To heal is to feel

Stop saying that

Tw- C A

"Stop... just stop."

I halt my footsteps when I hear moms feet stop a few feet behind me, I let out a irritated sigh before turning to her. The pain in my ankle shooting up to my thighs making me slightly nauseous

Her hands on her knees as she tries to catch her breath, i readjust the back pack that contains a lighter, moms cigarette box, a bottle of water, a photo of me and ma, and one bag of gummy bears.

Our camp was over run a couple days ago and we haven't stopped running since then. I'm those days I've managed to twist my ankle and make my mom run more with the  extra weight of me.

"I'm sorry" I apologize, slowly sitting down so my back is against the tree, looking up I analyze every details of the green leafs with different lines on them.

"Stop fuckin apologizing." Mom hisses at me, I bow my head as I struggle to stand up so I use the bark of the tree to haul me up.

"I think we lost them." I state quietly, not so sure if we did loose the freaks, mom hums before standing up straighter and looking directly to my eyes with a blank face.

"We would've lost them a long time ago if you weren't such a dumbass ,if you didn't run back for that stupid photo." Mom hisses, every step she takes towards me seeming to make the ground beneath us shake.

"M'sorry" I bow my head, clinching the phot of me and her in my hand tighter, before slowly tucking it into my back pocket.

"What did I say!" Ma shouts as she kneels infront of me, grabbing my chin a little to roughly. I didn't like it when she got mad, it was a constant thing and I was always the one to reserve the end of it mainly because it's always been me and her since before this, "look at me when I speak to you, and stop crying all the fucking time!" She adds, her spit flying to the tip of my nose

I wipe the tears that I didn't know were fall from my eyes before looking straight at her , trying to not burst into tears again.. fearing that she might get more mad at me.

There was a tense pause before ma interrupted it ,

"Stop apologizing...and stop being a dumbass." Her voice lower than usual which makes me more uncomfortable.

"That's a lot of rules-" I couldn't help the words coming out of my mouth, the need to break the uncomfortable feeling in me growing second by second, although I was cut off when I heard a smack echo through the trees, before a stinging set into my left cheek

I bring my hand up and hold the side of my cheek, shock wasn't what feeled me, what feeled me was a sense of betrayal. I don't know why because it could be worse, she's done worse.

"Don't talk back to me, smart ass." She sighs , taking her grip on my chin off and standing up to full height now. Sort of reminding me of Caroline's mother when she told her she wanted to go back her real home.

I loved that movie.

"Didn't you just call me a dumb ass now a smart ass, it doesn't make sense-" I should really shut up now, I feel heat rise through my other cheek with more force, which causes me to fall to the ground, landing on my bad leg, my ankle buzzing with heat.

I dig my nails into the dirt, trying not to cry or yell or say anything a dumbass would say. I don't know if we actually lost all of those freaks, but I have to stay quite

I move my jaw side to side when my mouth starts to fill with a strange metallic taste, just realizing that my mom punched me instead of slapped me this time. And it hurts like a son of a bitch-

Here's a faint growling, my mom and I immediately share a similar look... fear and panic evident in my eyes, while moms holds panic but no fear.

She puts a finger to her lips as to tell me to stay quite before pointing up to a big tree besides us, telling me to silently climb the branches till I reach the top

With shakes hands I lift myself up and extend my foot till I found my footing, and to what seemed like a a hour of climbing I finally made it to the final branch, it's big size holding me up fine.

Mom sets herself on the other side of the tree, I only see her hair because of the leaves that cover us from what's still growling down on the ground.

She gives me a nod in asking if I'm alright, I give her a nod back to tell her I'm okay, completely erasing the current events from my mind from my moms hand raising and forcing me to the ground to the freak that's clawing at the bark from the tree down below.

'We just have to wait it out' , I think to myself as I lean against the bark of the tree , closing my eyes shut slowly.

And soon I can not hear the sounds that the freak makes from down below anymore, more like a ringing before my head clouds with exhaustion and my body gives out.