We Are Risen

Chapter Five

I slowly opened the door and into my dark house, and I squinted, trying to see. 

"M-Mom?" I called out. "Stephen?"

Just calling out his name left a bad taste in my mouth. The house was quiet, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. There was a light on in my parent's room, and I could see shadows moving under the door. I slowly walked over the thinning carpet and brushed my fingers over the door handle. I opened the door as slow as possible, and I felt my heart sink into my stomach when I heard this sickening crunch. I completely opened the door to find Stephen on his knees, leaning over my dead mother. He was lifting chunks of her organs to his mouth, greedily pulling the outer layer of her organs with his bloodstained teeth. Thick globs of blood dripped from his hands as he turned to look at me with milky brown, bloodshot eyes as he continued to lift pieces of my mother into his mouth. Her ribs were jutting out of her stomach having been pulled out of place by Stephen's meaty hands. I felt my eyes sting, and then hot tears welled up. I stormed towards him. 

"Get the fuck away from her!" I yelled. "Get away from my mother!"

My voice sounds shrill to my ears. After all the torment he's put me through over the past four years, I felt that anger that I had suppressed over the years finally bubble to the surface and explode. I screamed, sending a kick to the side of his head. He snarled, being much bigger than me, and stood up. I kicked him in the knee as my friends yelled behind me, and there was a sickening crunch as his knee hyperextended backward and he dropped to the ground. His knees caused blood that had soaked into the carpet pool around his knees. He tried to get up, but his broken knee made it impossible. I balled up my fist and punched him as hard as I could in the face, just as he did to me this morning. My friends hadn't seen the bruises because I've learned to cover them with makeup after we had to move because of a domestic violence case reported to the police by the school I went to before we moved to Lakeview. 

Stephen roared and tried to bite my hand. In a moment of an absolute adrenaline rush, I reached down and pulled the switchblade out of my boot and made the blade shoot out, and I sent it flying into the side of his skull. I brought the knife back out before I stabbed again. Stephen's body dropped to the ground and I dropped the knife on the carpet. I started stomping on his skull. Over and over and over again until my boot was soaked with blood, and his head was just a pile of mush and broken teeth and bone. I still kept stomping, crying harder and harder with every thrust of my leg. Eventually, someone wrapped their arms around my torso and pull me backward.

"Daisy, stop!" Toby yelled. 

"No!" I howled, struggling against his grip. "You don't know what he's put me through! Let me go!"

He didn't let go. Instead, he just held me until I eventually calmed down and sunk to the floor, hunching over as my body was wracked with ugly, painful sobs. I felt a hand on my shoulder. 

"Dee-" Toby began. 

I jerked my shoulder away. 

"Don't, Toby." I snapped. "Just don't. Don't fucking touch me."

I scrubbed my cheeks with the balls of my hands, wiping away the tears. I stepped around my deceased mother over to her side of the bed, opening her nightstand drawer. I pulled out an old picture of my entire family. It was my mom, my dad, my older brother, and I. I stuffed the picture in my pocket. My dad and brother disappeared when I was younger. After I did that, I stripped the bed and laid the sheet over my mother and stepfather. After I finished with that, I walked out of the room, feeling absolutely drained. 

"Hey," Ally said in a soft voice. "We should probably pack your bag so we can leave first thing in the morning."

I looked over to her with heavy eyes. "I'm not leaving until she's buried."