The Guarded One ✔

Chapter One

The snowball effect:
A metaphorical process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger, and potentially dangerous or disastrous.

It all started when I was twelve years old, leaving home for the weekend with my father to go camping — something we had done every summer before school starts.

However, something was different that weekend. We returned to find the cops and an ambulance outside our house. Once we entered, we found my sister Angel and her boyfriend Sam sitting on the sofa in shock.

What had happened? Well, my sister Trisha had taken her own life that night — kickstarting the process of the snowball effect.

Trisha's suicide leads to Angel spiralling out of control through street fights, alcohol and drug abuse. She was then convicted of assault and grand theft auto, two years after Trisha's death. Leaving me and my father alone.

"How you doin' Jas, you alright?" Sam asked as we walked down the sidewalk of my street.

I responded with a simple nod. That's when Sam pulled on the hoodie, that covered most of my face.

"Jeffrey!" I hissed, as he glared at my black eye.

"You been fighting?" Sam cried.

I shook my head violently "no!"

"Bullshit!" He screamed back. "Who did this to you ha? When I find them I'll—"

"It was dad, okay!" I admitted as pulling my hood back over my head.

That's when Sam stopped in his tracks, looked me in the eye with rage. "How long?" He asked firmly.

"I...uh" I looked down in shame.

"How long Jas?" He cried.

I sighed "since Angel was put away"

There's something about dads with their daughter's, a connection so pure. After mine lost both of his, he began to lose himself too.

"That son of a bitch" Sam spat as storming down the street.

"Jeffrey!" I called before tugging on his arm, making him turn and face me. "You can't okay, he'll beat up on me twice as much"

He looked down and sighed "...tomorrow I'll make an anonymous call to child services, they'll get you out of there, alright?" I responded with a simple nod. "Besides, I can't be here to protect you anymore Jas" he admitted.

My eyes widened in disbelief "what?"

Sam sighed. "My mum's getting remarried, the guy lives in San Francisco, so we're moving there"

I nodded slowly, "you're leaving Angel?"

"Hey, she left me, remember?" Sam retorted. "This way I can get a fresh start in a new town" he softened his voice.

Sam Jeffrey left The Bronx less than a week later. Leaving fourteen-year-old me, alone. I had some people I guess, I had Angel's best friend Sage and my best friend, Toby. But after Toby was killed along with his brother, I felt as though I had no one.

I came home a few weeks after Sam left town, finding my drunken father in a fit of rage. It turned out, he got a visit from child services — he knew that I had spoken to someone about his abuse.

"You call that abuse?" My dad screamed with bulging eyes and a string of salvia, hanging from his mouth.

He beat me that night — harder than he ever had before. The neighbours ended up calling the cops because of the loud, horrifying screams. I was sent to the ER and my dad was placed in a jail cell.