the very first night, ᶜʰʳⁱˢ ˢᵗᵘʳⁿⁱᵒˡᵒ

✰. . . anniversary

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
[ real life ]

real life!

delilah didn't want to go home.

but she knew she had to.
delilah was scared. she didnt want to get beaten
but somewhere in her heart, she knew she would

and in a messed up way, she accepted her fate.
delilah knew there was no way out, no other way to escape his violence.

matt was driving her and anna home from being at the their house all day, chris also came along. it was a saturday and chris had invited the two girls round knowing what day it was.

her mothers death anniversary.

delilah could tell chris felt pity for them, that's why he spent his time distracting and keeping their smiles alive.
and she appreciated him, a lot.

even when he tried walking her anna to their door, delilah politely refused. because she already knew what was coming. she could feel it deep in her bones, the storm awaiting for her in that treacherous household. she didn't need chris seeing it.

and she wasn't surprised when the first thing that greeted delilah when she stepped through her house on saturday evening was her stepdads fist.

anna shrieked and flinched for her sister, the door being closed behind them at this point. hiding the abuse of their stepfather.

the force of the blow knocked the air clean out of delilah's lungs and she dropped to the floor on her hands and knees.

"where were you?!" he snarled. towering above her. his eyes heavily bloodshot and stinking of whiskey. he wasn't sober and he clearly wasn't in his right mind.

"selfish bitch!" he roared. "your mothers death anniversary was today and you can't even mourn her!"

"too busy whoring around!"

delilah didn't have a chance to respond or defend herself before he reached down and fisted her hair, dragging delilah further into the house, into the kitchen.

lilah could hear anna's muffled screams as she witnessed her older sister getting handled so roughly. "get off me," she groaned loudly, clawing at his hand as it painfully dug into her scalp. "stop!"

"you're a little tramp," the man snarled, not stopping until they in the kitchen. he quite literally dragged her to her feet only to fling her away like a rag-doll. delilah's face hit the corner of the kitchen table with a thud she collapsed on the floor, landing hard on the cold kitchen tiles.

"i saw you get out them boys's car!" her stepdad roared, his words slurring as he closed the space between them. his movements were chaotic, frantic and it seemed his focus was everywhere expect where it should be. he wasn't present in his mind right now.  "whor—whoring yourself around like a prostitue! you dirty, little—little whore!"