Don't Hurt Me

Chapter 21

It starts on a day like any other, as all terrible things do.

My brothers and I are eating pizza in the kitchen. It's almost eight pm, but my mother still hasn't come home.

"She's worked late before," Rob reminds us, and we accept this. At first.

Before long, the hands on the clock hit nine o' clock. Then ten. And finally, midnight, and she's still not back. And she hasn't called.

I'm peering out the window to the porch when my father comes up. I straighten up jerkily, meeting his eyes.

"She's not back yet?" he asks, squint-eyed.

"No. Did she say anything to you about having something to do today?"

"No. Maybe she's at somebody's house?"

I call up the few friends she has, but no one's seen her. Rob comes in while I'm on my last call. "Alright, thanks, anyway. Bye." I hang up, turning to my brother. "This isn't like her."

"I know," he goes, scratching his head of dark hair.

"Where could she have gone? And why didn't she call?"

"Maybe she's stranded somewhere," he suggests, but he doesn't sound like he believes it. An awful thought lurks in my mind, and I know it's lurking in his too. Neither of us wants to say it out loud.

"Well?" my father practically pounces on me in the foyer. "Did you find anything?"

I shake my head. He mutters a curse, then moves, going over to the dish on a stand where we keep our keys. He fishes out the ones to our car, heading for the door. "I'll find her."

"But you don't even know where to look."

"She's gotta be somewhere. She couldn't have just vanished." The front door slams behind him, the sound of it reverberating.

My brothers and I look to each other, listening to the sound of a car pulling hastily out of the driveway. I exhale loudly, running both hands through my hair. This can't be happening. Either something is wrong or my mother is playing some sort of stupid game. If she is, I'm going to kill her.

"I guess this is it," Rob speaks up. "I guess she's gone."

"Gone?" Sam repeats.

"Yeah. She couldn't take it anymore, so she up and left."

"You think she left? Just like that?"

"Hey, how could anybody stand another day in this house?"

"She wouldn't do that," Sam's voice is tense, strained.

"We're a burden to her."

"A burden? We're her kids! There's no way she would ever leave us!"

Rob doesn't argue, but the look on his face is dejected. How can any of us know what Mom would or would not do? We think we know people, when we don't even know ourselves what we can be pushed to.

"It's almost one in the morning," I realize, speaking in a monotone.

Sam sighs, the sound of it shaky. I feel sorry for him. I head inside the empty living room to sit, and Rob joins me. Sam stays in the foyer, keeping a lookout by the window.

I gaze at the clock on the wall, watching as the minute hand ticks away, steady and slow. We're in for a long wait.

---

I awake with a start. Lamplight greets my eyes, and a distant ticking sound tickles my ears. I sit up, struggling through a daze. Where am I?

Living room couch. Rob is beside me, fast asleep.