didn't touch any of your things, Pierre." my mother shrieked as my father hit her again. This is where my sister Nora came into my room, tears pouring from her eyes.

"I didn't fucking do this, you didn't fucking do that!" He mocked. I had enough of it. The cigarettes were in my room. I had taken them to sell. This was my fault.

I walked out to the kitchen and attempted to stop my fathers hand from going across my face another time. He basically threw me into my mother.

"Stop. She didn't touch your cigarettes." I said, hiding my mother behind me. Her face was red and bruised, my wrist was starting to feel the same way.

"Anna, go to your room." My father told me. I clenched my jaw, attempting to protect my mother the best I could. I was skinnier than her, taller than her, and weaker than her. I couldn't defend myself if my life depended on it.

"Anna!" My father yelled in my face. I stood my ground for the first time ever.

"No. She is your wife. You're supposed to love her." It sounded childish for a 15 year old to say that.

He smacked me. I expected it.

"You don't know anything about love. Go to your fucking room." He said loudly, but calmly. My face was bleeding from the rings on his hands.

"Go to hell." I said nervously to his face. It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. It felt good getting it off my shoulders.

"Go to hell?" He asked with a slight smile, backing away from me. He came right back, lifting me up, opening the front door and throwing me on the pavement.

I winced from the pain on my face. My palms were bloody and small pieces of rock were embedded in my face. I groaned as I got up. There were rocks embedded in every inch of my body.

The rain drenched my hair and clothes on the walk to the church. The once white and red dress I was wearing was now black and disgusting.

I walked into the church, seeing the statue of Jesus above everything. He was bloody and gross, just like I was. He was skin and bone, just like I was.

"Sister Green, what brings you here this hour of the night?" Father Hughes asked as I walked towards the altar. I looked at him, my eyes wide and scared.

"Confession." I said calmly, the French accent making its way through perfectly.

He tilted his head a bit, walking towards the confession box. He didn't go in his side, rather went in after me, locking the doors.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he sat down across from me, displaying the large lump in his pants.

"This is confession, Anna. i don't know what you're implying."

-

The priest walked out of the room, buttoning his pants and scoffing. I spit on the wooden bench, trying to get the taste out of my mouth. It was disgusting. I wanted myself to be the one dying, not Jesus.

I walked out of the wooden room, hearing the birds starting to chirp and the sun beginning to come up. The stained glass windows were being lit up. It was morning.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a boy. His hair was neatly styled and he was wearing altar boys clothing. He hid behind the wall, thinking I couldn't see him.

There wasn't any point in crying anymore. Hughes did this to everybody. It doesn't matter what happened to me. All I needed to do was get revenge on every person who had wronged me.