Nemesis: A Love Story

HUGH

He'd managed to get up off the floor. Erase the file and return the laptop to his sisters room. None the wiser. He doesn't read anymore. He can't.
He won't.
There is more to the story.
What had become of her?
Her recovery? The pain she must've felt.
All things he desperately wanted to know.
He knows the file would most likely answer all his questions but he wanted to hear it from her.
Wants her to willingly tell him her story.
Tell him everything.
He wants her to trust him.
He doesn't know if that's even possible.
They have more in common then he realizes Both orphans.
Parentless.
Abandoned to their own devices.
His thoughts drift to the knowledge of her brother being the one to do this to her. To her family.
To steal her childhood.
Uproot her life.
He's back in his room now.
Sitting in the dark.
Legs bent at the knees. Head in his hands.
Body still shaking. Tears still falling down a stoic face.
He goes back to a time in his life when he too had his world changed in an instant.
His parents had been fighting. Loud voices. Broken glass.
Same thing. Different day.
He'd been 19 then.
High out of his head.
He could hear Claire crying in her room.
He didn't go to her that time. No that time he went down stairs.
He shouldn't have. 
The voices grew louder as he came down the stairs.
"I know you've hidden it. Where's the money you fucking bitch"
He saw his father backhand his mother and she went flying, smashing into the opposite wall.
His father took a step towards where she was trying to stand up. Blood dripped from a cut under her eye.
Hugh is on him before he could reach her.
As he got older and bigger, physical fights between them grew as he got strong enough to fight back and reciprocate the damage.
The police would be called.
Hugh, himself had been arrested and taken to juvie numerous times.
He'd be there for a few peaceful months then come back to hell. His father would give him a wide berth for a time and then the inevitable unspoken challenge of who was Alpha of the home would start again.
That night the same dance had started and Hugh foolishly answered the call.
He was high.
He was angry.
He was tired of hearing his sisters cries.
His mothers whimpers.
Tired of hearing his fathers drunk voice booming.
He wrenched his father back and stood between him and his mother.
Now the same size as his father. The same devilish good looks, that let them get away with way too much.
"You want a piece of me..." his father slurred. Spit dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Come get me you little fuck. I'll kick the shit out of you and then finish this cunt" he spits at his wife.
Charged at her.
Hugh came at him full force.
They collided hard.
His mothers voice shouting for them to stop.
It fell on deaf ears.
Fists flying.
Connected with skin and bone.
They rolled around on the floor. Hugh having the upper hand, for most of the fight.
Until he didn't.
His father managed to subdue him and throw him to the floor. Jumping on top and grabbed his head and slammed it into the carpet. Hugh saw stars.
His father hands then wrapped tightly around his sons throat.
"This is my HOUSE! YOU GET THAT YOU LITTLE PUNK!!! I CAN END YOU JUST AS EASY AS I FUCKING MADE YOU!!!"
Hugh struggled to get free. Clawed at his father strong vicelike fingers. The air getting harder to find.
The grip constricting his airway.
He's about to pass out when he saw his mother. Above him and his father.
Her hands grabbed onto his fathers hair and yanked him off of her son.
Pulled his body up.
Somehow she found the strength and tossed his father aside a loud crash sounded behind them as his father landed on the floor.
His mother was suddenly there with him.
"Baby" she cried cupping his face.
"It's going to be ok baby."
Hugh coughed as much needed oxygen hit his lungs and he turned to his side.
That's when he saw him.
His father laid against the brick of the fireplace. His legs on top of what was once their coffee table. Now broken and in pieces.
His head and neck twisted at a weird angle.
His eyes were open but unseeing.
Blood seeping out of his partially open mouth.
"Mom" he managed to say. His voice raw.
She saw the worry in his eyes and looked over her shoulder at the scene behind her.
She crawled frantically to her husbands side.
She already knew he was dead. Checked for a pulse.
Hugh dragged himself to his feet.
Unsteady.
He made a move to come to their aid
His mothers hand shot out stopping him.
"No" she told him in a voice he didn't recognize. "Don't come any closer. Do you hear me?"
She stood to her feet and came to him.
She cupped his beautiful tear streaked face in her hands.
Hugh looked over her shoulder at the body of his father.
"He's dead isn't he?" He asked.
His mother forced his eyes back to hers.
"Don't look at him. Look at me." She instructs.
"MOM!!!"
The sound of Claire's voice at the stairs surprised them both.
"I'm fine baby. Stay up there!" She ordered in a no nonsense way.
She shifted her attention back to Hugh.
"Listen to me now." Hugh went to speak "no. No argument. You were never here. Ok. I want you to go grab some things of yours and your sisters and you're to leave"
"But" he interjected.
"HUGH I'm not asking" his mother told him sternly. "You get your things, and your sister and you leave. And you don't come back here until I say so. Do you understand me??"
She looked deeply into his eyes, caressing his face. His hair.
"Tell me you understand me?"
He nodded tears falling.
She pulled him into a fierce hug then. Kissed his face.
"Good boy."
He didn't remember packing his things or how he convinced Claire to do the same without a thousand questions.
All he remembered was his mother blocking his fathers body from Claire. Ushering them to the door. Kissing them both again.
"I love you both. So much."
"Mommy?" Claire has questioned.
His mother locked eyes with him.
"Go."
He nodded. He had to drag a crying Claire out into the night.
They hid in a neighbours backyard and watched as they police arrived.
Entered their home.
He hadn't been sure how much time passed before the door opened and his mother was escorted out handcuffed and taken away.
Claire tried to break free from his hold then but he just held her tighter. Pushing her head into his shoulder so she wouldn't see their fathers body being wheeled out.