Vigilantes

Mike arrived at the Armstrong residence, his anger towards Brittney notably subsiding. As he walked the steps to the front door, his son’s car seat grasped firmly in hand, he couldn’t help but feeling guilty. Mike knew he was doing the right thing…or was he? Was it really healthy to keep a child from his mother? The more he chewed it over and stretched it out, the more holes Mike could poke into his own side of the story. He would admit that he may have been a tad melodramatic, but there was no turning back from here.

Mike turned the handle on the door and was mildly surprised to find it locked. He couldn’t recall if Billie said he was going somewhere else that day…the hospital, perhaps? Yes, that sounded conceivable to Mike, for Billie had suggested going there earlier that day in an attempt to bring his son’s spirits up. He chuckled to himself, knowing he should have called Billie before driving out here. Mike set the car seat down gently, as to not wake the sleeping child inside, so he could search through his key ring to find the key that fits this particular door. In seconds, he was strolling into his boyfriend’s house in search of a soft area to lay Brixton down for the remainder of his unscheduled nap. The couch was the first thing he saw, and Mike decided it would suffice until he got the chance to further explore Billie’s house. With any luck, either Billie or Adrienne kept a pack and play from when Joey and Jakob were infants. Mike would need something like that until he truly got the chance to retrieve necessities from the home he left to Brittney.

As quietly as he could, Mike stripped the couch of its pillows and cushions, forming a comfortable barricade around his son. With a few tweaks, rearrangements, and the placement of a blanket over the little tyke, Mike was satisfied that he wouldn’t be able to roll or wiggle out of it. He then took a moment to look down upon Brixton, overcome with a sudden sense of love, as well as relief that his eyes were closed. The child had her eyes…

Breaking his gaze away from the little boy, Mike stood and stretched, unsure of what to do with himself until Billie arrived back home with his sons. After a few minutes of pacing around the kitchen, he pulled out his cell phone and opted to call Billie to explain his current marital predicament. Naturally, the desired number was the first on his speed dial.

“Mikey!” Billie chirped the instant he answered his cell.

Mike giggled, hearing two identical groans in the background. Billie’s sons must be within listening distance.

“Hey Beej, have time for a long story?” Mike asked uncertainly, wishing he could disappear off the face of the earth for just a few hours…

“Uhhh…sure. With all this damn traffic, it'll take an extra twenty minutes to get to the hospital, so what's up?”

The playfulness in Billie’s voice was substituted with concern, and Mike wished the man wasn’t so goddamn perceptive.

“I asked Brittney for a divorce,” Mike stated solemnly.

“The positive test really got to you, didn’t it?”

“It really did…I mean, there’s so many other things going along with that and I just…I can’t do it anymore. I’m lying to her every time I tell her I love her, so this was…”

“The right thing to do?”

“More or less. Billie, it’s ok if I stay with you, right? I’m pretty much already at your house-”

“Of course, I was going to offer anyways. Make yourself right at fucking home, and I’ll be there as soon as Joey’s convinced Scarlett is ok.”

“Thanks, Billie, I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Mike heard more groaning from the boys before the line went dead and felt moderately at ease for the time being. Having nothing to do until they got home, Mike entered the living room, settled into the comfiest looking chair, and watched television with the sound down low so his little angel wouldn’t wake up.

***

After staring intently upon the girl in the hospital bed, Joey couldn’t deny that it was Scarlett. As much as he wanted it to be false, the fact that his girlfriend had been brutally attacked was too apparent to deny. The wavy auburn hair that fell limply from the bandages over her head, the piercing hazel eyes, the get bent stare…all of it belonged to Scarlett. All of the bruises, scabs, contusions, and lacerations, on the other hand, were utterly foreign to Joey. He found it difficult to even look at her, for her injuries actually hurt him as well. Joey didn’t even want to imagine how her left eye appeared under all of the bandages…nor did he want to know if the left eye was still even there. He would surely find out soon enough.

“I’m hideous, aren’t I?” Scarlett demanded, the devastation and humiliation mixed in with her words enough to bring Joey dangerously close to tears.

“No,” Joey whispered, “you’re still beautiful.”

“You’re so full of shit, Armstrong,” she sighed, rolling her undamaged eye.

“So…you’re gonna be ok?” Joey asked hesitantly.

“’Fraid so, son. That jackass was too dumb to finish me off right,” she laughed bitterly.

“Do you know who…who did this to you?”

“My ex, who else? He’s a fucking narcissistic junkie with rejection issues, so I guess this was his long overdue ‘Fuck you’ for the breakup. Bastard’s gonna get away with it, too.”

“How do you know for sure?!” Joey exclaimed, thoroughly outraged at the aspect of that monster being anywhere but behind bars, rotting in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

“You see those two detectives out there?”

Joey turned around and peered through the window, seeing two men talking to his father and brother. He recognized both of them as the cops who arrested his father earlier that morning. His face soured, a hatred for the detectives brewing steadily in the pit of his stomach.

“Yes,” Joey growled through clenched teeth.

“They said the nurses who ran my rape kit found no fluids or hairs. For once, that’s a major bummer.”

“Well, did you see his face?”

“No…he was wearing a ski mask and sunglasses. Stupid prick remembered that, but couldn’t even kill me. Ugh…so what’s their deal with your dad?” Scarlett asked, referring once again to Detectives Morano and Leone.

“They think he raped you, but he was the one who found you all…”

“Bloody? Yeah, I was gross. I’ll tell them that it definitely wasn’t your dad.”

“How do you know that for sure?!”

“He’s too…smallish. My ex is so much taller than that.”

Joey was beside himself with delight at Scarlett’s affirmation, finally feeling as if the cops’ vendetta against Billie would soon be over. They couldn’t deny the information Scarlett gave them, so all they have left to do is find the true culprit behind her attack. The true psychopath could potentially be caught, after two days wasted chasing false leads; however, the unconvinced scowls on the detectives' faces caused both Joey and Scarlett to wonder just how easily they will cross Billie Joe off their alarmingly short suspect list.