Angel In Disguise

Chapter 16

Sidney Snowfield stood at the back of the crowd of students who watched their teachers interact with their men.

She recalled a time in her life when her parents acted that way. Always close and whispering and laughing in each other's ear.

Now, it was as if those moments never existed and were apart of her imagination. She wished they would go back to being that way. Loving and caring for each other and for her but that was just wishful thinking.

She basked in the moment being shared before her and knew that they were all deserving of their blessings, especially Ms Springfield.

Sidney knew that if there was anyone who could understand her pain it would be her. She could see the turmoil in her eyes, the sadness that seemed to bleed from her pores and her silence was her loudest cry.

They both wanted and craved help but they couldn't ask for it loudly. The silence was what spoke for them. Sometimes it was all they had.

Sidney watched until both couples left the parking lot laughing and only then was she able to turn around to make the dreaded trip home.

She took her time getting home, not in any hurry to be cursed out or beaten. The sounds of fists and belts hitting flesh ricocheted off the walls of her mind, causing her to tremble.

She was so tired. So weary and drained that she had to drag her feet to keep on moving, or perhaps the dragging might have been because of the welts on her legs and thighs.

Dragging herself, she repeated the mantra, just three more months until graduation, then she could get both herself and her mother out of that house.

The anticipation made her weak.

A moment later she realized she had arrived at the house. She stood in the driveway and just looked at it.

The once white paint had long since turned an ugly yellow color in the places where it hadn't yet stripped from, the wooden stairs leading to the front door were worn down and  filled with deadly pieces of splinters, sticking up in every direction and the yard was overgrown with wild flowers and grass and was sprinkled with discarded plastic and paper.

She hated everything about it and wished she didn't have to look upon it for even a moment longer but knew she couldn't do anything about it just yet.

Sighing, she carefully began to climb the rickety stairs, careful not to step on any protruding wood that she knew would pierce the bottom of her worn out boots.

As quietly as possible she pushed the front door open, hoping that her father was nowhere around.

Silence greeted her and she breathed a sigh of relief before quickly running to the stairs, not about to test her luck, but, before she could even reach the first stair his voice stopped her.

"You're late," he said as he walked in from the kitchen, a bottle of vodka clutched in his hands.

"I'm sorry sir. There was this thing at school and I couldn't miss it. I tried to call but you never answered," she stuttered out, not meeting his eyes, knowing that if she dared to face him she might not live to regret it.

"A thing at school?" he snorted as he took a drink.

"You think I don't know what you do before you get home in the evenings you ungrateful little brat", he snarled as he approached her.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she stuttered out as he took two steps for every one step she took away from him.

"You don't know?" he asked.

"Since you don't know let me show you what you do," he said, grabbing her to haul against him.

It was only after he tossed her to the floor and straddled her stomach did his words finally register into her tired, fear fogged mind.

Let me show you what you do.

Her eyes widened in realization. She began to buck against his hold, scratching and clawing at any part of him her hands came in contact with. She couldn't allow him to do what he planned to her. She decided then as he punched her in the face to stop her from screaming, that he wouldn't get what he wanted, even if she died fighting him, he wouldn't get another part of her.

She didn't know how many minutes had passed when she was finally able to sink her fingers into his eyes. He howled and his grip slackened and she wasted no time. She kicked him hard into his lower regions and quickly crawled as fast as she could into the kitchen to get to the phone but she never expected what she saw.

Her mother laid sprawled on the floor in a pool of her own blood, half of her face missing while the remaining light brown eye stared unseeing into the ceiling.

A loud anguished cry left her mouth even as she felt the remaining part of her heart shatter and the only light left in her soul be blanketed by total darkness.

She kept screaming and screaming even as she heard when he approached her from behind.

Her mother was dead.

Gone.

The only one she had left in her life, the only reason she was alive, the only reason she continued to hold on and fight was gone.

'I have nothing left now', Sidney thought to herself.

She felt so numb that when he grabbed her thinking he would hurt her while she grieved that was when she snapped.

All the pain she'd endured for as long as she could remember urged her on until she felt when she turned on him and kneed him where it hurt the most and when he fell instead of running away from him as she'd tried before she fell upon him and started to beat at him. She didn't know how long she had knelt over him, beating him with a strength she did not know she possessed, until she felt herself being pulled off of his body. She looked at him then and she felt satisfaction roll through her when she saw his chest didn't move. It was finally over. No more suffering. No more beatings. Nothing. There was nothing and for some reason she started to cry when she realized this. It was over but what now? Her mother was gone, he was gone but what was she to do now. It had always been about getting good enough grades to get in a college at least a thousand miles away and taking her mother with her but now she was gone what was she to do now?

Confused and feeling so alone she held onto the stranger who was reassuring her that she would be fine but even as she held him and he her she didn't think she would ever be fine again.