Hide and Seek, Daddy

Hey everyone :) I hope you enjoy this story, I'm going to approach it from a different angle than that which I usually do.

xx ChontelleLouise

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Prologue <3

"You've been drinking again, haven't you Danny?" I heard my mother whisper to my father, after he'd slapped her on her left cheek. He looked at her and laughed.

"I haven't," he began, his words slurred, "had anything to drink. I'm a fucking saint!"

 He stepped towards her, and she fell back onto the couch. She looked up at him in horror, and I realised that tonight was not like any other night. My stomach churned, twisting in knots. I could feel it inside of me, something terrible was going to happen.

"Danny, please! Stop this nonsense, you're going to wake the kids. Can we please just go to bed and-" mum began to speak, but was silenced when dad slapped her yet again, this time on her right cheek.

 I drew in a sharp breath of air, before putting my left hand over my mouth in the hope that my parents hadn't heard me. 

 They hadn't. Dad yanked my mother up by her pale and weak right arm, tightening his grip as she struggled against him.

 I was standing in the dimly lit hallway of our fourth-story, three bedroom apartment, observing the heated argument with fear and anticipation. I was expecting the worst, yet I was too afraid to step in and do something about it. If only I had know what would happen, maybe I would have mustered up the courage to emerge from the shadowed hallway and make my presence known.

 I watched as my father dragged my mum over to the far wall, roughly pushing her up against it.

 "Think you can tell me what to do, huh?" he asked her, his bright blue eyes filled with a rage I had never seen in him ever before. He released her for only a second, before shoving her right back into the wall when she wouldn't respond to his question.

"Well?" he shouted impatiently.

 My mother wimpered, terrified of my father's abusive actions. I had never seen her like this before, it was downright horrific to witness.

"Danny, please," she managed to say, her words choking out amidst broken sobs. 

 My father clenched his right fist, drawing it backwards, and with all his power and might, slammed it into the wall centimetres from mum's head. She screamed in horror as his fist plunged into the thin, weak wall. 

 Dad looked at her, digsusted. He spat on her, before speaking.

"Do you see what you've gone and done? Do you? Look at what you've made me do!" He growled, releasing her from his strong left hand, only to grab her long red hair and sharply twist her head to face the part  of the wall where his right arm had made contact.

 Mother cried out in pain, the tears running down her face blackened by her eye makeup. 

"Stop whining you stupid bitch!" he spat his words, filled with venom. 

 The man attacking my mother was not my father, nor was he a man. No, he was a monster.

 I heard a creaking noise come from behind me, and I whirled around, my eyes scanning for the source of the sound. They landed on my little brother, Ryan. 

"Mercy, what's going on?" he whispered, not so that our parents wouldn't here us, but rather because he was afraid.

  His eyes looked into mine for guidance and answers, before falling on the scene in the living room. I bent to my knees infront of my baby brother, and whispered to him,

"Don't worry, everything is going to be alright. Just go back to bed," I assured him.

  He nodded his head slowly, and began to turn and head back to his room when we heard the sound of glass shattering.

  My head spun in the direction of the noise, the living room. What I saw next would haunt me for the rest of my life.

  My father's right hand was no longer in the wall, but was gripping a broken glass wine bottle. I looked to his feet, to see mother sprawled and unmoving on the cold, hard wooden floorboards. She had a gash across her upper chest, where I suspected the glass had made contact with her skin. My gaze wandered towards her face, her intense brown eyes open wide in horror. 

The worst was yet to come, as I noticed her beautiful light red hair appeared to be of a darker red at the top. I strained my eyes to get a better look, certain I was mistaken. A wave of nausea washed over me as I realised that the darker red was not her hair, but her blood. 

"Mummy!" I heard Ryan scream before I could stop him.

Dad's head snapped in our direction, and I knew it was too late to hide. There was only one way to escape, only one way to survive.

I put my right hand on Ryan's shoulder, and as dad took a step towards us, I said one simple yet very effective word to my brother.

"Run."