Hell Has an Elevator

Waking Nightmare

Laying in my bed, I want to cower away for the rest of my days. It would probably be easier than living through this, but... no, you have a sister to watch over, Ember, snap out of it. She doesn't need to deal with this like you did. I can at least handle that much, right?

Sitting up, I look at myself in the mirror, shorter than my parents still, even with my growth spurt recently. And I thought turning 13 would make me taller... not the time! My red hair is a mess, falling down to my neck. My pale skin contrasts my puffy red eyes well, no hiding that. At least I don't have school for another week. At least Christmas is good for something.

Waiting until I hear Dad's footsteps walking down into the basement, I walk to my sister's room quickly, avoiding Mom's attention as I go. She's crying into her plush of a fox, letting the tears flow. I sit next to her, rubbing her back in an attempt at comfort. Dammit, what do I do? She's more emotional than me, like Mom. How do I help her? Fuck fuck fuck!

As her sobs start to calm, I wrap her in a hug, pulling her head close to my chest. "It'll be fine, I'm here. Nothing will hurt you."

Her voice is cracked and broken, filled with sadness. "B-but M-mom..."

"She'll be fine. Dad just wants to avoid it getting worse now, they just have to leave each other alone."

I feel her nod into my chest, her breaths slowly calming down. A knock comes from her door, before it opens, revealing Mom standing there. The stench of alcohol is easy to notice, not that you'd need to, given the untold amount of bottles in the basement from the years of drinking. She's wearing her jacket, keys in hand. I don't even need to hear her speak to know what she's gonna say. That she's going to leave because she's clearly the problem here, so on and so forth. Yeah, drive away drunk to some random friend's house in the dead of night in the middle of winter. Great idea.

Yeah, she is right about one thing, that she's the problem. While it's a combo, obviously they both are in the wrong, she's the one who always starts shit back up when it's finally calming down. Last time, she woke dad up just to call him a deadbeat on a work night. Shit did not end well.

But to involve us in this one? On christmas eve no less? I'm terrified to see what reaction she'd get from pushing him this time.

Of course, not like it's the first time. Even as she leaves the room, I hear dad walking up the steps. Time and time again, the cycle repeats. Just when shit seems to be going well, it instead goes to shit once they start drinking. When she starts, to be specific.

Now they're arguing again, Dad tried to tell her off from driving drunk, it'll be putting people at risk over bullshit. She talks over him, raising her voice to tell him off for being the reason she's leaving. He yells louder, upset she talked over him. She- NO!

The moment I heard her compare him to his mother, I knew it was too late.

There's a single, tense heartbeat that goes by, where nobody moves.

On the second beat, she goes to run her mouth, and he grabs it shut, slamming her to the floor.

I sprint over to him, my sister screaming at them to stop. I wrap him in a hug, and he yells at me to move, to let go, to stay out of it.

Refusing to budge, I hug him tighter, telling him that I know they don't mean it. I tell him how much it hurts to see.

Slowly, he relents, letting her go, backing up and wrapping me into the hug as well, apologizing to both me and my sister.

In a move I can only describe as painful, Mom calls him a coward for not finishing what he started.

Despite him telling her to stop, she calls him a terrible father, and it's over from there. He lets go of me, and-