Perfectly Mean

A Pizza Emergency

"Hades!" Ava screamed, reeling back in horror.  The dog belly-crawled toward her, a trail of blood behind him.  He whimpered and stretched out on the tile floor, panting slightly.  Ava glanced from the dog to the gun, shocked. 

The man suddenly lunged for her, and Ava simply wasn't fast enough to get away.  "Let me go!" She screamed, struggling against him as he dragged her up the stairs.  In her panic, she was unable to recall her years of self-defense, and fought to get away uselessly.   

Kicking and screaming, Ava was pulled up the staircase.  For the first time in her life, she was completely terrified.  Steven pushed her into Hayden's room, the boy still on the floor. 

"Why don't you tell her what's in store for the two of you," Steven encouraged Hayden with a scowl.  He turned and locked the door behind him as he left, leaving the two alone.

Ava slowly slid to the floor and sat back against the wall, her shaking legs no longer holding her up.  Her cheek was throbbing, and she could only conclude that she'd hurt it in all the struggling.  Her frightened gaze slowly turned the young man beside her. 

"I told you to leave," he whispered without any inflection.  The brokenness that showed in his tired eyes was enough to melt even Ava's cold heart. 

"I didn't," she replied simply.  "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Hayden was quiet for a moment.  He licked his lips slowly, deciding what to say next.  "He wasn't always like this," he said finally, curling in on himself a bit more.  "When mom died...he changed.  He was angry all the time.  He wanted her back.  And I guess...I was just a reminder that she wasn't here anymore.  So he took that anger out on me.  It wasn't bad—honestly, it wasn't.  Just some yelling when I did stuff wrong.  But as time went on...I stopped being able to do anything right.  He'd hit me if I talked back.  He was always mad.  I knew what he was doing was wrong, but I didn't know how to tell anyone." He trailed off for a moment, visible tears glistening in his eyes.

"You could have told my mom," Ava murmured quietly. 

"That's just it—I couldn't," Hayden shook his head sadly.  "After I tried to kill myself, the doctors made me go to see your mom.  My dad knew what was really going on with me, and he made me promise not to tell anyone."

"So?" Ava spat out, suddenly angry.  "He's hurting you; why do you care if he gets in trouble?"

"Because he threatened to kill me."

Ava's eyes widened, her mouth growing slack. 

"He said that if I told a single soul, he'd lock me up and starve me to death, or feed me to Butcher—that's the dog—or do something else just as awful.  I wanted to tell someone Ava...really, I did.  I was just too scared."

Ava sat and stared, trying to imagine what it would be like to be so terrified of her father that she thought he might kill her.  Her dad would never do anything like that.  He might never be around, but he did do his best to keep her safe.  Hayden didn't have anyone.  He had no one to trust or confide in, and his father treated him terribly.  The thought that she had treated the boy terribly as well made her sick.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, hanging her head.  "I wish you could have told me.  You don't deserve to live like this."

He didn't quite seem to hear her, but a faint, half-hearted smile tugged at his swollen mouth.  "Everything was perfect when my mother was alive," he replied softly, his voice cracking with emotion.  "I just want my mom back." A few tears slipped out and down his cheeks, unwanted of course.  He choked back a sob.  "I don't want to cry."