Drowning

Not that he had gotten the chance to talk to her, but from the times he’d seen her at a distance, he knew she was crying for help. Her body language was weak, sometimes walking hunchbacked as Bradley guided her into his apartment. He had seen this several times when he and a couple of friends were kicked out of the flat just minutes before. The other guys would usually saunter off to their cars and head to someone else’s, but Corey always ended up staying the extra minute, taking in his sister’s presence.

From the start, Corey never liked the two of them together. Bradley had been a friend of his ever since he started rebelling at the age of fourteen. He had no filter, no apologies for the vulgar ways he talked about Hannah. And the more he saw Hannah around the house as she got older, the worse he became. At any time Corey would remind him that was his sister he was talking about and how she was off-limits, but it would only backfire with any threat Bradley could think of. He always got what he wanted. He went out of his way to go to a party she was at that one night, bragging about it to his friends the next day. The relationship began at a rapid pace. Bradley claimed he was so good to her, so Corey shouldn’t have any worries, but that statement only lasted for five months. That’s when Hannah started to crumble, fake smiles plastered across her face.

She had never noticed her brother, although he bet she was looking around for him every time she saw one of Bradley’s friends. Corey knew how livid she had to be with him about abandoning their family and leaving her to fend for herself with her destructive boyfriend. By this point in their lives, Hannah was seventeen and Corey was nineteen, Corey wasn’t sure if he was ready to get his life back together. He had dug himself a deep hole that he didn’t know if he was prepared enough to climb out of yet. But as the months dragged on with the news of the condition his sister was in, he was ready to be a changed man.

“I want you to break up with my sister.” He announced in Bradley’s flat when it was just the two of them.

Bradley looked up from the table, the dollar unrolling once it was released from his hand. His eyes were blinking slowly as he tried to best to stay awake and focused. He used a finger to plug one of his nostrils and took a deep breath through the open one. Then, he shook his head in laughter.

“Since when did you start ordering my around?”

Bradley had always been the ringleader, the intimidator of all of Corey’s friends. It was easy to back down like a coward because it was easy for Bradley to pull a knife on him. Something inside him snapped, and Corey almost didn’t care if he didn’t make it out alive. He was sick of seeing Hannah from far away, miserable and in danger. All he cared about was getting her out of this situation that he felt guilty for bringing her into in the first place.

“I think I have a right.”

“I stay out of your relationships, so you need to stay the fuck out of mine.”

“Hannah is my sister. What part of that do you not understand?”

Bradley stood from the couch, taking his drink with him. He took a large sip before speaking.

“The only thing I understand is that you abandoned them, your mother, your sister, each and every one of them without turning back. For all she knows, you simply don’t care about her. You’re never coming back. I’m the one man she is able to look up to in her life after all the others failed her.” He took a couple steps closer to Corey, putting his fists on both arms of the chair he was sitting in. The stench off the drugs and alcohol were present as the friends were only inches apart. “And I would like to keep it that way.”

The first attempt was an utter fail, especially the next few that followed after that. All he did was talk it out and stopped before things got physical. Things went back to normal. Bradley was back to abusing his best friend’s sister, and Corey could do nothing but stay out of the way.

Besides talking it out, Corey had tried to take Bradley’s cellphone to find her phone number. He had gone to Bradley’s flat, but no one ever answered. No matter how he tried to get a hold of her without Bradley knowing, Bradley always knew. He had taken a different turn one day, walking up to the house he used to call home. It was the place he knew Hannah would without a doubt be at, but Corey could never gain enough courage to knock on the door. That was his own fault, and he knew that, but it never stopped him from still trying to reach Hannah. And by Corey’s final attempt, which was to call the police, he was caught red-handed.

He heard the sound of a trigger and felt a presence of a body in the room. The operators had only asked what the emergency was when the figure finally spoke.

“What are you doing?”

Corey turned, finding Bradley standing in the doorway. He had a loaded gun in his hand already pointed at him.

“I suggest you put that down.” He spoke in a low tone. “Now.”

He did as he was told although he was reluctant to do it. Neither one of them moved from their spots. Bradley’s arm never lowered. Corey crossed his arms over his chest.

“Where’s my sister?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Brad, give me my sister back.”

Two hands grasped at the gun. “If I hear another word about your sister, I will shoot.”

Corey took a moment to register his thoughts, and then chuckled at the threat as if his life wasn’t at risk. Bradley hadn’t moved a muscle, making his warning more clear. He was willing to end the friendship permanently over a girl.

“Why do you have to be like that? Good Lord, you damaged the girl enough. Don’t you see what you do to her?” Corey spoke. “I just want to see her.”

