Dark Rider

Unlike other teenage girls, instead of going out on first dates with boys or having a girls night out with her friends, Kassie stayed at home watching her baby cousin, making sure the one person in life she was most afraid of never harmed him.

Like most holidays, Kassie stayed home with young Alexander James, her seven year old cousin. While her mother and father partied for more than a couple days at a time. Today was different though, Kassie had to watch A.J. on her seventeenth birthday. There were no presents for her year older maturity, no celebration for her turning a page in the book of life, no chapters to be written in. The only thing different was that Kassie had to clean the wound on young A.J.'s little back.

Sighing in disgust from the thoughts of how A.J. obtained his new wound, Kassie cleaned out the oozing sore and placed cream and a bandage over his lower back before she sat him up and kissed the end of his nose, sweetly he giggled and leaned up, kissing her cheek in return. "A.J. what did he do this time?" she questioned the little boy while she picked up the mess from all the medical tape and ointment used on A.J.'s back from the sink.

"I made him mad," he whispered under his breath, his D sounding with a slur from the missing teeth in his mouth. Kassie smiled sadly and opened up the door, letting him trail out in front of her before she followed and closed the door, making sure it shut securely. "And he pushed-ed me on d-fireplace."

Kassie tried not to show the child her emotions that freely ran across her face, anger, rage, fury. She held in a few of the only words she could come up with at that moment, seeing as it wasn't suitable for virgin ears. Her father harming the innocent little angel infuriated her, she knew if she didn't do something he could end up killing him accidentally out of his own fit of rage, he’s just so small, but she also knew that if she did anything about it, either he would kill her or no one would believe her. After all, she was the child of the most prominent lawyer in years to grace the state of Missouri. And if she is right, the whole town would go haywire. So swallowing her pride, Kassie scooped little A.J. into her arms and walked him into his baseball themed bedroom. "Nighty-night baby blue boy," Kassie smiled as he blinked and for a second hid his baby blue eyes, hence his nickname.

"Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite, K.K." he smiled as he leaned up and hugged Kassie, she smiled at the feeling of his tiny little arms wound around her neck, pulling her into a hug only that he reserved for his loved ones. A.J. wasn't like other children, he didn't give hugs or speak to others, play with his friends at school. He was to himself; he didn't want anyone but Kassie. Kassie was his everything, his mother as he seen it, but Kassie had no clue what she was in that child’s mind. As he leaned back down and curled up against his bright blue pillow case and baseball patterned comforter, Kassie took in his features. Though Kassie may not have been his mother or sister, she still seen similar traits in him as she seen in herself, personality and physical wise. His bright blue eyes matched hers perfectly, their only difference was Kassie's natural red hair and the freckles littering under his eyelashes matched perfectly to Kassie's own little spots. She smiled at the resemblance the two had and moved off of the side of his bed to the door, where she lingered for a moment to take in the atmosphere and then she went back to her bedroom. Ready to sleep for awhile, but soon after she had lain down, Kassie was rudely awoken by the screams of horror coming from A.J. room, followed by the bellows of fury from her father, he had returned from a party and was drunk, he always was. Kassie's heart had never beat so much and her legs never run so fast as soon when she heard his bloodcurdling screams, he was scared and getting hurt and she wasn't there to help him.

"No, don't touch him!" she shouted as she threw the door open, letting it slam against the wall and leave a large dent made by the knob in the wall, she didn't care though, all that was on her mind was A.J. and how she was going to get him out alive and uninjured. She didn’t know how, but she knew she was going to do it come hell or high water.

"Oh get the hell out of here, Kassandra," Kassie's father shouted as he looked over at her, while he hovered over A.J. who was cowering against his headboard with his body tucked into a ball, his eyes wide with fear, staring straight at Kassie with hope that she could save him, but fearing she couldn't.

Shaking with anger, wanting to tear her own father's head off or possibly break every bone in his body, Kassie walked closer towards A.J. and farther away from her sober hurtful father, yes he was sober and didn’t smell of alcohol oddly enough, "No, you won't hurt him again. He's just a little boy, daddy. He doesn't deserve it," Kassie began to cry and plead as A.J. climbed from the bed slowly and slid behind Kassie's taller frame, hiding his face in her jean material, crying quietly from the fear that radiated through his small body. "He didn't do anything wrong."

