The Beach Accident | ✍🏼

25. The Backstory

- Third Person POV - 

- 8 years ago - 

Luke had been up all night, not once wanting to shut his eye. He was prepared for his big brother, Shane, to come in and continue to tear him to shreds. He was ready for it now, as he had sat on his blood stained bed, unmoving. It was the first birthday he had spent without Riley and Thomas. 

It was the third birthday he had spent in pain and confusion. The first one having been the first time his birthday had been forgotten, as his mother and father had died. The second one had involved a lot of screaming and shouting, before Shane had accidentally let his anger out on his baby brother, before Riley tried to comfort him. The third one was today. 

As soon as Luke could hear the footsteps, he panicked. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't move his body to lie down, nor could he move it to roll off the blood-stained bed. His bed. The footsteps stopped at the door, and something was discussed, before the door was slowly opened, revealing a panic stricken 7 year old Luke. 

The same 7 year old that had once called his eldest brother his father, the same 7 year old that had a little sister that called him Lulu, the same 7 year old that had just been teared down by his big brother. The same big brother that had once played with him in the backyard, made him dinner, and bathed him when he was so sick that he had vomited on himself and his big brother. 

But now, that big brother had ruined his baby brother forever and ever. There was no going back. This child had been ruined. At the age of 7, he was ready to give up the fight that was so unfair and uneven that  no one thought twice about it ever happening between the two of them. They had loved each other, at some point, or at least Luke had thought they had. 

He had never thought that his brother was capable of such things towards him. "Oh baby" someone murmured, and Luke was quick to wrap his arms around his shaky little body, afraid of what they may see him like. He couldn't do anything to the wounds that hadn't stopped bleeding out. 

There was so much blood. So, so, so much blood and it wouldn't stop. It was like it couldn't stop. Poor Luke was so small, that seeing this amount of blood around him was astonishing to believe that there was actually something left, and that there was more to come. "Oh my" a strangled cry was heard from the doorway, before someone was disappearing into a bathroom, while all Luke could do was just sit there and watch it happen. 

 He could only ever watch on. That was all he could ever do. Just sit and watch everything happen. Watch everyone walk in and out, as he starved himself to be who they wanted. He had done what they wanted and been who they wanted until he stopped caring about himself. Until no one looked twice at him. 

"Go away" he murmured, his voice scratched raw through his throat, as the tears brimmed in his eyes. His cheeks flamed red, when a third person showed up, embarrassed at the person his brothers were seeing. The person that his older brother had destroyed, the day he chose that Luke wasn't good enough; that Luke wasn't a brother to him anymore. 

Luke had always thought that his parents were the worst people he had ever met in his life. But now, his older brother, Shane, was the worst person ever. He had never known that his brother could beat him so badly, that Noah, his older brother and best friend at the time, had thrown up and run away from just looking at his brother. 

"Blake, get me a old towel" that was all Luke was, just something that had done its time. He was just old and used. They had Skylar now, a new baby of the family to be looking after. She was ever so little. Luke would do whatever he could to protect her, even if it meant that he would get hurt beyond repair. 

Luke just sat their, paralyzed, as he watched his brothers move around him. "Here, buddy, lay down" and with that, Luke was ever so gently pushed down. He watched his older brother, Brayden, tell him everything before he did it. He knew, from that moment, that this would be the last time that anybody ever touched him with so much care. 

He knew that he couldn't let this happen again. That one day, he would fight back against his brother, even if it was so small as just rolling over or cradling his head in his hands, so that he could just protect something, someone. Just so the damage wasn't as bad as it was. Just to make something good come out of something bad. 

A small pinch seared up his leg, causing him to yelp, before he covered his mouth and wiped his eyes. He couldn't cry nor say a word about his pain. It was for him and him only. "Brayden, stop, STOP! Make it stop!!" those words were not coming from Luke, they were coming from above him. 

It was someone else' panicked voice, making him worry, but he couldn't, when black dots covered his vision, and he felt his entire body go numb. Just another birthday that would be ruined, for the rest of the years to come. There was no going back now. "Make the blood stop. How can he still have so much blood" it was beyond Luke, the amount of blood that was pooling around him, 

What Luke would never know, is just how lucky he would be to still be alive. That he could have had an infection in his leg, leading to him being paralyzed from the place on his body that had been opened by a belt. That he had been in surgery, all because of Shane and Grayson, and that his heart had stopped beating. 

But because he had nearly died twice, that didn't mean the hurt would go away, or that he would never be hurt in such way. It only got worse, knowing that Shane wanted him dead. That that was the aim of the game all along; death by the hands of his own big brother, the same brother that had become a provider. 

The same brother that pretended in front of their baby sister, that he was great. That he never hurt them behind closed doors, so that she would never know that he wasn't just a man with bad words, that could have actions and consequences to it all. To everyone but Skylar. 

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thoughts? xx