Broken

I hear the screams down the street and start running, splashing through the puddles and stumbling over the cracked and broken sidewalk; the end of the street becomes more clearly visible through the rain. A single light bulb illuminates the front step, shedding light on the rotting and dilapidated half deck. The screen door hangs at a crooked angle missing its top hinge altogether.

I hear the scream again, my mother. A terrified frightened scream, not of surprise or panic. I peer through the window and see my step dad holding a kitchen meat tenderizer in one hand and my mothers hair in the other. I'm frozen on the spot unable to watch, unable to look away. I feel bile rising in the back of my throat as I look at my mother and see her arm hanging at an impossible angle. Her nose at an angle and a deep cut gushing blood over her eye. He brings the hammer down again and again on her back each time making her body spasm. Her blond hair hanging down by her face is wet and spattered with red. I look away and vomit on my shoes barely noticing.

I put my bag down and take my gun out then walk inside. My step dad's back is turned from me but he stops, feeling another presence in the room. He turns around grinning. He's drunk I know I can smell it in the house and see it in his eye's, the same look a crazed bull gets.

Leveling the gun at him he laughs a sick high pitched laugh, spitting as he does. "You little shit, you don't have the balls to pull the trigger, wanna know why? because your little slut of a mom doesn't even have the balls to fight back, watch," He kicks her savagely in the stomach, she whimpers and he kicks her again.

"STOP!" I yell I feel tears coming into my eyes blurring my vision ever so slightly but not feeling anything, no pain or sadness.

"Stop what? Stop this?" he kicks her again then starts walking towards me the tenderizer at his side.

"Fuck you dad," I say, but nobody hears it as the bullet leaves the gun. He staggers back a look of astonishment on his face and I pull the trigger again and again until all I hear is the sharp metallic clicking of an empty cartridge.