The Freak's Secret

Chapter Two - Meet Jeremiah

TRIGGER WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SCENES OF VIOLENCE, THE FIRST HALF CAN BE SKIPPED AND THE STORY LINE WILL STILL MAKE SENSE, OR YOU COULD READ THE SHORT SUMMARY I'LL LEAVE IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTE. IF YOU PROCEED TO READ IT HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS IN THIRD PERSON.

On the other side of town Jeremiah lays awake. His father is at it again, tripping and falling over stuff like the drunk mess  he is. It's the third time this week he has gotten this drunk and it's only Tuesday. He cannot wait for the day he turns 18, then he'll be allowed to legally adopt his siblings and move out of this hell house. Hopefully he has better luck than his mother, she's been trying for years now to get her children's custody but for whatever reason the judge postpones her cases and prolongs the paper work.

If this experience of living with his abusive father has taught him anything it's that he should never rely on anyone. His mother was lucky enough to get out but now there wasn't much she could do for her kids, he doesn't blame her though. Jeremiah was on his own in this hell they once called home and he could not let his emotions get the best of him, he does have two younger siblings to care for after all. They're the only thing keeping him going, if it weren't for them he wouldn't know where and who he would even be, he would have ran away from home and lived a type of life he doesn't want to even imagine. But he is a high schooler after all, and his jobs at the theater and restaurant won't get him nearly enough money to raise 10 year old twins on his own, so now he goes to school and gives it his best so that he can work towards a better and secure future for all of them.

Jeremiah's thoughts are interrupted by a ear piercing scream. He quickly rushes to the living room where it can be heard from and when he gets there the scene he finds is one that he will never forget and most probably take to his grave. The glass table is broken and a small body with brown wavy hair, that is covered in blood and glass, appears to have been thrown through it. His father is seated on the couch, eyes wide and his bloody hand covering his mouth, "I- It-... It was an accident I swear. She came running towards me and I pushed her away with a little too much force." he broke out sobbing, but Jeremiah didn't care. His main concern right now was to make sure his little sister Yasmin makes it through the night and that no harm comes to his brother Sumesh."Jay, is Yas going to be okay?", Sumesh asks as his honey brown eyes identical to Yasmin fills with tears. For the first time Jeremiah realizes that the poor child witnessed everything, and he too will be scarred for life, although he won't have the physical scars like his twin sister, he will have the emotional ones. Without even thinking twice he dials emergency services and moves towards Sumesh in hopes of consoling him.

Everything after that just happens so fast. Emergency services reach their house and manage to get Yasmin to hospital just in time. Not long after they arrive, his mother and their social worker make an appearance. "My babies! Are you guys okay?" she asks sobbing as she tries to embrace her children. Jeremiah pulls out of her hug not long after and walks in the other direction. Hurt is evident on her face but he doesn't care, sometimes he can't help but think what their life would have been like if she had just stayed.

He knows that once his father got demoted at work and his parents relationship became rocky that things would never be the same. He never really understood why his mother earning more was such a big deal and that for some reason it didn't sit well with his father so much so that he turned to consuming alcohol to drown out his shame. Why does society set such high standards for men? Can't gender equality just be normalized? If a man can be a stay at home dad then what's wrong with a woman being the sole provider of their household? It angered him that society had such double standards and what saddened him most was that he had lost his father to this. He's father may not be dead like the countless men who felt helpless and was made to believe that having a job and providing for your family was all that made them 'real men' and in turn lost their fight with depression, but his relationship with his father would never be the same. In Jeremiah's eyes being a real man meant showing up for your family, even when it got hard, it meant loving and being faithful to your wife; never doing anything to hurt your loved ones physically or emotionally. According to his standard of 'real men' his father had stopped being one months ago.