LUNATIC

When I got upstairs, I was not surprised to see the door left open. This indicated that my dad was already at home and I needed to thread carefully. Axel was not at home today and it would be unfortunate if my dad were to drink this night.

But when did he ever miss his alcohol? I sensed that today was not going to be any different.

The door creaked, allowing me to see through a narrow opening what was inside. From where I stood, I could see my dad standing with his back facing me. His trousers hung below his waist and his belt was dangling mid air. His shirt was flying out and I could picture his stomach protruding from that shirt, tearing down the buttons.

"Where is Carol!?" The man thundered in the house that even I flinched from where I stood.

What does he want with me?

It wasn't like he needed me to do anything. I knew it was his way of seeking trouble in the house, a cause to beat my mom which wasn't reasonable at all. I didn't want him to, not this night when Axel was not at home because if my dad started, it was only the neighbours that would be able to separate us.

I placed my hand on the door handle, and pulled it backwards so I could enter. My gaze landed on my mom and she silently shook her head at me. No! I cannot let you take another beating this night, and not because of me, I thought inwardly, making my way into the small sitting room and ready to face my fears.

My dad seemed to have noticed our little telepathy, and he veered around to glare at me... As soon as I saw his red eyes, whatever courage that was in me dissipated like mist, and into nothingness. I have never seen him this mad before. What did I do?

"Where are you coming from, young lady?" He demanded. I noticed that he didn't even call me my name.

Tonight, I was going down.

I parted my lips to speak, my voice coming out soft and with caution. "D-dad, I... only went to the bookstore downstairs" I answered truthfully.

"Which bookstore is that? Since when has there been a bookstore?" He countered, and suddenly chuckled like there was anything funny about the situation. "I see you've started whoring around. Sneaking around to meet men and do bad things... but I'm not letting you damage my reputation" He spoke through clenched teeth.

I trembled before him, my hands turned sweaty and I clenched my skirt.

"You and your mother are the same. Stupid, worthless women! If I hadn't gotten entangled with her, I wouldn't be in this situation, you two are bad luck!" He bellowed, his hand reaching for the belt below his waist.

I exchanged looks with mom, wondering what to do. Should I just run away? And we'll deal with things later.

Once he successfully removed the belt from his waist, he folded it in two and rushed at me. "Mom!" I screamed from where I stood. This night wasn't what I imagined, other nights, I would have retired to my room quickly so that I wouldn't get into this mess. I have always been the good girl and was out of his sight so that he wouldn't find a reason to lay a finger on me. Tonight I just made a mistake and was going to pay dearly for it.

My mom moved forward to hold him back, "Honey..." Her voice trembled as she tried to touch him.

Honey!? In this situation. Mom, if you must compare him with a food, he definitely was pepper.

When she tried to touch him, he jerked his hand away violently, causing her to fall to the other side.

"You!" He snarled at me, "I'll kill you this night" Dad flung the belt at me. I couldn't run anywhere as I had been cornered by him, my back hit the cold wall as I embraced the stinging whip of the belt that hit my arms. It would have landed on my face if I had not blocked the attack.

Tears gathered in my eyes at the pain I felt. He then lashed at me not once or twice but five. My mom grabbed his waist with her arms, she tightened her arm against him and was pulling him to the back.

"Go, Carol. Leave quickly!" She said to me.

I shook my head slowly, tears blurring my vision as I saw my dad turn aggressively towards her and started to hurt her. He slapped, kicked and dealt blows to her like he was fighting with a man. But she was only a weak woman who didn't deserve the hell she was going through. I searched the nearby table for anything, anything at all to stop him from hurting my mom, and I found an empty bottle.

I sniffled, and grabbed the bottle with both hands. I ran towards where they were and was ready to break the bottle on his head when the door swung open forcefully.

There was a siren blaring loudly downstairs, and in front of the house stood the police officers. Our neighbors must have heard the shouts, and since this wasn't the first time it was happening, they had called the officers to come to our rescue.

The officers came in and separated my dad from my mom. They took him out forcefully, and an ambulance was called for my mom. He had done more damage this night to her. If anything bad were to ever happen, I swear I will be getting revenge.

