||The Secrets We Keep|| - Salvis

Chapter VII

      (TW: Child abuse. If you are not comfortable with that do not proceed any further!)

      When Travis sees the familiar white house of the Phelps household, holding so many bad memories, he sighs. He slows down his walking pace slightly, dreading going back, stopping at the entrance. He spots the church in the background, looking at it and a swimming gut-wrenching feeling threatening to consume him. Travis takes a deep breath before slowly wrapping his fingers around the handle as he stares at his front porch, opening the front door and cringing as it creaks. He lets his eyes adjust to the pitch blackness of the house, his breath hitching when he looks in front of him towards the hallway. His father was waiting for him, his arms crossed. Travis shuts the door behind him slowly and carefully, fear hitting him when the door fully closes, and his father approaches him. "Travis."
      Travis swallows thickly, not daring to break eye contact, and is quick to answer, knowing that his punishment will be worse if he happens to hesitate. "Y-yes sir?" he stammers, and his father continues to walk to him, not even a foot away from him, and Travis makes out his glare in the dark, keeping his posture straight and his hands shaking by his sides.
      Travis can hear his heartbeat in his ears as he waits for his fathers response, the hair on the back of his neck rising and a chill going down his spine. "Where were you?" His father snaps for an answer, enraged.
      Travis flinches at the aggression, quickly answering, "I was at a friends house to-"
      He was quickly cut off by his dad slapping him, hard, across the face. "You know well of the rules in this household." His father says, and Travis starts to fidget with his gold cross necklace around his neck, a gift from his late mother before she had passed.
      Suddenly, Travis is dragged across the hallway by his dad, held by his wrist harshly, destined to bruise. He finds his footing, half walking and half being pulled, Travis unable to see where they are going. Travis doesn't dare cry out, or try to struggle against him, biting his lip to hold back a pained noise. He feels his father stop dragging him suddenly, the force shoving him forward and almost dropping to the floor. He looks up at his father, just getting his feet under him as he hears a door open from the hallway, it dawning on him what was happening and deeply regretting coming back, wishing he had just stayed at Sal's. He whispers a small prayer under his breath, having just enough time before the grip on his wrist is returned and he is hauled down steep stairs. Travis' heart sinks through his chest as they near the bottom, knowing what is about to happen. He is thrown onto the floor once they get all the way down to the basement, and is kicked in the sides, hitting bruises from a couple nights before. "Get into prayer." He hears Kenneth say sternly, quickly obeying and going on his knees as his father goes to grab something on the other side of his room.
      He goes to watch, quickly closing his eyes when his father looks to him, clasping his hands together and resting his chin upon his fingertips. As Kenneth walks back, he kicks Travis's knee, Travis quickly fixing his position. A candle is lit, the room brightening, and he keeps still, unsure of what is happening but praying for his life. Suddenly, he feels a burning sensation trickle down his back, making him cry out in pain as he realizes his father is dripping the burning wax on him. He feels the flame go against his back, biting into his lip and squeezing his eyes shut, sitting up painfully straight.

      After what felt like hours of torture, the burning stops, and Kenneth punts him in the nose, his shoe quickly colliding with Travis's face. Warm, crimson blood starts to trickle down his face, pooling to the floor beside him in a small puddle. He moves a hand to his face quickly, coughing when he is kneed in the stomach, staggering back.  Finally, the blows on his tired body stop, and Travis feels Kenneth's grip quickly lift his face to him, making eye contact with his father forcibly. "If you try to run off again I'll make sure you won't ever be able to leave, you hear me, boy?" Kenneth asks mercilessly, and Travis mutters a "yes sir." to him, it just audible.
      Kenneth drops him, standing up and putting away the candle, and Travis hears footsteps fade away. A door slams, his face laying against the cold concrete floor. He lies there, pain aching throughout his body, and finally closes his eyes, his exhaustion overtaking him and passing out, in a state of sleep. 

      Sal takes the bus, his hair in messy pigtails and his headphones on while Larry rants about something he is doing in art beside him. He stares out the window as the bus stops at another house, seeing the church in the distance. He had woken up a couple minutes after his alarm, Travis nowhere to be seen and his prosthetic off. It sent him into a panic, thinking that Travis had taken off his prosthetic, but quickly writing it off, gaining his composure quickly. "Hey dude, you alright?" He hears Larry ask, pulled out of his thoughts as he turns around quickly to face him.
      "Hm? Oh, yeah I'm fine." Sal says, looking around and realizing everyone getting off the bus, at the school.
      They get off the bus, walking into school and getting to his locker to get his stuff, him and Larry going their separate ways. He opens his locker using the method of picking the lock, taught by Ash. He takes out his art and gym stuff, closing his locker before seeing a flash of yellow hair in his peripheral vision. He immediately whips his head around, seeing the neon green shoes for a split second before they disappear into the hallway at the intersection.

||(Authors note:) Here is chapter seven! This chapter was a lot, so yeahhh. I will be working on chapter eight as soon as possible tho||

Word count: 1064 with authors note, 1038 without