Mental Health One Shots

Don't leave me behind (Tammy x Y/N)

TW: Abusive Parent
Violence/ Bruises
SA
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"Are you actually listening to yourself?
Are you listening to what you're saying?"
She sounds horrified and more serious than I've ever heard her before, but still manages to speak calmly to him, not raising her voice at all.
His voice booms through the room even louder and more rumbling, I can hear him on the porch in front of the house so clearly and distinctly as if he were yelling directly into my ear.
"Y/N is my flesh and blood.
I can do whatever I want with her.
And if the little bitch doesn't know where her place is, then I'll just have to show her."
He finishes the sentence with a disgusting laugh.
He slurs a little, but is still clear to understand, too clear.
His words pierce my heart like splinters, reminding me that I belong here, at his side, or rather, at his feet.

"Y/N didn't deserve any better. Maybe she'll learn this time." he emphasizes the last word by clapping his hands together loudly.
I flinch violently and the sound of his hand hitting skin brings back memories.
I can still clearly feel his handprint on my cheek, which seems to have burned itself into it, marking me.

It wasn't the first time that he wanted to show me where my place was.

But it was the first time that his girlfriend Tammy noticed.
She is such a pure, loving soul, I haven't had the heart to tell her the truth about my father.

That he is a drinker and an asshole was nothing new to her, but she didn't know that he expressed his anger in more ways than just words.
Just four weeks after the two of them moved in together, he had let his facade crumble, but he never raised his Hands in front of her.

Every day, however, she tried with the patience of an angel to lure out the man she had fallen in love with and who was perhaps still buried somewhere under the amount of alcohol and frustration.
It was admirable how much Tammy believed in the good in him and I wanted to believe it for her too.
But I knew better.
There is nothing good left in the Soul of this man.

And today Tammy had seen with her own eyes what he was capable of.
His hand had just hit my face and I stumbled backwards, straight into her arms.
Horror and anger were written on her face as she wordlessly but gently pushed me out of the room. Without taking the threatening look off him, she pushed me out of the line of fire.

There I am now, with my back to the wall next to the living room window, behind which the two are arguing, he loud and aggressive, she calm and at the same time as serious as I have never heard her before.

"You don't have the right to hit your daughter. No one has the right to hit a child."
She says in a slightly trembling but still strong voice.
"Oh yes, I do. You don't have the right to decide that, because she is not your child.
So shut up."

There is silence for a moment, his words echoing and painfully reminding me that no matter how much I want this kind woman to be my mother, she is not.

Tears burn my eyes and I quickly fumble for the pack of cigarettes in my back pocket and push a cigarette between my trembling lips.

She answers something, quietly and incomprehensible to me, but it seems to make him even more furious.
He utters a series of curse words and I hear his heavy footsteps walking up and down the room.
With trembling fingers I light the cigarette and breathe deeply, trying to replace the emotional chaos in my body with grey smoke.