Rebels High

2

*For mature audiences*

Kanan and Hera walked home down the quiet neighborhood. Hera always dropped Kanan off at his door, because she lived only a couple of houses away, and because she wanted to make sure he didn't fall on a fallen brick or a crooked step. Kanan's house was hidden from the rest of the neighborhood. It was shadowed with over grown plants and beautiful trees. Trees on Lothal were always beautiful, because they're barely ever seen. But these ones shadowed the house so well most people thought it was just an empty space.
"Goodbye Kanan!" Hera called to him as she walked back down the steps and across the block to her house.
Kanan quietly opened the door, but it made no difference. His dad had already seen him, so Kanan continued in after closing the door behind him. He heard his father stomp up in front of him.
"You're ten minutes late, Caleb," his father said his birth name like a curse. Kanan cringed, because he stopped using that name after his mother died when he was five, because it was her, Depa, who had given Kanan the original name Caleb.
"Now, go take of your shirt and lay on my bed," Kanan did as he was told.
Seven really fierce and hard whips hit him on the back and chest. Kanan had stopped using his voice because it always made his dad mad, but sometimes, he can't stop the words from coming out.
"STOP! Please, please stop!" Kanan cried as tears flowed down his bruised cheek.
"I thought I told you to NEVER talk to me!" His dad grabbed Kanan's chin and held it so Kanan could smell his smoke breath. Kanan regretted opening his mouth, because his dad sat him up and beat him mercilessly. No one knew because no one could here Kanan's screaming anymore. Not only was the house soundproof, but Kanan's dad had duck tapped a cloth into his mouth. His dad burned his hands so he couldn't take off the tape and take out the cloth.
In the end, Kanan was released and left in his dads room alone. He collapsed to his knees and spewed bile from his empty stomach. Along with bile came more blood that shouldn't have come out all at once. He couldn't stay here, but he couldn't leave either. He ran unsteadily to his room and collapsed on his hardwood floor. Blood dripped from his mouth and nose, and Kanan felt like there was no place on his body that wasn't bleeding or bruising.
"H...Her...a," Kanan struggled to reach for his phone which he'd left by the dirty mattress he called a bed.
Using his last strength, Kanan dialed Hera's number.
"Hello?" Hera's voice sounded through the phone.
"He...help," Kanan could only manage the last word into the phone. It fell from his hand as he passed out on the ground, bleeding and feeling like death.
"Kanan? Kanan!" Then the phone line cut off.