My Badass Bot -Bumblebee-

Chapter 18

I watched on the screen as a very young version of me and Rosie half ran, half tottled up to Papa and Mama, who were talking on the backyard lawn. We were each holding a paper in one hand as we ran.

"Papa, mama!" We cried happily. We swarmed their legs and I tugged on papa's pant leg. He scowled down at me.

"What?" He barely kept the snarl from his tone.

"Look'et what I drew!" I squealed happily, holding the paper with a blue crayon drawing on it. The real me gasped as I recognized the Autobot symbol. Rosie had been ignored completely by Mama and held her red drawing up beside mine, the same symbol on her white sheet.

"I don't care. Can't you see I'm having a conversation? Go away before I spank you." He snarled.

Rosie gasped and I tried to stop my bottom lip from trembling, and failed. I looked up at Mama, but she had her head turned and her eyes downcast. I looked down at my shoes before Rosie and I locked hands and ran back inside.

The image changed and white letters appeared, showing that it was three a.m. before fading away. I seen me and Rosie asleep in the bed we had always shared, the same bed I slept in when I had lived there just a few weeks ago. Moonlight streamed in through the drapes, lining us in silver. We were older than in the last scene, maybe eleven or twelve. Lamplight flooded the room as my father burst in, drunk as ever. Both Rosie and I jumped awake as the door slammed against the wall.

He stumbled toward us and pulled me out of the bed, then Rosie. He grabbed Rosie's hair and hooked his fingers on my pj shirt and dragged us downstairs and to the door to the basement, behind the staircase. He opened the door and turned on the dull light. Rosie was pushed and she tumbled down the stairs, groaning and whimpering. Next thing I knew, I was thrown down, rolling down the last few stairs to a stop on Rosie.

I moaned in pain, along with Rosie. Heavy footsteps plunked down the worn wooden stairs and I looked up, terror swimming in my no longer sleep filled eyes. He kicked my stomach and I gasped as the momentum of the kick rolled both Rosie and I away from the stairs. He dragged up to two poles sticking out of the cement. We were then cuffed to each, crying and muttering. "No, no, no, please no."

"Angelo! Get your ass down here!" He bellowed.

A younger version of Angelo, maybe 19 years old came skipping down the stairs. I was sickened by the happy smile on his face as he grabbed something from an upturned box next to the staircase. He threw one to papa and kept the other for himself. Papa turned the device on and I knew what it was. It was a taser gun. He brought it down on left side of my back and I screamed, tears flowing down my face. My body jerked and spasmed as the electricity coursed through me.

I seen Angelo bring his gun down on Rosie, creating the same reaction. The white letters appeared again and showed a digital clock like thing that showed this had gone on for three and a half hours. The clock stopped and faded away as the clock struck 5:32am. We were un-cuffed and our arms fell with heavy thuds. We were left there on the floor as my brother and father walked up the stairs, laughing and passing a beer bottle between them.

Rosie was breathing heavily, but I was quiet. Rosie dragged herself to me, groaning as she did. Our hair was frizzing up and steam was rising up on some parts of my body. Angelo had been a bit more merciful, taking the gun off my sister every few seconds. The gun had been kept on me for minutes on end, and I was smoking up.

"A...are you-okay?" She asked as she jerked from the electricity still running through her, though my spasms were more violent.

"...can't move." I whispered. "Hurts s-ho! Much."

"I kn-know. I hurt to-oo." She pulled herself up and hugged me. Our skin zapped and she yanked away before resuming wrapping me in her arms as we both shook. I let out a stuttered whimper as a particularly violent shake hit me, while Rosie continued to grunt from her own lesser, but still painful, jerks.