Unraveled Threads

Chapter 4: Nicknames.

⚠️TW: ABUSE ⚠️

November 17th, 1999

Again I have to hide in my closet as I hear father and Reece arguing again. Reece always protects me from him, but he always gets hurt himself. I try to take my mind elsewhere, when I hear a loud bang and some glass shattering. Is Reece okay?! He told me not to go down there no matter what.. should I listen to him? I decide to stay in my room, just to be sure. I don't want Reece to be angry with me if I leave.

I hear more and more shouting from down there, before finally hearing a door slamming. That usually means my fathers left the room out of anger. I sure hope Reece is okay.

-

"You're a terrible father!" I shouted. He's been yelling at me for the past 15 minutes."You're such a disappointment. You don't deserve to have Knight under your name. You disgrace of a child!" He shouts. For some reason that made me angry instead of sad. I don't want his stupid last name. I just want to be loved. "I don't care! You're such a disgrace of a father! All you do is drink all day!" He looks at me for a second, my heart begins racing. Usually when he does that he's about to make this physical. I really hope Aut is okay. He grabs the bottle of beer next to him, and throws it at the wall behind me. It shatters and startles me. I recoiled back in fear, and tripped over something.

"You're such a little boy. You need to grow up. Men can get up by themselves." He shouts as he leaves the room and slams the door behind him. Finally he's done with his angry rant. I'll go make sure Aut is okay. But first I need to clean this glass, cause if he comes back and sees it, it'll be worse for me.

-

What is taking Reece so long? What if he's unconscious? What if he's hurt? I'll wait a bit more and then I'll go make sure he's good.

I wait 5 more minutes, no sound coming from downstairs, I know fathers left the room, so I will go make sure everything is fine. As I walk down the stairs, I begin to be scared. What if father is still there?
I stood on the same step for a bit, before rushing back up. I begin sobbing in to my pillow while my heads in my knees.

-

Finally I got rid of all this glass. Wait is that Aut? Why is she running? I go wash my hands and face quickly, because the blood on my face may be hard for Aut to see.
As I walk in to her room to make sure she's good, I see her sobbing in to her pillow.
"Aut? Are you okay?" I say, as I sit beside her. "Are you okay? That sounded so tense, I thought you were more hurt." She cried. "No I just tripped and broke a glass done worry. That's why dad was yelling." Lying to her to not hurt her was the only thing I could do.

-

I knew he was lying, I know father. But it is so amazing of him to lie just to protect me. "Oh.. so why did it become so quiet?" I ask. "I was cleaning the glass." I could tell that was the truth and just left it.

-

"Where is my coat?! Reece did you take my coat?! You disgusting child!" He yells. "No! It's right there!" Why does he always blame me. I need a parental figure, he's the farthest from a dad you can get. "Whatever." He shouts as he leaves the house, slamming the door.
He's finally gone. I hope he'll be gone the whole night, and hopefully tomorrow as well, since it is Saturday.

As the sun begins to set, Aut sits next to me on the couch. She seems sad and scared. "Don't worry, he'll never hurt you. I'm here." She looks at me and smiles. I hear the doorbell ring. At this point I know it's Mia. "Come in Mia." I say.

-

"How'd you know?" I joked as I walked in. "If anyone's going to show up unannounced it's you Mia." That's true. "So are you here to stay over? 'Cause dad isn't here and most likely won't be all night." I'm so happy he isn't here, Reece and Autumn can relax. "I'm not here to stay. I wanted you guys to come with me to the park, to hangout. 'Cause I'm bored." It was just because I'm bored, it's because spending a day without them, they're like my actual siblings.
"Sure why not." Reece says.

We go to the park and play around for hours. It's so fun, I always have so much fun with them. They're so amazing, and deserve so much better than their idiotic abusive father.
"It's getting late, let's go home just in case my dad gets home," Reece says. "Sure." We begin walking, my house is a bit far from theirs, I'm too scared to walk alone at night.. "I'll walk you to your house if you're scared Mia." It's almost like he can read my mind. "Sure." We get to their house, "Aut is dad's car there?" Reece asks his sister. "No it isn't." He let out a sigh of relief. "Go inside then, I'll walk Mia to her house." Autumn goes inside while me and Reece keep walking. I noticed earlier he had a bruise on his arm, "Reece is everything okay?" He looks over his shoulder, "Yes of course, why?" I know it wasn't. "Your arm.. have you gotten in a fight with your father again?" He sighs. "Yes." I feel so bad for him. I begin rubbing his arm, to hopefully give him a sense of comfort. He smiles. As we arrive at my house, he insists on walking me all the way to the door. He's so sweet. "Thanks Reecey!" I say, just before I'm about to walk in, "Reecey?" He chuckles slightly. "I know you like it." I joke as I walk in. He giggles, I know he does.