ANTI-KARATE 《cobra kai 》

-prologue

prologue!

IT WAS TERRIFYING— watching as her dad slowly went insane, that is. Not a single inch of her was left without fear as her father gradually got more and more violent towards her, her brother, and her mom. It wasn't their fault, no, it was the Alzheimer's. Early Alzheimer's. Her mother had it, and bad too. It drove her dad mad, seeing his wife look at him without a drop of recognition. Only being thirteen, Alex Ramirez had no idea what the extent of the craziness, nor did she know at the time exactly how bad things were going to get, because if she had she wouldn't have waited so long to call the police.

It started with small things— like the way he would get angry over small things, maybe break a couple object before storming away. Alex had understood this; she too was angry. Angry that the doctor said that her mother wouldn't last any longer than five years and she's be lucky if she got that. But then he started punching things— beginning with a cabinet door, then a wall, then eventually Alex herself. Alex still was empathetic. Nobody important was getting hurt and her father seemed more relaxed after he got to let his anger out.

Carl Deaser, the man himself, found pleasure in hitting his daughter. Alex had inherited her looks from her mother, unlike eleven-year-old Lucas who resembled their father, and for some reason that angered Carl. Her face, her voice— her mere existence irritated him. Alex knew this, and while it hurt worse than the bruises, she sucked it up and endured the pain simply because it was happening to her and not them.

It wasn't until one day, when she was late getting home from school, that Carl was so mad— and for no apparent reason— that he slipped up and hit Lucas. When Alex eventually did get home, her father was already long gone; probably on a beer run of sorts. Lucas was sitting on the couch with a steady stream of tears rolling down his face and a ice-pack to his forehead. Alex heard the stifling before she even got to the living room, her heart dropping as Lucas turned around— a large bruise along his jawline. The room was silent— their mother being asleep in the next room— the air being sucked out of Alex's lungs as she crossed the room and brought her brother into a hug. She felt and heard his shaky sobs into her shoulder, feeling her heart ache for the times before her mom's diagnosis. Back when they would all play soccer in the back yard and it'd be her and her dad against Lucas and her mom, and she'd always lose because no one was better at soccer than her mom. But she knew that those times had passed and that they were never coming back.

She wanted to call the police then, but Lucas talked her out of it. He'd known what all she has sacrificed to make sure that this didn't happen to him, and he was grateful, but he also knew that it would take a toll on their mother. Although she didn't remember his name half the time, Xolani loved Carl— and him going to prison for child abuse would break her heart. Neither of the siblings wanted that.

It wasn't until two weeks later that Alex realized that she should've told someone when this all first begun. That she shouldn't have let it get this far. It was a Friday evening after school for the kids and Carl had gotten off work early. Alex didn't know this at the time, but he had had it all planned out. For days— maybe weeks, even. What Alex had known was that something bad was going to happen, especially when Carl entered the living room with a cutlery knife. Lucas and Xolani were watching the TV, but Alex wasn't. She had had a bad feeling all day, like something terrible was going to occur and she wouldn't be able to stop it, so when her father entered the house a couple hours early she didn't watch the TV because her eyes never left him.

She had watched as Carl tucked the knife between his jeans and his stomach, his shirt covering the handle. Her hand was itching to reach for the flip-phone in her back pocket, but just like her, his eyes never left the young teenager. However, instead of his gaze being one of caution, it was more as one like a predator stalking it's prey. It made her stomach do nervous flips.

Carl reached over, kissing the top of her head delicately before doing the same to Xolani and nodding at Lucas. Alex could sense that her little brother was nervous. He seemed terrified— Alex could practically see the gears spinning in his head, overanalyzing the situation before him; critically thinking over every movement he made, not wanting to accidently set Carl off.

But it was too late for that. Way too incredibly late.

It happened in a flash— the blood, the pain, the screams. The body of her little brother being dragged off to the hospital, only to be pronounced dead before he even got there. Her mother being so terrified that she couldn't see straight. Alex remembered every bit of what her lunatic father did to her family.

Well, almost all of it.

Her mind must've blacked out what he did to her, however, because when she was at the hospital only a few moments later she didn't remember getting stabbed in the lower abdomen, nor did she remember the blade slicing across the skin in her face, deep and painfully enough to need stiches. There were cuts all up and down her arms and legs, her stomach and back, and covering her face. She might not have remembered it happening, but she remembered the pain that came with it healing.

Mostly, though, she remembered the smell. The smell of blood and sweat— along with the taste of the tangy, iron-like, blood that she was coughing up. She remembered being on the edge of death, completely ready to give over to the idea of oblivion and emptiness that came with dying. She longed for it. But it never came.

The scars —both physical and emotional— that now littered her body were hard for a thirteen year old to understand or accept, but sooner or later she knew she had to at least acknowledge the fact that they were a permanent part of her.

No matter what.

A/N: hullo! thank you sm for deciding to read my story, it really means a lot bad I appreciate all of you. this will be a slowburn Miguel x Alex but I'm still going to follow the main storyline to the show and his relationship/breakup with Sam will still happen. I hope you enjoy! please comment and let me know what you think!

~ chloe