Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A Man After Midnight

Chapter 7

I never dream. I only have nightmares. I never did and never will understand the motives of human beings. I never understood why my dad was so cruel, why he drank and why he loved that woman so much. Nightmares. That's all I have and I have them every night.

***

Howard Stark stood in front of camera, a paper model of what looked like a city behind him. Tony looked into the room from the doorway in awe. He always looked up to his father. No matter what the man did, Tony still came crawling back to him, looking for his approval.

Though Tony was working at high school level whist being in primary school, he never learnt just to stay out of Howards way when he was drinking.

Though the man seemed to be doing a presentation for work he had a whiskey glass in his right hand and was drinking often. Tony ventured out of the doorway and into the view of the camera.

As if on cue his father whirled around and saw the boy, Tony began to cower, legs ready to run.
"Come here son." Howard beckoned the boy in a somewhat compassionate voice. Tony knew it was fake, never had his father spoken kindly to him when he was drinking.

Tony knew the repercussions for running would be more severe to whatever happened know and a small part of the boy wanted so badly for the older man's compassionate voice to be real. Tony slowly moved to Howard as the man kept his arms out wide.

The boy now stood in front of his father awaiting his reaction, the man simply lifted his hand and brought it to the side of Tony's face harshly. A stinging red mark was left and Tony stumbled back, unable tears slipping down his face.

"Men with last name Stark do not cry." He growled, that was not true. Tony had seen his father cry about the woman named Sarah Rogers.

***

"Men with last name Stark do not cry." The was the sentence that my father told me when he beat me. I always wondered why he said that, or rather why he beat me. Was it because he was drunk and didn't have control of his actions, was he trying to toughen me up or did he hate me because I do something wrong.

I worry I follow in his footsteps by also drinking, but drinking was my escape just like it was his.

***

I must be dreaming still, this must just be another one of the nightmares. No it wasn't because I could feel, I had control of my body. I was in the passenger seat of an old black Chevy Impala, my head was leaning against the window and my father drove. My battery was sitting next to me.

They must have gassed me to transport me, not a bad plan.

My father drove. That was what scared me the most. He didn't look at me or even acknowledge I was okay, he just stared straight ahead. Suddenly he pulled over, got out and opened the door for me. Motioning that I get out, I do as I'm told, too scared to disobey.

It happened so fast, he pushed me to the ground, I fell and bruised my tail bone on the rock I landed on. He moved he face real close to mine. I was so worried he was going to force himself on me.
"You just cost me 2 million dollars, they're going to find you here and not even care." I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Slowly he moved his hand to my chest, he rest it on the magnet and after a second ripped out the wires connected to it.

A sharp pain made me arch my back, he lifted his foot and brought it down hard on the battery, crushing it. The shrapnel in my chest felt like someone was stabbing me repetitively.

In my blurry vision I saw my father walking back to his car as I began seizing.

***

Jarvis sat in the passenger seat of Steve's van. He knew Howard Stark was a monster, but the man was his friend as well as his boss and the man wanted no help from others. But Tony was the one that suffered, Maria had found a way around his anger though she had been hurt many time.

***

Bucky could sleep through everything, Sam still lay next to him, kissing him softly on the forehead. It reminded Steve of Tony.

Steve sighed and tried to focus on the road instead of Tony, it was weird he had only met the guy a week ago and just like his friends had said Steve didn't know Tony very well.

His van was full and the sound of talking and music echoed through the room, Steve grimaced. It was all too much right now. His gaze drifted to the scenery around him, the moon lit the trees lining the horizon up in a dark green colour and the grass farms were so dark it looked as if you could not see a meter in front of your own face.

Steve just hoped he could see Tony at least one more time.