Never Coming Home
By Mike “TheGlitched64” Stephenson
Sitting in my room again, door closed, as locked as it can be, the lock is coming off it screws. It’s busted so I have my back pressed up against the door again. I can hear the clattering, the banging… the yelling. They’re getting closer to my room. I’m shaking too much, I consider the pros and cons, and then leave the door for a second, reach in my drawer and grab my bottle of cola, and flipping my mattress over and opening the hole I cut in it, where I kept the bourbon.
I blew into the dusty, dirty glass, not being particularly picky, quietly rushing to the door and pressing my back hard against it again, quietly so it doesn’t make a noise and pour my drink. I know some people must be appalled that I am not having ice with my bourbon and cola but please excuse me if I don’t know proper etiquette … I’m only nine…
The yelling gets louder, I worry that this intruder is going to hurt mum. I hear her screams… I hear her cry. The other voice yelling back. A verbal tennis match, and me the spectator with front row seats and cheaper alcohol. Speaking of alcohol I’m on my third glass. I didn’t even think about glass number two… I can pick up a few words. Hotel. Slut. Surgery. Broken. Doctor. Office. Beer. Trash can…The first piece of glass gets broken, quickly followed by the second. The sudden shock of hearing the glass smash right against the other side of my door causes me to crush and shatter the glass in my hand. I hold back my scream. I have gotten very good at that. Dad trained me to be…
I pull out as much of the glass as I can, I know it will make me bleed more but I can’t clench my fist around cloth and have all the shards dig in further. It doesn’t matter anyways… I learn the hard way I missed a couple. I use another rag as a gag, the pain is getting too much. Ever since this intruder came into our lives it has been like this. Well… okay, that isn’t all true. It’s always been like this. Always. It has just gotten worse with this newest obstacle in my life.
There is a knock at my door, followed by another loud scream. Oh God, this is it…
No attempts to open the door… the yelling has calmed down a bit… both voices now just sound sad and despondent… I breathe a sigh of relief, pouring the rest of the cola into the bourbon glass. Fuck… way too rough. Not enough cola in that. It’s only when I hear something drip into my drink do I realize that I am crying. Apparently, verbally because the voices have stopped without my noticing. They will pick up again, they always do. I have a suitcase under my bed. They think I am going with camping with friends over the weekend. What they don’t know is that I am not coming back. They won’t miss me.
I am calling the authorities a week after I disappear. My dad has a lot of scars and scratches on his body. Mum has forgotten I am in the room sometimes and thrown something at him or hit him. Sometimes I don’t blame her. She’s broken. He broke her brain because all she does is cry and walk around the house with this odd stare. She looks like she is looking out at something in front of her… there is never anything there.
I will the call the school and inform them I have emancipated myself from my family. They won’t notice me gone otherwise. It’s a shitty neighborhood. Shitty school. Kids go missing all the time. I know things were shit before this intruder came into our home, into our life but… ever since they did, the pain, the yelling and the problems, seem to have doubled, tripled… I know if the intruder stays around, something is going to give… it will not end well.
They are talking again, more calmed now. It’s at a level where I can understand the words now. I don’t know what a lot of them mean but I can hear the words. Some I don’t want to. I take another shot at my drink before I realize it is all gone. It was half full just before… I disregard it and listen… It is about the intruder.
The intruder, it is decided, has hurt our family too much. Mum is going to get the abortion Wednesday.
Author’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGlitched64Reads2