Smothered (bxb)

Fiction

Panic coursed through my veins as I stared at the phone in my hands. My mind couldn't handle the shear terror along with my pounding brain. I sat for a moment, shocked and confused about what had just happened. I was trying to grasp for an idea, something had do be done. I needed to think, and fast.

"Mom!" I screamed out into the stale air of my room as I gathered myself up and ran out of my room into the dark hallway. I heard my mother's door open quickly and she ran out flustered.

"What?" She said worry plastered onto her loving face. "Is everything-" She stopped mid sentence as she looked at my pale, terror fled face. She grabbed me into a hug and rubbed my back as she tried to calm my heavy breathing.

"It's... It's Gus." I managed to choke out.

"What happened?" She said cautiously in a muffled voice.

"He... he was hiding and then there were loud shouts and noises... and-" I was cut off by a wave of sobs racking through my body, making me heave for air. "-and the phone cut out... and I'm really worried because... they know!" I sobbed into my mother's pajama shirt. I heard her take a large intake of breath and then she let go of our embrace so she could look me in the eyes.

"Rain," She started in a serious tone, "Let's call the authorities." Her eyes were hard with determination and sorrow as I looked up at her with tear stained eyes.

"But... but what if that makes it worse?" I pleaded, suddenly worried that help could harm Gus too.

"It won't sweetheart. Chances are if Gus really is in trouble, they will take him out of the home and charge Frank with child abuse." I nodded at her words slowly. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. My mother helped me sit on the couch and she grabbed the phone off the wall and started to dial. My brain was pounding with all these thoughts and emotions. What was happening to Gus? Was he hurt? Was he going to be okay or would he be a heaping mess? Would he finally break? Or was he already past being shattered? Would he be able to be whole again? What are Frank and the other kids doing to him right now? Does Gus have cuts and bruises all across his skin again?

My mind was racing with a million possibilities of Gus's situation and I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I didn't hear what my mother said on the phone, I didn't even realize that she had finished talking until she was kneeling on the floor in front of me, taking my hands in hers carefully.

"Rain?" I looked over at her pained face. "The police are on their way to the home. Gus is going to be okay." I shook my head as her words became a jumbled mess in my brain. Her voice became faded and my chest hurt from the pain of not knowing if Gus was alright or not. All of a sudden I was pulled out of my trance as my mother's hands pulled me up so I was standing, and led me out of the apartment.

We went down the elevator to the parking lot and got into the old beat up truck. My mother did up my seat belt as I watched, seemingly miles away. As we drove out into the night I watched as all the buildings and lights whizzed by as if I was watching a cartoon. It didn't seem like it was actually happening to me, like this wasn't real life. But it was, and that's what made it so hard to grasp. It was like something out of one of my books, fiction, made up, a story... not reality, not real, not my life.

After a while the truck pulled off to the side of the road and my mum turned to look at me.

"Rain, you need to snap out of this." She said sternly. I looked at her, but I didn't really wan't to hear what she had to say. I wanted to stay in this hazy state, in this little respite from reality, in my own peaceful trance. But I knew she was right. I knew that I had to be there for Gus. I turned my gaze from my mother and I looked out of the window. There were three police cars, lights roaring through the dark night, illuminating the trashy, worn down, overgrown rancher. There were kids out front, police men and women tending to them, I searched for Gus but I couldn't see his shaggy head of long hair anywhere. I didn't see the fat, grimy frame of Frank either. I looked back at my mum, a worried expression on her face.

"I know." I croaked out.

"Good. Now I'm going to go talk to an officer, you stay in here until I come to get you, okay?" She said strongly. I nodded at her as she opened the truck door and headed over to the scene.

I was watching again, but this time the walls of my reality hit me in the face. I knew this wasn't fiction, and I knew I had to do everything in my power to be there for Gus because God knows he will undoubtedly need it when I find him.