They placed my mom on the stretcher and was taking her out of the sitting room. Her face was already covered in blood. I followed them out of the sitting room and that was when I saw Axel standing outside watching with tears in his eyes. I quickly rushed towards him to hug him, and he hugged me back.

"I'm sorry Carol. I wasn't here with you"

He then pulled back from the hug and took a look at my arms which had already reddened from the beating dad had inflicted on me.

Axel gazed at me with clenched teeth.

"It's nothing... Let's go check mom" I said, reassuring him. At least I was still breathing, who knows what had happened to mother. I didn't even want to imagine the worst.

Axel nodded, and together we followed the ambulance to the hospital where our mom was admitted. The doctor had begin operation on her, while we stood outside the ward, hoping that they would bring good news to us.

Ever since our dad had started his madness, my mom had never been beaten to the level of going unconscious. She sustained injuries but everything was small compared to this one.

I walked aimlessly outside the ward, biting my thumb to calm myself down even though my heart was racing and my thoughts were growing wild. I must not imagine the worst, mom is a survivor. She will make it out of there alive.

Axel, on the other hand, sat on the provided chair, and kept his face buried in his hands.

Several hours passed and the doctor finally emerged from the ward. He looked at us and pulled down the mask from his nose.

"She is now in a safe condition, please do not worry. We have tried our best and thankfully, she survived"

I sighed in relief. "Thank you doctor"

"Can we see her?" I inquired.

He nodded with a smile. "Of course" and then gazed at my brother. "Let's have a word"

Axel glanced at me. "I'll be back Carol"

I bobbed my head wordlessly, and proceeded into the ward to check how my mom was faring. The sound of the monitor beeping alerted me. There she was, on the bed with her eyes closed. As I neared, I noticed the blood stains on her face had already been wiped and under her eyes were serious bruises.

"You should leave mom, this marriage doesn't favor you in any way" I thought to myself, my eyes clouding with tears again. I sat down quietly next to her and reached out touch her hand.

She is the sweetest person ever, how could my dad treat her the way he was?

Axel entered the next minute. He walked over to where I was and placed a hand on my shoulder. "We're lucky we didn't lose her. I don't know what I would do if I had gotten there a minute later with the police"

I raised my head to look at them. "You called them?"

"Yes. Our neighbor said he's been hearing noises and asked me to do something about it. I knew it was nobody else but him"

"We should leave Axel. I don't want him coming back for us, especially not her" I voiced out, the hurt in my voice clearly evident to my brother who continued to pat my shoulder and I leaned against him.

"What did the doctor say?" I eventually asked.

Axel calmly replied. "He said we should try as much to prevent what happened today. There's no guarantee she would survive it next time"

***

After spending few more hours in the hospital, we decided to head back home and get some rest. The two of us were too tired to prepare something to eat, so we could only retire to our beds on empty stomach.

I got to my room and flung myself on the bed, I rolled, now facing the ceiling and reminiscing on how badly this night had turned out to be. My eyes momentarily moved to look at my arms.

Wherever the police had taken my dad, I prayed he never got out of there.

We do not need a man like him in our lives. He only causes trouble.

Soon, I drifted off to sleep. The breeze blew again, against my cold and unconscious face. With just few minutes gone, I started to dream. It was strange as I hadn't had any dreams recently and what was even stranger was the dream.

I was walking in the dark and into an unknown area. I could hear my own heart ringing in my ears, and I swallowed hard the lump down my throat. What was I doing in this strange place? I pondered while waving away polythene Nylon that hung from the ceiling and to the ground.

I fumbled through the Nylons until I slipped and ended up falling flat on my face. Groaning, I pushed myself up and came across a black polished shoe in front of me, my head tilted to the side.

What is this all about? I thought

I slowly ran my gaze from the person's shoe up to their legs, shoulder and to their neck. Once It landed on their face, I couldn't see as it was concealed by a mask. A terrifying mask. It was a dragon's head.

Terrified, I scrambled to the back but was soon confronted by another person, and this time, it was a woman. With a mask, a dragon head too. My head rotated around the strange room and I could see more people, wearing the same mask, only that it was different from the man who I first saw.

Where am I?

****

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