Enchantment Passing Through

Chapter 2

A/n-- hey guys! This chapter is gonna mainly be a flashback, with mentions of blood, beating, and... homophobia! Yes! It's true! Just a heads-up. Here ya go!

-John's POV-

Oh, my God. His eyes, and his smile... I can almost feel his presence in the bed above me. I wish he would touch my hand again. Do I like him? No... I can't. What if Father hears? I look down at the scars on my stomach, and sigh. He'd come all the way here just to beat me again...

-Flashback-- High school, sophomore year-

I smile happily. "Thanks for walking me home, Theo." Theo smiles, and I notices his eyes lowering... to my lips! I can hear my heart hammering in my chest. I haven't kissed anyone before, but I've thought about it. Theo places his hand on the nape of my neck, and mumbles my name. His face gets closer and closer to mine, and-- "John! What the hell are you doing with this faggot?!" My eyes widen, and Theo's face goes white. "Theo... go," I whisper, before feeling a large hand pick me up by my collar. Father tosses me over his shoulder, and takes me to the bathroom. He throws me in the bathtub, and I hear a crack. "You told me that you weren't gay!" I feel my nose, and look at my hand. Blood. I look up at Father, and promptly get punched in the face. I hear Father mumble something about getting his belt, and the world goes dark.

                                                                              .          .          .

I wake up many hours later, in a scrunched-up position-- in a sticky pool of blood. I look down at my torso to see multiple open wounds, about the width of a belt. I scream, and immediately cover my mouth. Now he knows I'm awake...! Sure enough, I hear large, deliberate steps walking towards me. Father scowls, and slaps me. "Can't believe I raised a fag..." I find myself thinking that 'raised,' is a bit of an overstatement. When Mother was still alive, she was able to stop Father from doing things like this. For the past ten years now, I've had to protect myself from him and his rampages. Father slaps me again. I can feel my breath catch in my throat. "'Bout time you woke up. Clean up this blood mess- it's your fault." I quickly get up, and wince at the pain in my stomach. Father scoffs. "Just do what your told, and don't friggin' stall." He pushed me forward, and I catch myself by putting my hands against the wall. I turn on the water, and splash it over the blood until the tub was as clean as it was before Father beat me. "Now," Father growled, "you have thirty seconds to get the hell out of my house." Ignoring the pain, I quickly go to my room to get the few things I need- a change of clothes, a tooth brush, a hair brush and some hair bands, bandages for my wounds, and a picture of Mother. I stuff all these in my worn backpack, and run as fast as I can until it's so dark that I can't see five feet in front of my face. I catch my breath, and lie down next to a scrawny tree. Soon after that, I fall into a light, dreamless sleep.

- End of flashback-

Father... I haven't talked to him in three years... I shake my head. No. It won't be like that. He can't hurt me here, and... maybe someone will like me. Maybe Alex will like me. I almost laugh at the notion, but stop myself before I wake Alex up. There's no way... that someone as incredible and beautiful as Alexander Hamilton would like me back. I roll over on my side, and snuggle my stuffed turtle, Joli. Well... for now, I should probably try to get some sleep. 

A/n-- yayy! Not really, though, cuz of the homophobia. But, yay, John likes Alex! Hang in there, y'all, I believe in you. See you soon!