“You want to take her away.” Bradley said while he walked into the room with both arms stiff straight out in front of him. “She’s mine. She’s always been mine. Not yours.”

“You treat her like a piece of shit.”

“You’re no fucking better than me. At least I didn’t leave my family behind.”

Any stab at family made Corey’s blood boil, and Bradley knew it was an easy way to make him weak. His fingers gripped at his arms, pinching the skin as he tried to calm himself down. Bradley shouldn’t have room to talk about family. He may have never left them, but battering them was just as bad, if not worse. With that thought in mind, he thought about his sister, imagining her curled in a ball as she lied on the bed, helpless, bruised, and scared. It almost made Corey cry, but that was replaced with rage.

“God damn it, let me see my fucking sister!”

He exploded, voice roaring at a level he didn’t know he could reach. There wasn’t much time to process what he just did because a loud crash sounded through the room, pieces of shattered glass from the ceiling light falling on top of Corey. The room became darker, the lamp on the end table was the only source of light. He crouched down to protect himself, only to be sent to his back. A hand went to his throat, making it hard to breathe. Bradley still had the gun in his free hand and pointed it at Corey’s forehead.

“I will put a bullet through your head if you don’t learn to shut the fuck up.” He said. “I’m going to ask, politely, to stay out of my relationship and away from me. Do you understand me? I’m not fucking around anymore. Don’t tell me how to treat my girlfriend. Don’t tell me how to live my life. I will kill you the next chance I get. Now, scram.”


It had been nearly forty five minutes since they had departed from Hannah’s home. The both of them hadn’t spoken one word to each other once they were in the car. Hannah was very much focused on the road in front of her, but Niall was very concerned with her.

Everybody at the kitchen table could have pretended like they were deaf, but they would be lying if they said they weren’t eavesdropping or didn’t hear every word spoken upstairs. A lot of what was heard was just a bunch of mumbling, but Hannah’s red face coming down the stairs told just how serious and deep their conversation was.

“Hannah,” Niall said hesitantly. “Are you alright?”

She had to blink several times to remove any tears that wanted to fall down her face.

“Yeah,” She took one hand off the steering wheel to wipe underneath both eyes. “I’m alright.”

Right then and there would be the perfect time to cut off the conversation of how concerned Niall was for her, but he was sick of letting her walk all over him. All he wanted to do was help and by staying out of it wasn’t the way to help.

“I’m sorry, Hannah, but you’re not fine.”

She chuckled in a cynical way. “Okay, I’m not fine, but would you be fine after that?” That referred to her brother and all the other details Niall was clearly missing.

Niall looked away from Hannah to find out why the ride back home had been so bumpy. The wintry weather was a factor, but Hannah drifting to the side of the road multiple times was the main reason. He glanced back at her, watching her wipe away more tears that fell down her face. She shouldn’t be driving especially in the emotional state she is in at the moment.

“Maybe I should drive?” Niall suggested quietly. “It would be easier to tell me what happened.”

She bit her bottom lip to refrain from giving him a sarcastic remark about how he thought she was a terrible driver, but in the end, she knew he was right. The roads were terrible, yet it shouldn’t be the reason why she kept going onto the side of the road. Truly, she hasn’t been paying attention to the road for the majority of the ride.

“Come on, Hannah, please?”

She sighed and pulled the car over. They walked in front of the car to switch places. As Niall put on his seatbelt, he looked at Hannah, already having her seatbelt on and leaning her head against the window.

It took her five minutes into the drive for her to speak up.

“I spent eight years absolutely despising my brother. He left my mom, my sister, and me after a thousand explosive arguments about my father leaving. All this time, I’d thought he’d been wasting his life away but actually, he’d been getting his life straight the past two years.” Hannah’s eyes were focused on the car floor as she spoke.

The words coming out of her mouth sounded like they were thoughts that she didn’t want to say out loud. And now that the problem was declared vaguely, Niall continued the conversation, hoping to figure her out more.

“I’ve heard about your father, Hannah. Your mum told me. I hope you’re not mad.”

Hannah turned to face Niall although he kept his eyes on the road. Her blood began to boil, mostly at her mother for telling Niall everything, but at Niall for now knowing more about her life.

“She also told me about your brother since, you know, the stories sort of combine into one.”

The blonde fell back into her seat, growing angrier by each passing second. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“My mother has no sense of privacy.”

“I was the one who asked.” Niall clarified.

“Why?” Hannah whipped her head back at him, glaring at him with the utmost intensity.

