Let's Take the Road Before Us

Chapter 3

If there's one thing I've learned from my life, is that parents aren't always the loving, Christmas card type. Actually, they rarely are. Every family has their secrets, but some more than others.

Speaking of family, John came stumbling home again. Sam and I were eating dinner at the dinner table, spaghetti, and I heard a knock at the door. He's probably lost his keys. Again.

Sammy gave me a scared look so I told him to go upstairs, and quickly. I decided not to clean up the dishes, as that'd probably take too long and John was just getting angrier and angrier.

I walked to the front door and unlocked it to see a very drunk man fall through the door. Immediately, the hallway was filled with a strong smell of liquor. I tried to breath through my mouth and hauled John's limp body off the ground.

"Dean, you littlefaggottt, whatchu doing sup ssso... late?" His words were slurred terribly, but I was so used to it that I just sighed. "Don't use thatitude with me."

"Let's get you to bed," I attempted to stop him from what I knew he was going to do.

He stepped forward but lost his balance and knocked over the small table with the keys on it.

"Dafuq is your problem? See whatchu made medo?" Here it came. "Youngrateful bitch. All you do ismake a messs!"

Every inch of my being was screaming at me to run, hide, protect myself. But, if I didn't take it, Sam would. And I couldn't let that happen.

His first punch was clumsy and off-balance, but I had to fight all instincts to duck.

It landed on my jaw with a loud thumb, and sharp pain immediately spread from my jaw. That would leave a mark.

I stumbled back and clutched my jaw. The pain subsided a little bit, but it was still there and just kept nagging me. He then kicked me right in my crotch, taking away all thoughts of the pain from the punch.

I could feel it deep in my gut, and I almost fell to my knees from the white hot pain. It wasn't like it hadn't happened before.

He threw a couple really hard hook punches while spewing insults and calling me a goddam whore, a fucking peace of shit, and a worthless faggot, to name a few. They barely even phased me as I was so used to them.

But it didn't stop there. It never did. Pretty soon, he started unbuckling his belt. I cringed, knowing the worst was yet to come.

As he pulled it out of his belt loops, I closed my eyes and turned around. After all this time I'd just learned to take it. Putting up a fight helped no one, it never did.

"You're aterrible son, youneed tolearn to behave."

He ripped my shirt up and gripped the belt in his hands. I tightened my muscles and braced for the first lash, which still brought terrible pain. It just continued, though, as I struggled not to cry out.

I lost count around 50 lashes. Blood was flowing freely down my back and my only thoughts were that it had to end, I needed it to end. I couldn't last much longer.

I had my eyes closed, so I never noticed the small figure making its way down the stairs. John did, though.

"Sam. Justhe person I wanted to see." I opened my eyes instantly in fear to see Sammy standing at the bottom of the stairs with his fists clenched in rage.

"Sam! Go... go upstairs!" I yelled in urgency. He shouldn't be here, he couldn't be here.

"Dean, are you ok?" I could see tears springing from his eyes and I made a pleading look for him to run as fast as he could.