Truth Behind the Tough

Chapter 2: Begining of a New Life

It had been a few months now, Sam lived with his uncle and every two weeks, her baby cousin would be there for a week. It was fun, sometimes...

Sam noticed Eric was sometimes cold towards him. He'd harshly grab her arms when he didn't want her to do something, or smack the back of her head, sometimes worse.

So Sam rarely left her room, when she did, she'd sit in the living room and play with Jeremy, her cousin that she now considered like a baby brother. She mostly played "boy stuffs" with him, like ball and cars and such. She liked anything that was for boys, they seemed more fun, and being around boys became a normal thing, sometimes she'd say she's "part of the boys".

"Sam, could you go play in the backyard with Jeremy? I don't want him close to the kitchen when I'm cooking." Eric spoke up, loud chopping sounds heard.

"Okay!!" Sam shouted and put on her mom's old hoodie, a pair of running shoes and picked up Jeremy the best she could to sit him on a chair. "Come on buddy, we gotta put you some shoes!"

Jeremy looked at her and whined out a screechy "Nooo!!!", which made Sam wince a bit as she put on his shoes and put a hat on his head so he wouldn't catch any sunburns on his face.

"Come on, buddy! Outside we go!" Sam declared to the child delightfully, helping him up and holding his little hand into her own. But the second he was on the ground, Jeremy ran for his life. He ran...

Straight to the kitchen.

Sam's eyes grew wide, look on her face horrified. Eric will be mad. Jeremy could get hurt. She panicked and ran after him, screaming his name out and hoped it would be a warning to her uncle.

Eric realized his son was there, but not because of the scream, because he was gripping onto his legs. He had the same horrified look as Sam had; he was carrying a cauldron of boiling hot water. All his muscles tensed and froze, his eyes darting down to the boy. "Jeremy, go outside with Sam. Daddy's busy and carrying something dangerous."

Sam stopped infront of her uncle, arms extended side to side and legs flexed, she looked ready to pounce over, her eyes locked onto the kid's own pair. "Come on, Jeremy! Come here! We'll go play ball! It'll be fun! Let go of daddy and come with me!"

But the child wasn't having none of their plan, he charged straight between Eric's legs and sprinted to the living room. But just that small thing, this small plan of his, made something terrible happen.

Eric lost balance.

Tipping over the cauldron infront of him.

Where Sam was standing.

For the two, everything seemed to have slowed down, Eric tried to tip it back, but it was too late, a good amount of the water had fallen out and most of it had sprayed all over Sam's legs and slightly on her lower stomach, while Eric's own arm received some.

Sam didn't react immediately, the adrenaline rush of the event made her only stand there, legs tense. Her eyes looked down to the puddle of hot water, and then she noticed vapor emitting from bellow her waist.

That's when the burning pain kicked in.

Her face twisted into one of agony, eyes wide and terrified, lips quickly parting to let out a blood chilling scream of pain. She felt as if her skin was being ripped to her muscles, her pants sticking to her legs which intensified the pain.

Eric repressed the need of screaming a pained line of curses, he could see his arm turning red and dripping with water, but his eyes froze on his niece, who was screaming and a river of tears rolled down her cheeks. He quickly threw the cauldron and its remaining water in the sink and picked Sam up by under her arms and ran to the bathroom.