Alone On the Ship

Danger Zone

Mari was pushed to the ground as the boy stood over her. Names that she thought should never be said flew out of his mouth. She was simply an easy target because she was nice- too much for her own good. She was seen as childish by everyone around her, and everyone either loved it or hated it. The boy raised a fist to punch her, but he was thrown to the ground. In his place stood Minerva, who was furious with the boy. As he realized his mistake, Minerva stomped on his foot. Mari stumbled to her feet and begged Minerva not to hurt him any more, though the taller woman was too infuriated to listen to reason. She saw Mari like her little sister, and nobody was allowed to hurt her. Minerva pushed him against a tree, and the bark flaked and fell off from the force of the impact. She eyed a small branch that poked out from the tree and picked the boy back up, then she slammed him against the branch. Despite his screams of pain, she wasn't sure if the branch had either broken or impaled him. Either way, Mari was tearing up and pleading Minerva to stop. She was pulling on the taller girl's arm, but her lack of strength compared to her made her efforts futile. Minerva pushed him closer to the tree, causing him to scream even more, and she then threw him off. His blue shirt had a stain that was a brownish-purple. It had a small hole in it that let Minerva guess what happened with the branch. She stomped on his wound, and at this point, the tears from both Mari and the boy couldn't be stopped. Mari didn't believe in violence, but Minerva found it to be the only effective way to enforce her will on anyone that did anything to hurt Mari. She slammed him back onto the branch, then threw him down. The branch snapped from the tree and was left in the boy's right shoulder blade. No matter what the boy could've said, there was no justification to Minerva. She counted the amount of times that she pounded her fist against his head, and found that thirteen times would be enough. At this point, it was bleeding, and she found that it gave her even more adrenaline. Despite his pleading, Minerva dragged the boy back to the playground and slammed his head against the swing-set. Mari couldn't watch it anymore. It made her heart turn to lead and die. Tears were staining her face, and despite wiping them off from time to time, she stopped. Minerva finally opened his mouth and set his upper jaw on one of the steps that lead to the top of the slide. She then stomped on his head, causing a cloud of white powder to fly out of his mouth, or at least in appearance. In actuality, they were more like fragments from a grenade. Sharp fragments of enamel. The boy's mouth bled and he curled in a ball. She had hit down to the nerves in his teeth, and she felt the surging pain that coursed through his body. She decided to end off her punishment by giving him a gentle kick in the head that knocked him over. It didn't take much force to do so. When they got home, Minerva's younger sister and brother asked where she was. She simply said that she went to the park with Mari, and when they asked why Mari was crying, Minerva just replied that a boy tried to bully her there. The authorities never showed up at Minerva's home, because the boy was never able to get over his shock, pain, and fear, and was they were never able to identify who assaulted him as a result. Minerva tucked them all in after eating dinner. She gave them each a kiss on the forehead and went to the door.

"Good night, Mari. Good night, Emilia. Good night, Giovanni."

Minerva shut the door, and the light left the room. The only safety Mari felt was in the warm embrace of her adoptive siblings.