Lilah

Chapter 2: CIA Spy

❀Azalea❀

I pull into my driveway and dread fills my thoughts. The lights in the house are still on.

I turn my car off and hop out.

Maybe, just maybe, they won't be mad. Maybe they just forgot to turn the lights off before going to bed.

I find myself wishing to be talking to the mysterious guy from earlier and not walking into my house.

I carefully and slowly open up the front door and walk in as quietly as I can. From my side, I hear the sound of a clearing throat.

Both my mother and my father stand in the kitchen, beer cans in their hands and empty ones strewn over the counters.

"Took you a while," my father chides and my heart picks up in pace.

"Where's the moonshine?" my mothers slurred voice bounces off our high ceilings, causing a slight echo effect in my ears.

"I don't have it," I keep my eyes focused on the floor as I tell the truth.

"Why the hell not?"

"I gave the money to a kind homeless man," I explain, not hesitating to lie to them. There's no point in lying.

I hear the sound of my father undoing his belt and I close my eyes tightly in an attempt to keep them from watering.

I'm terrified of my father when he's drunk.

His dragging footsteps begin toward me and I gather the courage to run away from him.

I don't want this, any of it. I just want my normal parents back.
I want my brother back.

Running didn't work. He just whipped the belt at my back from a longer distance.

The stinging pain enters at a high level and I fall down on my knee with a quiet cry. His large hand grabs my upper arm and he yanks me back up.

The smell of beer and other strong alcohol envelops my nose and he folds the belt a single time as I squirm in his hold.

"Daddy, please," I whimper but I get ignored. He brings his arm back before crashing the belt against my back once more. I feel my back welt up and he brings it down another time in a matter of seconds.

My eyes find my mother's and she looks concerned.

Concerned, but not making a move to stop him.