The Green-Eyed Peasant

Chapter Eighteen: Kill Your Heros

I woke up in a bed, beeping and dripping. My eyes refuse to focus and I close my eyes and let the pain come over me. The beeping noise speeds up and I hear people rush in.

"She's awake!" I felt things move around me and I groan.

"Ari? Are you alright?" A needle in my arm and my eyes open and focus.

"Where-" I break into a fit of coughing.

The doctor's eyebrows crease and he tells the nurse to do something.

"Ari, you are in the hospital. Do you know what happened?"

I blink and the man calls in my mother.

"Oh honey!" She wails and I turn my head away from her.

"Ma'am do you know why your daughter is here?"

"Yes the house-"

The doctor interrupts, a frown on his face.

"She has injures that point towards domestic abuse."

My moms mouth opens and she shakes her head, unbelieving.

"No that's not... Ari you shouldn't..."

My eyes bulge.

"What (pant/gasp) the hell!"

"You shouldn't lie!" She scolds me.

"I'm not (pant) lying mother."

"Yes you are! I know you and your father are on the rocks since he came back but this is going too far."

"You think I'm making this up!"

"Yes! Your father is clean."

I glare at her, panting.

"Get (gasp) out."

She stares unmoving.

"I said (pant) leave!" My voice cracks as I scream and I break into coughing again.

"Ma'am, I need to speak to you." The doctor leads her out of the room.

I grab the nurse button and press it, my hands trembling.

"Dillan." She leaves and five minutes later my brother walks in.

"Hey love." He sits next to me holding my hand. Small bandages cover his face and bruises cover his body.

"Hi." I smile.

"The doc told me about the domestic abuse."

"What did you say." My voice is weak but I'm calm and the pain is fading.

"I told him the truth."

I smile my eyes closing.

"Do you think they'll believe us?"

"Yes love, I showed him."

"You showed him the scar?"

He nods. And lifts up his shirt. On his chest, running diagonally from his shoulder to his naval is a red scar, slightly pulsing with blood beneath the skin. A scar made by our father in a fit of rage. I had one running from my upper thigh to my knee. I got it when I crawled in front of Dillan to stop our father from killing him outright. I run my fingers gently over it, tracing the tender flesh.

"What do we do now?"

"I'm over eighteen, love. I'm going to get full custody of you... If that's what you want?"

I looked back on all good memories with mom and compared it to the last few weeks. Do I really want to leave my mom with that monster?

"I don't know Dillan. She's different but she's still our mom."

He leaned over and gently kissed the top of my head.

"You don't have to decide now, just know that I'm here if you need me."

"Thank you so much Dillan! But what about collage?" 

"I already have a degree. I can get a good job and you could too when you were ready, together we could rent out an apartment with two bedrooms."

Tears come out of the corners of my eyes and I smile at him.

"I'll leave to your dreams, love. Sleep tight."

I drift in an out of consciousness while the sun rises over the horizon. I wake up fully when my father comes in.

I grab the nurse help button and stuff it under my pillow.

He was fuming.

"How dare you treat your mother like that!"

"Me! How have I've been treated dad? How dare you treat me like some animal!" I was fighting back, it was terrifying.

He slaps me and I let out a little whimper of fear as I press the nurse button over and over.

"You shut up! You do not talk back!"

"Dad. Get out!" I scream.

He closes his hand over my throat and starts to squeeze.

"I'll kill you. You stupid bitch, you're the reason your mother left me."

The nurse walks in and screams. Suddenly doctors are there men and women yank my father off me.

I'm gasping for breath and my mother is sobbing in the doorway. I look at her. Did she believe me now?

"Ari! You shouldn't provoke him." She wailed. I watched stunned as my parents are dragged out of the room.

"Dillan! Where's my brother!" I pant gasping my voice becoming faint.

"Ari! Are you ok where did he hurt you!" I grab his hand and tug it so it rests on my collar bone, just above the frantic beating of my heart.

"I want to live with you. T-take me away from them." I'm begging.

"Yes love, anything you want." I cry holing his hand close to my heart. He whispers nice things and rubs my head. I fall asleep and I dream of happy endings for once.

(A/N) this for anyone who still hates me! I have two more chapters to finish off the book. R u sad too? I might finish it all today idk ill see how far my inspiration goes.