The Lady of Darkness

Fighting

March 5th, 2016.

Stevie sat on the couch with her siblings and as they had been for about an hour now. Their parents had been fighting, again, and they'd both retreated to their offices, Daryl looked a little pale and Stevie sighed. Ever since her grandfather had been released from prison, they hadn't been getting along very well, and had short spats, but nothing that really lasted more than a week.

The girls had been sitting in the living room when they'd heard shouting, then the fight moved to the kitchen and they'd heard Steph slap Mark through impulsion. It'd silenced the argument and the girls had almost stopped breathing. Stevie had seen that coming for a long time, but she didn't expect the house to go dead silent with the echo of a harsh slap, and Lucy had been crying.

"D-do you think it's safe to move around?" Daryl whispered.

"I'll go see if Mom's alright. Stay here, make a noise if you hear Dad, OK?" Stevie whispered back.
"Got'ca." Daryl replied.

Stevie crept over to Steph's door and listened. She heard her Mother talking to someone but didn't know who, until she heard the last bit of the conversation.

"Shane, dammit, would you let me ask what I was going to ask? OK! Can I talk now? Thank you! God, your worse than Lucy sometimes. Can I stay over for a while? Don't ask me how long, I'm not sure yet. See you in a bit, brother. Alright, goodbye now."

Stevie heard zippers and she fled towards the couch.

"Dammit, she's going to Uncle Shane's." Stevie muttered to Daryl.

Daryl mouthed the F word and they relaxed on the couch, Lucy looking rather surprised at her siblings conversation. Steph exited her office and looked at the girls, she then asked: "Does anyone want to come with me?"

Lucy nodded and ran to her room. She returned with two small bags and Steph nodded. They always had bags packed for the road, just in case. Although the case wasn't usually this. They left and Daryl and Stevie waited until long after Steph's car had disappeared from their home.

"What the hell are we going to do?!" Daryl muttered.

"I don't know. Good thing you and I know how to fend for ourselves, because Dad's going to have to leave soon." Stevie said.

"Will he though? He'll have to talk to Mom if he leaves."

"What if she doesn't show up?"

"Would she do that to Dad?!"

"I'm not sure. She seemed pretty angry when she was talking to Uncle Shane."

The two girls sat in silence for a while and Stevie looked at Daryl.

"I have to tell Dad, now, it's been what, half an hour since she left? I should have told him twenty five minutes ago!" Stevie snarled, mainly to herself.

"I'll sit here."

"K."

Stevie jogged up the stairs and turned, second floor bathroom, her room, a living room and finally her Dad's office. She paused before knocking and finally timidly tapped on the door.

"Dad? ...Dad, she left."

Stevie heard footsteps and braced.

"What did you say?" Mark asked.

"Mom left, she went to Uncle Shane's. Lucy went with her."

Stevie mentally prepared for some sort of backlash, but it never came.

"How long ago did she leave?"

"About a half hour ago...I just got the guts to come up here. The fight left us pretty rattled."
"You heard that?"

"We were in the living room. Daryl and I were trying to clam Lucy down."

"You weren't supposed to hear that."

"Dude, it was hard not to hear it."

Stevie crossed her arms and nodded.

"Stevie, don't start. Where's Daryl?"

"Downstairs."

"C'mon, we need to talk."

Stevie mentally was afraid of what he was going to tell her, and Daryl's head snapped up as soon as they came around the corner.

"It went well, then?" she asked Stevie.

"Daryl, how long has this been going on, now?" Mark asked.

Daryl paused. Stevie wanted to groan, Daryl was the smart-ass of the family. But she did have her uses when they played around in the empty arenas, always thinking up new ideas for games. Now Stevie herself was the visual artist (and boss) of the picture. She had costume ideas, knew how to get her point across. And normally won in a fight. She also wanted to be a wrestler. Daryl wanted to do more of the behind the scenes picture, and blah, blah, blah.

"Stevie, are you even paying attention?" Daryl snapped.

Stevie shook her head and asked: "What?" and Daryl groaned.

"I asked you, how are we going to patch up Mom and Dad's relationship?!"

Mark had disappeared and Stevie hadn't even noticed.

"How are we going to repair their relationship? Daryl have you flipped?!" Stevie asked.

"No. If you've noticed, I'd rather not have my parents split, thank you." Daryl snapped.

"Alright, alright. Let me think."

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Nooooo! This is the beginning of the end! Noooo!!