Pretty Promises

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As the Taxi arrives at our house, I quickly rummaged through my bag to find a 20 dollar bill.

"Thank you sir" I gave the man the bill and ran to the back seat, flinging the door wide open to grab Lucia.

"Get inside!" I pointed to the door. She sighs as she slowly gets out of the car, slamming the door shut behind her. We walked slowly to our front door, stopping in our tracks as Lucia turned to me, I knew exactly what she was scared of. I knew exactly what our punishment would be for being late home, our mum was about to treat us like a punching bag as soon as we walked through that door.

"Are you okay?" Lucia asks, she knew exactly how I was feeling.

"I'm so okay Lucia, definitely" I rolled my eyes to her dumb question.

"Lets just get it over and done with-" I got cut off by the door in front of us swinging wide open, the short woman who owned every inch of our souls standing right in-front of us.

"H-hi Mum, we just-" Before Lucia could say another word she backhands her across the face, causing Lucia to fall to the ground, her holding her cheek with her hands in agony. The slap was so hard it left her cheek a purple and red handprint.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" I screamed, pushing her into the door to the house.

"Why are you girls late?! I told you to come home before dark!" Our mum spat, her hot cigarette and alcohol scented breath leaving me with fear. I looked down at her hand, a wooden spoon hanging tightly into her grip. She was definitely drunk.

"Oh shut up Mum, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I yelled, making her stop in her tracks. She looked at me, disgust in her eyes. I didn't care how I treated my mum, she never treated us right, so what gave me the right to treat her so well? After she just backhanded my own sister across the face, and her own daughter.

"Do you not see the jacket wrapped around my head?!" I spat as I took a step towards her, my fists in clutch ready to throw a punch at any moment.

"Oh, and not to point out the blood on my head!" I pointed to the dried blood on the side of my scalp, taking another step forward.

I grabbed the jacket from my head and threw it to the ground. "DO YOU SEE MY HEAD?!" I screamed, pointing to my bruised and blood covered head. She said nothing, no words at all, no expression, just like Tom.

"Say something!" - "FUCKING SAY SOMETHING!"
She blankly stared at me, her mouth slightly open in shock. I have never yelled at my Mum like that, but I was overprotective over Lucia. Watching my mothers hands glide across her face with no hesitation filled me with fire, it hurt me to watch her get slapped for no reason. I mean, it was her fault we were late, but it wasn't entirely hers. She didn't deserve to get a slap from it.

I turned around to the doorway, staring at Lucia on the ground, her silent cries made me want to grab her and hold her, and that's what I did. I walked over to Lucia, crouching down to her level as I slammed the door behind me, making sure our monster of a mother wasn't in our sight.

"Lucia" I softly spoke to her, making sure she knew I wasn't angry anymore.

She looks up at me, her mascara running down her face mixing with her tears.

"Stop crying Lucia" - "It'll all be over soon" I promised, rubbing her head comfortingly.

She leans into my shoulder, her black and wet tears now dripping onto my shirt.

"I'm sorry Poppi, I'm sorry I didn't believe you" She cried, her tears now covering my entire shoulder.

"It's okay Lucia, it's okay, I promise" I cried back, tears now dripping down my face as-well. She huddled into my chest, I wrapped my arms around her, connecting my fingers together making sure she couldn't leave my sight.

"Please don't be angry at me, I'm sorry Poppi, I'm so sorry" She sobbed, her nose sniffling as she wipes her tears.

I paused, slightly unwrapping my arms from her. "I'm not angry at you Lucia, I promise you" I looked into her eyes, an innocent smile wiping across my face.

She smiled back at me, adding a slight chuckle as-well. Lucia was so strong, she was one of the strongest women I knew, she handled everything bad thats ever happened to her like a champ. Lucia was my hero without the cape, she was my saviour, my other half. I needed to protect her from now on, I was never going to let a hand like our mothers touch her ever again.

She got up from my chest, wiping her tears from her red cheeks.

"Magst du mich?" She said, a mischievous look on her face.

I looked at her, a confused smirk wiping my face.

"What?" I replied with a slight laugh.

"Magst du mich?" She said again. I was too tired to even know what was going on.

"What does that mean?" I questioned.

"That means "Do you like me", Bill taught me it!" She exclaimed, a proud smile wiping across her bruised face. Of course Bill taught her that.

"I'm so proud Lucia, but we need to go inside now" I said. I felt like I was lowering the mood as those words came out of my mouth, but I honestly didn't care, and I wanted Lucia to know I didn't care. I wanted her to know that I didn't like him. Well, she probably already knew that, but I was just double checking.

I got up from the ground, looking up into the darkness of the night sky. A white cloud appeared, just covering the moon. The cloud was the shape of the letter "H".

"Look Lucia, it's Dad!" I exclaimed excitedly, pointing to the moon.

"Oh my God, it is..." Her jaw was dropped, but not in a bad way this time. Her face was bright, her eyes glistening.

The letter "H" stand'd for our fathers name, Hugo. I knew he was watching over us, giving us signs to keep going, to have hope. My heart was now filled with hope, I knew I had to keep going for our Dad, thats all he wanted for us, was to have hope.

"Hope for Hugo!" I excitedly yelled. - "I love you" I mouthed to the moon.

***

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