Swing Low

Chapter 5: The Fear That Came True

A/N: This Chapter is different we're not focusing as much on Jimmy and Misty here. They'll be a little involved but not much. I am also going to put a trigger warning for SA. I'm not going into detail at all whatsoever. But this chapter will be quite a surprise and go into Darla a little bit.

Darla laid awake in bed in Robert's arms as he snored.
Her thoughts consumed her mind keeping her from sleep. Normally she slept well especially in his arms, she was typically first to fall asleep. But tonight was different, anxiety building within. Darla was late, her period hadn't come yet. Normally her period would've been here, but it wasn't.

She couldn't shake the thought away, god maybe her period was just running behind. Darla prayed to god that it was. She was only seventeen and couldn't fathom the thought of a child. She herself was a child, how could she take care of one? She couldn't stomach the thought of pregnancy. She never knew if she wanted to have children. But she got a pregnancy test earlier while Robert was busy doing god knows what.

She worried that she wouldn't be a good mother. She didn't even have a good one at all. Darla had a rough childhood hence why she was raised by her Dad's parents. Darla grew up a single child to a mother who was a drug addict and her father died when she was six. When her father died that was when the trajectory of their lives changed. Myrtle was never the same woman after he died.Her mother turned to sex work and barbiturates to fill the void that was now empty.

Darla could remember her mother bringing in random gross men into the brothel house every night. She saw things no child needed to see. Her innocence wrecked at such a young age by not only what she saw but what had happened to her when she was only ten years old.Her mother was so corrupted and desperate for money she had pimped her daughter out one night. Myrtle could only see dollar signs when she heard the price of what the disgusting men would pay to have her daughter. It was beyond depraved.

No one protected the poor girl that night from the monster that stole the bright light from Darla. She had no one to keep her safe from what she endured that night at all. The child was left bleeding and crying on the bed. Whatever light and pure spirit she had was ripped from her. Darla at that age could not understand why what happened to her did. Why didn't her mother come to her rescue when she cried for her? Why didn't no one help her?

Myrtle was so messed up from the drugs that all morality was thrown out the door along with her child's innocence. Myrtle would've never been able to emotionally handle being a mother on her own.She saw her own daughter as nothing more than baggage at this point. She resented her for how much she reminded her of the girl's father. One day Darla had been dropped off with her bags at her grandparents. Her mother told her she was going to be gone for a weekend and would come back to get her.But that was not the truth, her mother never came back for her. Darla couldn't understand why.

She abandoned her and gave the duty of raising Darla to them. Walter's parents loved their granddaughter and were happy to have her stay with them. Darla was quite different from the last time they saw her. She wasn't the same little girl they used to pick up and take down to get ice cream. Darla was different, they could tell she was. She wasn't the same ball of energy she was when they last saw her.They didn't know what happened to her but they knew something was quite wrong. Darla didn't like to be alone at all, she had concurrent nightmares if she slept alone. She would typically hop into her grandparents bed and sleep with them until the age of twelve.

It took quite the time to get Darla to come around. Of course the girl did open up and start to trust them. Darlas life started to brighten up the day she met Misty. They met at school and rode the same bus, growing up the girls were also connected at the hip. Both bonded through their childhood and chemistry they had. Misty was the ying to her yang as Darla was to Misty. She didn't know where she would be if she didn't have Misty. Misty brought peace into her life again.