An Alone Tear

5. Her unexpected "saviour"

"Ah!"
Smack.
"Ugh!!"
Smack.
"Please"
"I'm sorry"
Smack.

The pain finally stopped. His back felt like there  pins and needles were being pierced through it.

As much as he tried not to, he let a tear slide down his cheek. It was an alone tear though.

"Why were you talking with that girl?", Xander's father asked in a fierce voice.

"She's a new student in our school", He rasped out wincing from the pain in his back. "I didn't know she was the daughter of.....them".

"I'm sorry father, I didn't know, If I did I wouldn't have talked"

"Just please stop hitting me, it hurts".
"Well it should son, remember you deserve it for even glancing in that thing's direction".

For some reason, calling Helena Jo a thing made his blood boil.

Xander's father took his whip, rolled it into a ball and walked out of the room. Xander lay on the floor, the hard, rickety wood of the floor poking his chest.

There was a window at the top of his room and he could see the reflection of his back. There were 3 red, bruised streaks across Xander's back, the marks of being beaten with a whip.

It was illegal. This was pure torturing, his father could even be arrested for child abuse.

Xander knew that. The only reason he's not going and complaining that mistake of a man to the police is because of his mother.

She is blinded by her 'love' for her husband that she can't even see him abusing his only son. They were right, Love is blind.

She would die if she found her husband arrested. So yes, he's living through this torture.

He very well knew who Helena Jo is the daughter of. She was the daughter of Xander's father's worst enemy.

However the hatred and enemosity wasn't mutual. Helena Jo's dad didn't even know his father was. If you ask Xander, this whole one sided hatred is just stupid and crazy.

Basically his father was in love with Helena Jo's mom, even though her mom had no idea and went and married Jacob Perez.

Juliet Perez, previously Willows didn't even KNOW his father. In a million years, he would have never thought that his abusive father would be scared to go up to a girl and tell her how he feels.

It was pathetic but it somehow made him feel superior and just...better. His father was a psycho and he would do anything to satisfy his pathetic hatred. Xander was scared that maybe because of his father's upbringing he would turn out to be like him as well.

But the way his father's black eyes would impossibly darken more whenever he mentioned Helena Jo made Xander nauseous.

His father had a burning hatred for the innocent Helena Jo and for reasons unknown to himself, he had a ferocious need to protect Helena Jo from his father at all costs.

*

He was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus at 11:30. It was extremely late, he knew he shouldn't have watched that movie with her. But Hela Jo insisted and he couldn't resist when she pulled that irresistible puppy face. Her mom encouraged him as well so he stayed. 

His mom is probably going to kill him but what's done is done so what's the point in thinking about it deeply.

There was no one on the pavement or the bus stop he was standing in. There were no cars or anything. It was creepy and he pulled his jacket tighter around him to ward off the late night chill.