She (Ran out of steam, I'll finish this one day though :/)
She'd been watching him for three years. He beat her mother when he was drunk. And it was always the same. She would pull him off of her mother, or stand between them so he couldn't. There were his children as well; they would turn to her for comfort. She would be the protector. And after each beating she would help her mother move out, and a few days later help move back in. It had become rote. Not allowed to speak out on behalf of her mother, prevented by her mother. Respect for her mother carried a great weight within her. The only respite was from not being there going out with friends, staying at others home for months at a time even renting her own place at one but always, always being drawn back into that house. It was never a home.
A company Christmas party. She was having a good time once they had moved to the alternative club. She didn't drink so she just there for the music and people. Glancing up she noticed him. Her mother's boyfriend, dancing away. She frowned it was unexpected. She approached him curious as to his being there. Placing her thumb over his ear so he could hear her over the blare of a popular song, she asked where her mother was. Around somewhere he indicated the club in general. This was even more unexpected, her mother didn't club. Moving through the crowds she searched. It was never hard to find anyone at that club. She searched for half an hour not finding her mother. She began to worry. Trying to find the Boyfriend again she couldn't. Moving to the entrance of the club she reacquired her phone she had left there for safe keeping. She dialled her mother.
The sound of footsteps and walking played as the background to the hello of her mother. She asked her mother where she was, this was neither the time of night nor the town to be walking alone at night as a woman. The response chilled her. Walking? Her mother should not be walking. Frantic and no car she waits for friends to come to her aid, one half hour later her aid came, a male friend and his girlfriend agreed to help her. They agreed to drive possible routes in the hopes to find her mother. On the first try they find her. Leaning against the wall of the house. Locked out. Her mother's keys were with her. Thanking her friends she moves to greet her mother. They have a brief argument that her mother couldn't find her and yet it should not have been difficult, she was the kind person who stood out in a crowd. She enquired as to why her mother had resorted to walking home.
The story came out that they had been on their way home, her mother had taken a wrong turn off by accident. There followed a brief tussle involving the boyfriend grabbing the steering wheel and her mother slapping him. He then ordered her mother to get the fuck out the car to which her mother had obliged being the stubborn woman she was. Her mother then phoned a friend of her who dropped her off at the club the boyfriend had gone to. Her mother had looked for her, though she felt not hard enough. At the club her mother and the boyfriend had begun to argue again, he started yanking on her hair and they got kicked out by the bouncers.
Which lead to the present situation. She doesn't remember opening the main gate or the house doors but she remembers asking the boyfriend why he had made her mother walk home. His response was that her mother needed to learn manners. That had made her laugh. And her reply to that was that was the one who needed to learn manners judging by the way he treated woman. At this point he was in front of her. His attempts at being menacing were a little hilarious since he was slightly shorter than she was so looming wasn't exactly the correct option to choose. They began to argue though she didn't entirely remember what all about. Something about her dog, and about her not paying rent (Which she set straight right away, she had been keeping the household fed AND she had been paying for almost a third of the rent) At one point her mother tried to interfere. But she had snapped, enough was enough and she wasn't going to shut up and step back this time. She turned to her mother and said one of the possible most profound things her mother had ever heard her daughter say. "Shut the fuck up, it's my fight now!" She had never spoken so to her mother not ever in one single fight had she been that aggressive.
He had been pushing her around during the argument; it had spanned the passage way to her rooms and into it. There had been a few boxes in her room at the time he had pushed her over those too but she just kept getting up and arguing. Sometime during the argument she had phoned the friend who had helped her earlier and asked them to bring some people to hospitalise the boyfriend. He thought she was phoning the clubs bouncers and then blamed her for having them thrown out. That had also made her laugh. Her mother then decided it was best they left house, and suggested as much.
So they began making their way to her bedroom door. It was time to leave. But he blocked the door way. As she tried to push past he pushed her into the doorway. That was his last mistake. Something deep inside her snapped, the tenuous hold on her rage had been loosed and now the Beast came out to play. She blacked out she did not remember making her fist or moving to hit him. She not even know what her face looked like it must have been terrible to see. But the sound of her knuckles impacting with his face temporarily woke her, time froze. His blue eyes grew to almost falling out of their sockets as he stared at her. She just stared back surprised at the venom in the strike. She hadn't been violent in over 15 years, she had been an angry child but she had matured and calmed. This was new for her all over again.
And then time caught up with her and so did the Beast she blacked out but this time it was different. A blood haze filled her vision and all she could see was him. Him and how much she wanted to hurt him. Hurt him for all the wrong he had done. For the pain he had caused, the divide in her relationship with her mother. She went at him, she was berserk. No control anymore she was feral then savagely attacking that which had caused so much damage in her life for almost 3 years now. But it would not be that easy. A lucky punch to her solar plexus was all it took. Her breathe had been sufficiently knocked from her. She curled in pain an automatic reflex to protect herself; she stood in an almost foetal position. As he pounded away on her back. She was completely blacked out then she never felt a single blow, almost as if something were protecting her. Then suddenly it stopped. She remembered vaguely months later that her mother had come from the side and pushed him off.
Coming to stumbling from the front door as he pushed her out she only recalls shouting things about him being white trash and a wife beater. Standing on the pavement outside of her house she still did not shed a tear she managed to hold on to her composure all that time. Going to her mother she asked for her mother's phone. She dialled then the only person she knew could help. A family friend. As she spoke to her she finally broke down and started to cry, the realisation of what had just happened coming at her full force as she asks for help. As they wait on the pavement at 4:30 on a cold December morning the Police arrive. Along with the friend she had called during the fight. It had only been an hour, such a short time for an entire world to come apart. One she had been working hard not to let slip. They go around to where he sits outside with another beer in his hands. Sometimes placing it over the black eye that was already starting to form. As they questioned him the Family friend arrived it was all she could do to stop from completely breaking down. The friend her mother had called to drop her off at the club had also arrive and her own friends had also come. But they were all too late. The damage had been done.
She was quiet going to the Family friend's house; they had greeted everyone and gone to this friend's house. She didn't remember much once the Family friend had arrived. Though once at her house she calmed a little this house had always held a special place in her heart. Her mother had gone straight to sleep but she was beyond that, she couldn't sleep, not yet. She and the family friend spoke then for a bit she was comforted to know that the family friend understood and had been through similar trials. After that she slept. Brief though it was it was needed. The three women then went to her Grandmother's house.
There she finally told her grandmother what had been happening. Her mother wanted to move into a cottage with her. But she said no, she knew her mother would just go back again to the boyfriend