The End [Completed]

7

-Adam

Racing out of the house, I stumbled on the sidewalk as the screaming behind me got fainter. “Adam, you get back here, if I find you. I will kill you!” the deadly booming voice of the step-monster. He’d punched me in the gut repeatedly, his heavy work boots aiming for my head and slamming my shoulder instead as I protected my head with my arms. The force was brutal, and I just couldn’t die in that house. I was no longer strong enough to face this monster without killing him myself.

As I ran around another corner, I had no idea where I was headed. My feet just kept pounding the pavement, my faded All stars going as if it had a will of its’ own. I finally slowed when I came to a neighbourhood I think I recognised. I realised how close I was and decided to walk the rest of the way. I came to the familiar house and stood on the sidewalk just staring at the house for what felt like an eternity.

I didn’t want to go inside. I didn’t want to alarm anybody, but I couldn’t go back to the monsters. Not yet. I needed medical assistance and I had no insurance or money for the hospital or any doctors. This is the only place I thought of to come. I didn’t think about it at all actually. My feet did the running, all on its own.

I climbed up the side of the house and crouched outside the window. Gently tap tapping and hoping that I got the right window and that a parent wouldn’t be opening the window to find a broken and bruised stranger standing on their roof.

The curtain opened, and I became ever so nervous as the window opened a crack to reveal a very sleepy brown eyed girl. “Adam?” Cattleya asked “What are you doing tapping on my window this time of the morning?” “Cattleya, I need your help. Please? I wouldn’t be here if I had anyplace else to go.” She gestured for me to come in and she switched on her bedside lamp. As she turned to look at me she gasped. I must really look horrible this time.

I just stood there holding my side, slightly crouched over. “Who did this to you?” she asked. I didn’t answer. I just stood staring at her. “could you help me?” I pleaded. Barely being able to hold myself upright.

She brought a chair for me to sit and as I did she tended my wounds. Bringing into her room every sort of disinfectant and cotton swabs she could find. A plastic bowl with warm salt water and clean, dry bandages. She first cleaned the cut over my eye and cheek. She then, slowly helped me get my shirt off, to reveal a mass of bruises. Some healing green ones, and others black, blue and purple. In their different stages revealing how fresh some are and how old others were. The bruise on my shoulder quickly swelling and turning blue. Cattleya wrapped my torso in one long bandage, tightening it as she went. This helped keep my bones from feeling like they had smashed within me.

When she was done she put my t-shirt back on and we continued to sit in silence. The secrets between us slowly unveiling themselves. She had a secret of her own I knew. She didn’t want to tell me, but it was there between us like a dark shadow, and now this. My secrets being revealed to her.

She got up and walked out of the room, returning with an extra pillow and a comforter. I took it without a word and lie down on the ground at the foot of her bed. For the first time in my entire existence, drifting off to sleep feeling completely safe.

Early the next morning I wake up to find Cattleya sitting in the chair I sat in the previous night, staring at me while I sleep. “I’m flattered Cattleya, but I must say that it would come across as a bit creepy to stare at someone while they sleep.” No reaction, not even an eye roll. She’s frowning. “We need to talk Adam,” she’s fiddling with her sweater sleeves, pulling at it and looking down as if she doesn’t want to upset me. This is probably my cue to leave. “What happened last night? Why did you come here, and what is up with all those bruises?” she whispers so softly I barely hear her, but the concern on her face is unmistakable “What happened to you?” I get up to leave when she grabs my hand and pulls me back. It’s the first time she’s ever touched me. For a moment I just look at our hands. I don’t want to have to tell her, but I can sense that she needs me to, to trust me. I don’t know why her trust matters to me at all.

“Please?” she says, the way she says it has me looking up to meet her eyes. Why does she care? I sit down on the edge of her bed and sigh. “I-I don’t know where to start.” Pausing for a moment to gauge her reaction, she doesn’t seem like she’s going to let me off the hook. “I grew up with my mom. My dad died when I was very little, I barely remember him. Not long after his death, my mother had boyfriend after boyfriend. She wasn’t the type to do well alone. Boyfriend number 8 was the lucky winner. He became husband number two and introduced mom to all sorts of fun things, like alcohol and drugs. She would go out all hours of the night and leave my brother and I alone at home, asleep. One night, my mom went out and I went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night my brother snuck out. I had no idea he was going to do that.” I couldn’t look at Cattleya while I was telling her for the first time about how messed up my life is. I didn’t know if she was judging me right now or pitying me. I wanted neither.

“My mom and her husband came home to find my brother missing. We searched for hours that turned into days and we couldn’t find him. A few weeks went by and my mother couldn’t get out of bed, she’d given up on trying to live anymore. She’d get high and get back into bed. My step-father’s targets were then set on me. He blamed me for my little brother’s disappearance and he blamed me for my mother’s negligence of her duties, mainly neglecting him. He became resentful and bitter towards me to the point where, when everything in his life went wrong, I was to blame. I became his literal punching bag, and there was nobody to stop him.

Last night, I came home after my trip with you, from our own secret library, to find my mother had overdosed and was rushed to medical care. The bastard wanted to kill me, I fled.”

I looked up just then to find Cattleya in shock, eyes wide and mouth agape with her hand hovering over her mouth as she gasped. “My word! I-I had no idea. I’m so sorry Adam. That you had to go through all that.” As she said it a few tears had fallen from her eyes. This made me angry, “Look, I don’t want your pity okay? I’m fine, I will be fine and thanks for the help and everything, but I’ll be going now.” I stood up and grabbed my leather jacket from where I flung it on her desk, making my way towards the window. Just as I touched it “It was a vision.” This stopped me dead in my tracks. What did she say? I turned toward her slowly, scrutinizing her facial expression to see if what I heard had come from her.

Cattleya sat with her hands in her lap and her head down, her eyes closed as she said “The other day, when I got sick. You asked me what was wrong with me and if I was okay? I lied to you.” She looked up just then to look me in the eyes. “It was a vision. What you witnessed was me having a vision.” I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there. Trying to figure out if she was trying to make fun of me or if she was just downright crazy. “It’s not the first time I had them and when I told my parents what my first vision was about, they refused to believe me.” “So, what was it about?” I asked warily

She paused for a very long time. I thought she wasn’t going to answer me, so I turned back to the window, ready to leave when she said, “The president is going to kill us all.” Well, now I knew she was crazy.

Major twists coming soon... Keep reading.
P.S. don't forget to vote and comment.