“Because I care about you, Hannah, I care about you a whole lot. You don’t tell me anything, and it scares me. I want to help you, but you won’t let me because this holds you back. We all have our family troubles that were not proud of. I have my own, so you should know I won’t judge you for any of this.”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she looked out the window at the scenery.

“Who’s Bradley?”


She rounded the hallway using the wall for support as she made a left into the kitchen. Hi footsteps made loud thuds on the wood as his presence came closer to her.

“Hannah, get the fuck over here!”

The counters were a complete mess from junk mail to dinner plates from previous nights. It was hard to spot any defense for her body in his room, and she knew she only had seconds to think. Hannah went to the corner of the room where the knife holder was kept, grabbing the first one she saw.
Bradley came into view, standing in the middle of the doorway. The strong look in his jaw disappeared and was replaced with a cynical cackle. His eyes lit up in the most malicious way. It was no doubt going to show up in her nightmare tonight.

“What are you going to do? Kill me?” He mocked, not fazed as she stalked around the island. “Come on, love. Give me your best shot. We both know you won’t do it.”

Tears stung her cheeks as she kept her eyes on the enemy, who remained tall in the doorway. She could not figure out why she was closing the distance between them. Not even with the blade pointing at Bradley made her feel the least bit protective, but the sooner he spills blood, the better.

All of this fear was over a small bag being tossed in the trash accidently. The bag could have gotten him a great deal of cash, could have paid rent another month. He threatened that it was another anniversary gift ruined because of her. His eyes were red and unfocused, already on some high when he went on his rampage.

He was delusional, not idea what he was really doing. Hannah finally reached her breaking point that should have happened a long time ago, which only backfired once she lunged for him. Even high, he was able to move fast enough and deflect the attempted stab, the knife falling to the ground. Her wrists were pinned down to her sides with his hands. He wasn’t backing her up into a wall, but she had never felt more frightened in her entire life.

“I told you that you couldn’t do it.”

“Let me go, Bradley. Please.” Hannah began to plead. The response she got was a laugh. Now, she was being dragged back to the bedroom. “Bradley, no.”

Halfway down the hall, she was shoved to the wall roughly. A picture frame was swinging back and forth due to the amount of force Hannah slammed into the wall. Wrists were free, but her throat wasn’t.

“You do as I fucking say. You owe me something after tossing my fucking hit away.”

“I didn’t mean it!”

“Of course,” He rolled his eyes. “Just like how you didn’t mean to try and fucking kill me. You’re lucky I’m not about to murder your lousy arse.”

The more she resisted, the more she hurt. Hannah couldn’t recall any other time where she’s felt this alone and scared. She had no chance to call for help nor was anybody close enough to come get her. After he had passed out that night of practically manhandling her, Hannah spent the rest of her morning sitting on the front porch until the sun rose. By that time, he would be awake and sober by then, spitting out some sort of an apology. She needed him to be nice enough just for a ride home where she could crawl into bed and never get back out.


“He’s no one.”

She blinked away tears again as more visions crept back into her memory. Her anxiety level rose to a point where she was willing to throw herself out of the car and into the piles of snow.

“Hannah-”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Niall.” She spoke more sternly. “God, please understand all of this is an extremely touchy subject that I did not plan on spilling out half of this shit to you in one day. Please, respect some of my privacy.”

Niall opened his mouth three times to speak before clamping it shut for good. His argument would only lead to more problems, so it was best to just let her have her peace. However, his mind was so bothered by these haunting thoughts of who this Bradley could be, but he’s probably just as bad as the rest of the men in her life.

“Are you dropping me off at my flat?”

Niall broke the silence after five minutes. Hannah was still silently crying, but he didn’t comment. He watched as he wiped the tears away from her face quickly.

“Marisa went home.” She said, turning to him. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“There’s some tea and Christmas shows on the tele if you’re interested.”

A distraction is exactly what Hannah was looking for. And if Niall was planning on distracting her even after his interrogation, she was definitely going to take the offer. At least she would be spending the holiday with somebody other than just herself.


“Merry Christmas!”

For a boy who loved to sleep his days away sure knew when to be an early riser. Hannah had been cuddled into the blanket Niall had given her for the night as she watched the television that put her to sleep. Her half drunken tea was now replaced with a fresh, warm one along with a couple of gifts sitting on the coffee table.

Hannah opened her eyes to see the light spilling in through each of the windows and a cheery Niall right in front of her face. It was nice to be greeted this way, the presents and drink and all, but the way he spoke just gave her bad vibes as they did a few years ago. That was another day she wished to forget. The only good memory from that Christmas was wrapping up in a blanket on her mother’s couch, telling her mother every detail in order to get out of the state she was in.