"He pissed on the bed, Kassandra, I'm not cleaning that shit up," her father shouted as he pointed to the soiled sheets on the bed, his voice rose with every word he said until finally it broke and he stopped in silence. "If he can't use the toilet like a man, he'll be beat like a dog who misbehaves, won't you Alexander?"

A.J. whimpered and gripped Kassie's jeans in his hands, digging his face into the material as far as he could, trying to turn invisible and when he realized he couldn’t; it made him mad that he couldn't. "He's a child, children make mistakes, he's not an animal and you can't treat him like one daddy," Kassie firmly stated while whispering softly, sliding each leg back unnoticeably slow towards the door, ready to run with A.J. when needed.

Then, she knew it was time to run, she needed to because her father's face flushed bright red from anger which built up in seconds until he shouted loudly and pushed off the carpet, set for a dead run towards Kassie and A.J. who both reacted the same way, reached for each other. As soon as A.J.'s feet were off the ground, Kassie was running towards the open door, she already had in mind her escape route which would be down the stairs and down the west hallway to the back door, which she would break down if needed and run to the neighbors' house and finally tattle her way to safety, "Come back here!" she could hear him shouting as she ran down the stairs two steps at a time, while A.J. watched over her shoulder, bouncing up and down and she held him tightly like if she let go, so did her life. Which probably was the truth, but she refused to think of it that way, she only thought of one word 'Run' and that was it. Once her feet hit the hardwood floors at the bottom of the stairs, she slipped and nearly fell, but ended up catching herself, trying to run faster than her legs could manage, across the room to the hallway. But as soon as she ran down the hallway, she got a few steps away from the back door and he appeared like some evil magic trick a few feet in front of the door. "You can't run away Kassandra, you have to remember that I'm your daddy and no one will ever believe you over me."

She paused for only a second before she turned around and ran towards the front door, she could hear A.J.'s soft whimpering, hinting that he was close behind her and it only made her more determined to reach the outside world before he laid his hands on either of them ever again, but the determination soon became interrupting to her train of thought that was set on escape, but then another thought suddenly froze her insides, it was telling her that when she reached the door, he could grab her and she'd never see the world again, she could say goodbye to tomorrow's beach trip with A.J. and of course as soon as those thoughts set in she slowed slightly and panted out a heavy sigh of fear, she felt a tug at her chin and looked to see A.J.'s bright blue's gazing into hers. "Don't stop," he whispered like some old soul deep within, and it have her strength to go on for not only him but herself. "Run K.K."

She nodded with a gust of wind rushing through the air like the life of the earth breathing out relief for her, and she burst into action, reaching the front door and pulled it open. She was happy that it wasn't locked because that would have been a big problem, she ran off the three steps porch to the gravel walkway. Though as soon as she thought she was safe and he couldn't get her, she found out she was sadly mistaken. Because a hand gripped at her pony tail and jerked the brown roots away from the scalp, her yelp and the sound of ripping strands of her hair sounded through the thick night air along with the crunch of gravel as her body laid out on the ground, A.J.'s also since he was huddled to her body, them both staring up at the tall sun bronzed male. "I told you—you can't run away."

Kassie heaved heavily as she gazed up at her father, her arms near limp as they hung onto A.J. "Dad please," she whimpered as he grabbed her arm and jerked her up roughly, ending up making Kassie grunt in pain and try to keep her balance. She came close to pleading and begging for her father not to bring her inside the house and beat them both black and blue, but stopped when she heard the distinct sound of several motorcycles that seemed to be getting closer. She glanced away from the angered face of her father, bravely to her left where she seen multiple headlights coming close, all straight for her and him. When she turned around back to her father, she noticed the scared expression, stricken to worry lines along his flawless wrinkle free face.

"No," he whispered as his vice grip loosened and his hand fell from Kassie's arm, he backed away from her like he was being stalked by a dangerous animal ready to pounce and ran towards the house. Kassie watched as the door slammed shut right before he reached it, he tried to maneuver it open and make his way inside but his fighting seemed useless as the thundering sound grew closer until large bikes drove at max speed around Kassie and A.J. in a circle, closing them in. Kassie covered A.J.'s head with her hand and watched as one of the bikes drove through the circle without getting hit and straight towards her father, he turned around right as the driver got off the bike and held onto a crow bar in one hand and a chain link in the other. "No, no, no."