Enemy Basis | COMPLETE

21| just tired

As we walked together, with him leading the way, I traced the beautiful brightening skies as the day awakened. The sunrise looked the prettiest with its baby pink and orange hues that filtered across the sky, making it look soft and sweet.

As I followed him, walking down the pretty, empty roads, I thought about everything.

Dorran was no longer my enemy, and I supposed it ought to have been weird how normal this all felt, but it didn't. It was as if our past had been some nightmare that we simply woke up from. But despite all this, I still didn't completely trust him and didn't respect him after everything he did to me. I also wondered if he secretly believed I was just like my father and if that part of him, despite what he said, still hated me for it.

Looking at Dorran beside me, his figure dark contrasting against the lightening skies, I had an inkling that he would not try to treat me as he did before. However, how long would that hold, until resentment at the situation grew stronger again? The only solace I had was that I wouldn't stand in his way this time, unlike the time in the park. I would give him information and help him in his mission with my father.

It might've sounded crazy but my father was a bad man and he had done some unforgivable things. He had been sent to prison all those years ago for the attempted murder of my mother and as the case against him went on, they found evidence of other things he had done. Now that he was out of prison, there was a chance that he was still doing those things, and I just didn't want to risk it - I didn't want to feel any more guilt regarding that man. I wanted him to be stopped.

I didn't care if Dorran believed me or not. Thinking back to my childhood, I realized I had never truly connected with my father. He always felt like a stranger, an enigma. Even as a child, I sensed an unsettling distance between us and an unease I couldn't quite define. I never felt any genuine affection for him, and as I grew older, I intentionally distanced myself. For a very long time, there had been nothing – no warmth, no connection, no real relationship – between us.

Therefore, even though he was my father on paper, I would have no regret in helping Dorran do whatever he needed to end this once and for all. Mathew was the type to continue and continue to do wrong and never repent for his sins. His text messages were evidence enough that he had not changed his path. My mind strayed back to a childhood memory that had morphed into my nightmare over the years as I thought about the last time that I had seen my father.

My mother grabbed the butcher knife that seemingly she was trying to get hold of and in a subsequent motion, plunged it into my father's chest with no hint of any hesitance at all.

When my father's eyes finally found mine, I stepped back at the force of the venom in his stare, unable to look away.

The blood poured from the gaping hole in his chest in a continuous flow and when he took his last breath and his chest didn't move again, I continued to stare into his cold, now lifeless eyes.

My young self paused in horror at the sight but with one look at my mother who was crying whilst rubbing her guilty bloodstained hands together, I knew I had to be brave for both of us. I stood up and grabbed the phone, dialled the emergency services and told them that my father had tried to kill my mother and that she had stabbed him in self-defence. They told me they'd come soon and that I shouldn't hang up but I did. There were other things to be worrying about rather than the people on the phone.

I walked up to my mother, hating seeing her like this and needing to stop the tears that were flowing down her face. When I got up to her, she carried on frantically wiping the blood off her hands but was doing a poor job and just spreading the crimson more. I grabbed her hands in an attempt to help her but all she did was continue with even more feverish movements.