As the World Caves In

I'll be there

Skye

    I can feel a hand on my shoulder which makes me shiver, thinking my father came back but I calm down when I see Alik as he holds my face gently. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry I wanted to do something but--" he starts but I just hug him and start sobbing softly. "It's okay, I'm here" he says reassuringly and picks me up to take me to my room. He puts me down on my bed and I whimper from the pain. "Let me see the cuts" he says and gently brushes my hair out of my face to look at a deep cut under my eye, he treats it then moves on to the cut on my neck but he can't make it dissapear completely. "Okay this might hurt, just hold on for a minute" he says while he attends to the cuts on my arm. "Okay this is also bruised, not as bad as your neck did but I can't do anything about that so you should wear long sleeves and turtlenecks for a while" he says lovingly. "Thanks" I say as I put on a sweather and I realize that my room is full of presents. "So what did I miss?" I ask in pain. "Nothing much, there wasn't any fun until you arrived" he says jokingly then asks: "How was your break?" "Well started out pretty good but then that went to hell so I ran away and for a week I had so much fun and then well I came home." I explain in short. "You know you only have to take this for 3 more years after that you can use magic outside of school. We could run away." he says. "Why don't you just run away now? You're already 17" I ask him sadly. "And who'd take care of you then,huh? Mom or dad?" he asks. "I can take care of myself" I answer sulking. "At school you can but not against dad. Not yet." he says with hope in his eyes. "Will you really wait for me to get 17?  You won't run away without me?" I ask with tears in my eyes. "Of course, we're a family but we're not our parents, we don't have to be like them." he responds and hugs me.

    "So is this overcompensating?" I ask my brother as I point do the dozens of gifts on my bedroom floor that my parents got me. "You know this is how mom shows her love towards you" he explains. I start opening the presents. "So what did you get?" I ask. "A house by the lake" he says shyly. I stop opening the box and I look at him in confusion. "I'm sorry what, you got a house? You must be doing great as a death eater..." I say, judging him. "Actually I don't have to do anything. Go to a meeting once in a while and play the part, that's all." he responds. "I feel like you want me to join" I say suspiciously. "What? Noo, I don't, Skye that's the last thing I want you to do. It will be hard enough for me when I disobey You-Know-Who and run away. They'll probably chase me so that they can kill me, which means we have to be smart about it. They can't know that you're with me." he breaks it down. I open my presents while listening to music with Alik. I've got a bunch of jewellery, clothes, books, new broom and some enchanted items. I start unpacking and see the enchanted coin that George and I have and I see a message on it: Are you okay? I don't know what to answer. Should I say the truth or just lie about it so that he doesn't worry about me? "What's that?" my brother asks. "Just a coin" I say and put it away, I'll deal with it later.

  We hear footsteps coming towards my door. "Hide, quick!" I say to my brother. "I don't want you to get into trouble, go!" I say and he climbs out of my bedroom window. Someone knocks on my door and comes in. It's mom. "Hi darling, I didn't hear you got home." she says like it's the truth but we both know that she's lying. "What happened to you?" she asks and steps closer to me to look at my injuries. "Just some scratches from quidditch" I lie to her. "Those are pretty deep and you have bruises too my love." she says as she tries touching my face but I pull away from her hand. "Well dinner's in 10, we'd appreciate it if you came down"she says as she exits my chamber. I look out my window looking for my brother when I hear him say "Hi." I look up to see him on our roof, I smile at him and let him crawl back to my room. "You should rest before going back to school, I'll tell mom that you can't come down." he says while covering me with a blanket. "Thanks Alik but I think mom's angry with me, I don't think I can get out of this family dinner." I say. "You know I can be very persuasive" he says, winks at me and with that he's gone. Now that I have some time alone, I grab the enchanted coin which has a new message: Answer me please. Okay what do I write? If I only write I'm fine he'll know that something's wrong and he might come here plus then he'd get himself killed. There's a limit for how many words I can use though. Okay I got it! I write: F my dad, I'll live. After I'm done with that I just lay on my bed trying to think things over when Alik barges in my room: "Yeah you gotta come down to dinner, I'm sorry I tried everything." he says. "It's fine, can you help me go down?" I ask him because when I move an inch of my body I feel like I'm being tortured all over again, thanks dad, merry christmas to you too.

   Alik grabs by waist I loudly hiss because of the pain then he puts my arms around his neck so that he could pick me up. When we get down the stairs I whisper to Alik: "Put me down". "But we're almost there--" he starts but I look at him with piercing eyes and he puts me down. He tries to help me to the kitchen table but I push his hand away, because I know that dad's already at the table and I want to show him how fine I am, when Alik realizes what I'm doing he let's me do it so we slowly go to the table and sit down. Dad keeps looking at me with a serious gaze. "So did you like your presents darling?" my mom asks to break the tension. "They were fine, thanks" I say while tossing the food around. "Look at your mother when you're talking to her" father says and slaps the table loudly which startles me. "You still get scared that easily after all this time? Pathetic." he says. From the corner of my eye I see that Alik wants to say something but I shake my head telling him not to intervene. I look at mom and say: "Sorry mother"she smiles at me. "Much better now was that hard?" father asks. I shake my head, looking down. "ANSWER ME you little piece of shit!" he shouts as he stands up from the table with his wand already in his hand but I remain seated and calmly drink my water. "Dad, I'm sure she--" my brother starts saying but I cut him off: "No it's fine, I actually meant everything I did" I look my father dead in the eyes. "Diffi--" my father almost finished saying the curse but to my surprise my mom stops him: "Stupefy! Kids get out of here! I'll erase his memory but you shoud get out of here." Alik and I look at her in surprise, but Alik takes my hand and apparates us somewhere else.