Statues Underground

Action

I woke up in a daze trying to determine what really happened last night. I looked down and realized Laney had crawled into my bed last night after I took her to her own. I felt her slow even breaths on my chest. Even though she was 10 years older then me I was close to double her size. I tried to squirm out from underneath her to avoid waking her up but it was a failed effort. She looked up at me with concern "Are you alright? That was a bad one last night, I could tell." "I'm fine Aunt Lane, don't worry about me. Go get in your bed, you deserve some rest."  She stumbled out of my bed and into her room. I went into the kitchen but nothing seemed appetizing, my stomach seemed full even though it had been hours since my last meal. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with Lily. I hurried and changed into some sweatpants, threw on the tattered letterman and was out the door. I pulled into the cemetery and could see through the small amount of sunlight as it came over the mountains, Lily's Dad's big burly truck, that somehow represented his manhood, pulling out of their house. I waited a good 10 minutes before I settled on my plan of action, sitting and waiting around was no longer enough. I flipped a U in my car and headed down road that led to Lily's house. I had only been there once before and since that day I decided I would never go back. I was 10 years old and Lily and I had been climbing the oak tree. I fell out of the tree and scraped my knee, it was bleeding badly and had pieces of wood and dirt stuck in it, We walked through the field to Lily's house. She wiped it with alcohol to try and clean it out but it stung me and not knowing any better I screamed out. I suddenly heard loud footsteps and the door was thrown open  "What makes you think you can bring people into my home, has it ever been okay for you to bring in strangers?" Lily tried explaining to him but he abruptly interrupted her with an open hand slap across the face. She didn't even whimper. I stared at him in shock. "What the hell are you looking at?" I was scared that his anger had suddenly been pointed on me. As he walked closer to me I could smell the liquor that seemed to be sweating out of his pores. "Get out of my house!"
I glanced at Lily, her face turning red and a single tear flowing from her eye. She wouldn't look at me but I thought it would cool her Dad's anger the best of I obeyed him. I ran to the front door and paused before I shut it. I could see through the small opening leading from the front room to the kitchen that he had a strong grip on both of her arms. "I'll give you something to cry about!"
I slammed the door and ran as fast as I could back to the cemetery. When I got to the oak tree I knelt down and began to pray. "Dear God, please send your angels to protect Lily. Amen"
It was my dad who taught me how to pray. We went to church every Sunday and said our prayers and read our scriptures every night. A habit that I had dropped since the accident. How could the kind and loving God I had always learned about let something so horrible happen to my family? That day after asking him to protect Lily I promised I would pray and read more often and try to convince Laney to take me to church.
I was saying a prayer in my heart as I pulled my red Jeep to the side of the road. I didn't want to pull into her driveway incase her father came home. I sprinted to her house and opened the front door. I ran up the stairs and into Lily's bedroom. I felt a sudden relief when I saw the lump of blankets and pillows on her bed steadily moving up and down with her breathing. I walked up and pulled the blankets down to reveal her face. She flinched and moved her forearm up to guard her face. She must have thought I was her dad.
"Lil, it's okay. It's just me"
" Dax, what are you doing here!? He's going to kill you."
It was obvious why she couldn't come out in public. She had a three inch gash on her forehead that looked like she had stitched it up herself and her left eye was so swollen she couldn't even open it all of the way.
"Come on Lil, you've gotta get out of here."
"I can't. He'll know"
"Lily we can go to the cops. You don't have to go through this anymore."
She started crying and I didn't know how to help her. Her dad would be back soon assuming he was just making his daily liquor run, and I knew Lily was right when she said he would kill me.
"Dax I'll be back at school as soon as the swelling goes down. Just leave. I'll be okay."
I didn't want to leave her but I wasn't left with much of a choice when I heard his obnoxiously loud engine roar into the garage.
I looked at my options and decided the safest would be to bail out of the second story window and make a run for my car. I kissed Lily on the forehead and whispered that I loved her. I waited until I heard the garage door shut all of the way to ensure he wouldn't see me. Then slid out of the window and did a nice tuck and roll when I hit the ground before running towards my car. I knew that even if Lily's dad did see me there was no way he could catch me. I held the school record for all of the short distance sprints and he was a fat good for nothing alcoholic.