The Fight For Love

Chapter 8- Revelations

By the time Karen reached the driveway of their home, Jake had already fallen back into  a deep sleep. She straightened up the car and turned off the engine. She sat still for a while in the silence, contemplating the events of the night. For a fraction of a second she considered starting up the car again and just driving away. Away from Ben, away from the house, away from everything. Yet she remained rigid, stoney faced and frozen to her seat. She knew she couldn't really run away. That had never been an option, and would never be an option.  

She had to keep trying. There was too much at stake, too much had happened to just run away. No, things would change. She was sure of it. In the backsrat Jake stirred a little, distracting her from herself. 

"It's okay baby, we're home now," Karen soothed in her quiet mousy tone. 

But were they really? What constituted as home? Surely it wasn't this? This cold dark house full of violence, neglect and abuse. Both Karen Collins and her son knew that the tall grey walls they found themsleves enclosed in, were far from what you would call 'home'. But both of them made do in their own little ways. As long as they had each other, they could surrvive anything, that much was a given. 

Hopping out of the drivers seat, Karen walked around to the backseat to tend to her son. Feeling the cold winters air nip at her face, she shivered slightly. Jake had a fuzzy blue blanket wrapped snuggly around him, one that Karen always kept in the car for long journeys. He had pulled the blanket around his hands and tucked them tighlty under his chin.

His knees were scrunched up to meet his hands so that he was in the all to familiar foetal position. Karen stood and marvelled at her son for a moment. He had been sleeping that way since he was a toddler. He looked so peaceful she almost didn't want to disturb him, but it was far too cold to leave him out in the car over ngiht.

"Okay sweety I'm going to help get you inside, so bear with mommy," Karen whsipered, wondering what way to best go about getting her son inside. She didn't want to do anything to aggreviate his injuries. The doctors told her he would was going to extremely sore and sensitive for a couple of weeks. 

"Hmm maybe I should go and get your father to help," Karen wondered aloud softy. 

Jake groaned, which was enough indication that he didn't want Ben coming anywhere near him. 

"Mhm, yeah you're right," Karen mumbled, he will only make things worse. Then it dawned on her. Shit. The whole bottle incident. The ambulance. If he hadn't killed her before he sure would now. Her heart suddenly started beating so fiercely, that she was sure it was going to rip straight through her chest. 

She hated to admit it, but she was scared. Scared of her husbands reaction, scared of subjecting her son to more violence, but what scared her the most was running. She wasn't strong enough to leave. She was used to dealing with Ben, and besides this life was all she had ever known. Things could be far worse on the run. 

Taking a deep breath and swallowing her fear, she gently slid her arms around Jake, pulled him close to her chest, and carried him out of the car and towards the unknown fate that awaited them both behind closed doors.

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The something good to eat Jade said she'd make for her daughter, wasn't exactly what Sadie had in mind.  Her mother served up a home made lasange, and while that may sound delicious to some, it was a nightmare for Saide.

Her mother had obviously forgotten that Sadie hated lasange. It was the minced beef that did it for her. It turned her stomach just thinking about it. This was because in Sadie's eyes minced beef resemebled two other very disgusting substances.