It took a lot of courage for her to sit up and forget the bad thoughts. She immediately reached for the tea, which helped calm her down a little. She began to process the boxes in front of her, and it made her heart drop realizing how the pack of beer didn’t live up to the items he supposedly bought for her.

“You didn’t have to do this.” She told him groggily and genuinely.

“I didn’t. Santa Clause did.”

Hannah eyed him playfully, telling him to give her a serious answer. The smile he had seemed to never go away.

“Okay, okay. Your family handed me a bag with gifts while you were already out of the house.” He walked over to the Christmas tree, picking up two presents that were wrapped decently and placed it on Hannah’s lap. “And if you’re going to say it again, then yes, I did have to do this. It’s a special holiday, you deserved it, and I wanted to do it. No buts about it.”

She chuckled, setting the mug back down on the coffee table so she was able to open her presents from Niall. She chose the skinny, long gift bag first, knowing it was going to be alcohol of a sort. The tissue paper was practically shoved all around the bottle as she pulled it out. The blue and white paper fell to the floor when she was greeted with a large bottle of white wine, expensive white wine.

“I know drinking pints is what you do more often, but women have got to love wine, right?” Niall immediately spoke when Hannah hadn’t given any sort of reassurance it was a fine gift. “Harry’s sister helped me out a lot. I hope it is okay.”

“It’s alright, Niall.” She finally said, laughing at his discomfort. “This is not something I can entirely…afford. That’s all.”

Before he could comment on her stab at her lack of income compared to his, she took the box off of the coffee table, finding it rather easy to open since she was used to her mother taping ever corner, making it impossible to open. The wrapping paper went straight to her feet, and she lifted the top of the box up, revealing a knitted, maroon scarf underneath the tissue paper.

“This was also Gemma’s idea. I mean, the scarf was her idea. I thought the color red looked the best on you.”

Hannah grabbed the article of clothing, feeling how soft and warm the material was. She put it around her neck appropriately and smiled.

“It’s lovely. Thank you.”

The two gazed at each other for a moment. Niall couldn’t get enough of her happiness and how much her face glowed when she was presented with the gifts. It wasn’t a whole lot, so he was surprised to see how much gratitude she was showing. He loved seeing this side of her, and he hoped it would come more often.

In that moment, Hannah felt very lucky and blessed for having Niall in her life. He was so good to her when he didn’t have to be. He survived all arguments and mood swings, and she felt he needed to be rewarded with more than just a case of beer. The thought of kissing him came to her mind, but she knew she was just going crazy. It was the holidays, and the only way she was kissing him is if they were under the mistletoe.

Hannah also had Bradley in the back of her mind throughout the whole exchanging gifts ceremony. Niall had been so kind to think of getting her gifts, going out of his way ask people what she would like, yet Bradley would never. His mind only had room to think of himself. Seeing that Bradley would had never done this only made Niall more special to Hannah, making her realize how much more attached she was getting to him. And the best part was that it was becoming less of a problem.


Another card was slapped down to the pile in the middle of the table. The guy who had won raised his hands in the air to celebrate another victory against his opponent. The other man shook his head in annoyance and collected the cards to shuffle them again.

“Quit the act. It’s not like you haven’t won the past five rounds.”

“Or you’re just being a sore loser,” The winner jabbed, laughing until he coughed due to the many years of smoking.

He passed the cards evenly out for another round of rummy. For not having a pen and paper to keep score, they were doing pretty good at counting in their heads. It was either that, or his opponent was cheating in order for him to continue winning.

“It’s not being a sore loser. Being locked in this prison has made me a bitter person, more than I was before. I can’t wait to get out of this place.”

The older man gave an uneasy look to Bradley, who was too busy looking for cards to place down to complete his turn. He had four available moves and put them in their correct places.

“Don’t keep your hopes up, lad. I’ve been in this hellhole for eight years. You’ve only just begun.”

“I’m sitting in this horrid uniform, eating awful food, and playing the same card game every damn day because I was sentenced to five years for domestic violence. Five fucking years all for a lot of misunderstandings.”

There was nothing the other man could say except for telling Bradley it was his turn in the game. Being cellmates, he had heard the same story time and time again. It was obvious to him Bradley had some sort of temper that not even the drugs he was on before could cure it.

“The thought of her roaming freely somewhere around the country triggers so much anger in me that I cannot begin to describe it. She finally got away from me. She won. Corey won. And I lost.” Bradley tapped the cards on the table rapidly as continued to lose his temper. “I can’t take sitting here any longer while she’s living without me.”

“Did you forget why you were here in the first place?”

Bradley ignored his cellmate. “I want to do something I should have done a long time ago. I want revenge.”