Peace of Mind | Dave East

8"Mike"

"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness."

Omniscient

"Savannah you peed in the bed. Come on get up." Aaliyah rushed.

Instead of doing as told, Savannah backed into the corner of her bed and stared at the door.

"Sav come on we gotta go."

Nothing.

No movement
No words

It was as if she was stuck.

But why?

"What's wrong?" Aaliyah asked once again.

Aaliyah attempted to pick Savannah up but instead of allowing herself to get picked up, she flinched and cowered back into the corner.

"Did ma do something?"

Nothing.

"Mike?"

At that name Savannah made eye contact with Aaliyah and then her face became pale as tears splashed onto her chubby cheeks.

"What did he do?"

As much as Aaliyah wanted to raise her voice and fuck up Mike even more, she knew she had to stay calm for her little sister. She sensed something bad had happened while her and Eric were gone. Now it felt like it was all her fault because she left Savannah in this house all alone while she was out partying.

She was supposed to be her sister's protector and she failed miserably.

It took a while to get it out of her, but Savannah finally got brave enough to tell her that Mike had touched her. Although she was very young, she still knew that what he had done to her was wrong. Not to mention he was very rough with her.

Aaliyah made it her mission to fuck up Mike if it was the last thing she did.

Storming down the stairs, she ran into her mother's room to see her catering to Mike's cuts and bruises.

Henrietta placed a small bag of ice onto Mike's nose while she drunkenly rambled on about how she hated her children.

Maybe it was the alcohol talking or maybe it wasn't.

"I can't believe you let this man into our house!" Aaliyah said with venom laced on her tongue.

"Did I stutter? Cause I could've sworn I told y'all to get the fuck outta my house!"

"So your really gone sit here and defend a pedophile?!"

Hearing all the commotion downstairs, Eric came down to see what was up.

He didn't ask what was going on, he just quietly listened.

That was the thing about Eric. He was very observant and protective under all that silliness.

"Da fuck is you talkin' about bitch?" Mike stupidly asked. He knew exactly what she was talking about, but he wouldn't go to jail because some little girl couldn't keep her mouth shut. He could've sworn he told her that he would kill her family if she told anybody.

"You touched her!" Aaliyah said as she ran up and decked Mike right in his mouth.

In an instant, Henrietta had pulled Aaliyah by her hair and swung her to the ground.

Aaliyah threw the littlest hits because she couldn't bare fighting her mother even after all the pain she caused them.

Eric now understood what was going on. Just like the fighter he was, he ran up just as Aaliyah had done and swung at Mike.

This time, he really didn't know if someone could break up this fight. He was willing to go to jail for his little sister.

Shoving her mother off Aaliyah hurriedly rushed to her brother. He would for sure kill Mike if nobody stopped him.

"E that's enough!"

Sending one last kick to his rib cage, Aaliyah and Eric went to gather there things and quickly wash Savannah up before leaving out the front door.

"Where we finna go now?" Aaliyah asked as she loaded Savannah into the car.

"I got y'all don't worry about it."