I'll Never Let You Down. (Leland Chapman)

Chapter 36

...What?

My eyes grew at least 3 centimeters when she said that. My face flushed, my stomach went to my throat, but Mom just sat there with an emotionless gaze. Absolutely blank.

I couldn't even get my words out at all the first time I tried. The second time it came out as an inaudible gibberish, finally I compiled a sentence. "W-Wha? Y-you don't mean that, right? Mom." I place a firm hand on her forearm, she snapped her head in my direction. Shakily I remove my hand.

This blank, cold look was unbelievable.

"I...regret...having...his child." With every word I became more and more in disbelief and shock. How could she even bring herself to say these things?! "Actually..." she continues, moving her eyes to the corner but keeping her head still, "I don't wanna stay in Hawaii."

Ok. Maybe she's really mad about what happened earlier? She still hasn't told me what was said between them. But the way she's acting! I can't get over that, this isn't right. That can't be it. "Come with me Campbell!" Mom scares me by grabbing me by my shoulders and shaking me. I'm just in a state of utter shock, my mouth is open partially and I'm holding tears of anxiety back. "Come with me! We can leave here, just you and me! I can do better for you!"

It's like I had forgot how to speak.

The only thing I managed to do was shake my head quickly, while leaning away from her. But she keeps on.

At this point she begs me in a desperate whisper, "Please come with me Campbell! You don't really care about these people! Think about it, we could go anywhere you want! We could go to... Miami! Not back to Colorado or California but... We could go to New York City! New Orleans! And forget about everyone and everything here! Forget about Leland....Dakota....Cobie.....Dog and Beth.... .....Justice...." WHOA. HOLD UP.

FORGET ABOUT MY SISTER?!?!

Now I was sure something was wrong. Aside from the fact that her eyes were black with no expression whatsoever, I mean she's talking about leaving the innocent baby she just gave birth to.

"Are you fucking crazy?! No, n-no! I'm not going with you! I'm staying in Hawaii with Dad and my family! You can't take me away from them!" I snatch her hands away from me.

Her previously teary, desperate aura changed on a dime to an evil, angry one. The top of her lip twitched in fury, her eyebrows lowered in a burning glare. In a 10x scarier tone, she growls "I...don't...love....you." That's when I started crying. No matter what happens before that, whenever your own mother looks you in the eyes and says she doesn't love you, you cry.

"No you don't mean it!! Take it back!!!!" I cry out to her, but it doesn't seem to affect her in the least bit.

"I'm...leaving. I'm taking someone with me. If that's not gonna be you...it'll be Justice." Forcefully she stands up off the couch, now towering over me. Just so she doesn't feel like she's overpowering me, I do the same. We're eye level to each other. It's a stare down and I suck it up and get in her face. Literally inches away with a death glare of my own, only mine is coming from the heart.

"Fuck if you will."

I'm pushed onto the couch again, hard. There's gonna be hand prints on my chest.

Mom storms off to the kitchen so cautiously I follow her. By the time I get there she has two knives in her hands, and a ruthless look about her. "W-What-- what are you doing?!" I freeze with my eyes wide and jaw dropped, looking at them and then at her. She puts them up ready to strike someone.

"I'm getting your sister and leaving, you can't stop me." A bedroom door creaks open, quite fitting for the moment. Mom had her eyes locked on me, ready to do something if I moved. Dakota came up behind her, when he saw her his usually tan face went snow white.

My eyes had to be locked with Mom's too. I knew if she saw me look over her shoulder she'd know what it was. Though Dakota was blurry through my sight because I was focused on Mom, what I could tell was he was thinking. All the while me and her are having the ultimate stare down. The test of weakness. And right now it was tied.

He makes a sudden, sharp move.

I make the mistake of looking.

This evil woman that I call Mom's face became showered with pure rage. With a wail, she spins on her heel and swings the kitchen knife straight toward Dakota's head. It was like a horror movie and the murder scene was happening right then.

"NO!"

A rush of bravery came into me as I ran at her and jumped on her back. The knives were still swinging, and the feeling of not knowing if Kota had been hit was horrid. Quickly all of that became washed out of my brain as I put my right arm over her neck and my hand on my left bicep, with the left arm pushing against her head in a stranglehold. Even though it was only mere seconds, it felt so much longer.

I had no control over myself at this point. A higher power was guiding me despite the things that ran through my mind. Muffled yelling and screaming was echoing, and it seemed to be in slow motion until I was slammed into something. An agonizing pain shot into my lower back, she had rammed me into the counter unexpectedly. I'm forced to let go of her, and next thing I know my cheek starts stinging and blood drips from my face.

"GET JUSTICE AND RUN!" Dakota yells to me. So much fear was filtering my mind and vision. I run to Mom and Dad's room, and there she lay peacefully in her crib asleep. I hated to wake her up but had no choice as I wrapped her in her blanket like a burrito. While I'm doing this, the gleam of headlights causes me to shield my eyes from the window. Then the recognizable engine jogged my memory-- DAD!!