No One's Invincible

the rules

As the sun shone through the cracks in Wally's blinds, his tired, achy eyes looked at the clock on his wall. It was 7:46. School was in a few hours. He wondered whether he'd be going.

Actually now that he thought about it, what was to stop Rudolph from killing Wally? He'd already killed his wife! Who knew what he'd do next.

Wally began to feel very anxious.

At that moment, the lock to Wally's bedroom clicked. Wally quickly scooted back as far as he could against the wall and covered himself in his blanket like a shield.

The door cautiously opened with a slight creak.

Rudolph hovered by the door anxiously. The bags under his eyes were as large as his sons. Wally was confused at this. Why did he look so affected? It was his fault! Anger began to build up inside of Wally.

Even with his shaken look, Rudolph still seemed intimidating. He had always been large and muscular, but to Wally, right now he seemed like an impassible giant. He had a look in his bloodshot eyes that seemed determined. Wally could still see the dirt on his father's hands.

Wally's anger replaced itself with dread.

"Wallace," he said with a deep sigh. "I'm going to sit down on your bed and talk. You're not going to interrupt. Nod if you agree."

Wally nodded cautiously.

Rudolph sat himself down on Wally's bed, not so close that Wally felt overly threatened, not too far that he didn't feel threatened at all. He sighed again, deeply.

"I'm going to tell you what happened to your mother. B-because I have to tell someone," Rudolph looked unsure, but kept going anyway, "You were at school. I'd been drinking again. By god I wish I hadn't. I can't help it Wally, I can't!" His hands trembled on his lap and he looked at Wally pleadingly. Wally just felt unnerved. "Your mother had just come home from work. I was home because I was fired the day before. She was concerned."

"She kept telling me that the drink was bad but I wouldn't listen! She was fretting and then suddenly I just couldn't stand it," a tear slipped from his eye and he hastily wiped it away. Wally felt deeply uncomfortable now.

Rudolph became deeply calm and emotionless. Almost as if he was dissociating himself from the event. "It was stupid," he whispered. "There was a hammer on the table from where I'd been fixing something that morning. I grabbed it. She went quiet after that. She was scared." Wally felt a lump grow in his throat. "She begged me not to but that just made me angrier. I hit her. In the head. She was dead in a second. That didn't even sober me up! What kind of monster am I?" Rudolph looked disturbedly at the ground. Wally stared in abject horror at his father. The man he used to love. The man who killed his mother.

"I buried her in the garden."
At this he turned to Wally and stared at him intensely. Wally couldn't hold his gaze and stared at his hands in fright.

Rudolph grabbed Wally's chin, an expression of pure fear on his face. "No one can know Wallace. You understand? No one. Not your shitty little superhero friends. Not your freaky fucking uncle Barry. Not even the internet or a stray fucking dog. You understand?" Wally's jaw felt bruised as Rudolph released it but he nodded all the same.

"Good. Very good. So you get it. Of course you do."

Wally stared in terror at the monster of a man his father had become.

"So I'm going to lay out some rules." Rudolf said raising his voice.

"You're going to go to school every day and coming straight back home. You say nothing at school. No one will believe you and I know you don't have any friends there. That Samantha? She's been transferred by her mother for some reason or another. She texted you this morning. Regarding your phone, I give it to you during the day, I get it back when you come home. I check your messages, I know where you are because I have a tracking app on it. I'll know if you uninstall it, it sends me a message. Got it so far?"

Wally nodded, dread building every new rule his father spoke.

"That superhero team of yours? I want you to quit it. Tell them you have to focus on school work because you're studying for some big exams, whatever you want. Make it convincing. Tell them it just got too stressful, that you need to focus on finding your mother, whatever. You go there only tonight. You do not tell them anything. You quit. I want you to do all these things for me Wallace. You will do them. I am not being taken to prison for a-a stupid mistake. I regret it yes but I am not going to prison you hear me boy? So you listen to me and you listen good. We're going to get through this but only if you listen to me."

Wally swallowed thickly and nodded.

Rudolph smiled, lips stretching out till they looked like thin strips of blood. "That's a good boy. Now you get ready for school. Everything is going to be okay."

With that, Rudolph stood and exited. He didn't lock the door after him.

Wally didn't know what to do. His situation was far worse than he thought it was. His father basically just threatened him! He was making him cut all his friends off. He was going to be trapped forever with his psychopath of a father until he got drunk one day and killed him too.

Wally went through the motions of getting dressed for school methodically and calmly. He packed his school bag and then sat on his bed.

At least this meant his father still cared about him right? He wasn't just killing him too. Or maybe, Wally realized, Rudolph West was just a coward.