When I was 12 I broke a bone...
Not unlike a lot and of children who came from abusive homes.
I'd always end up in the E.R. with something broken or bruised.. My step father wasn't very kind to me. It wasn't uncommon to come home to a fight. And being only 4'9 and maybe 80 pounds. There wasn't much I could do to help her.
My mother, that is. She worked nights as a nurse so there really wasn't a lot of time to make dinner for me and my sister Sophia but she tried to squeeze it in.. When she'd forget? Daniel would slap her around for awhile.. Give her a black eye or a busted lip.. It was never pretty.. I tried so very hard to help her back then..
Jumping on his back always seemed to just piss Dan off more.. And then I'd be slung into a wall or the aggression would turn on me.. I didn't mind.. As long as my mother was safe..
My beautiful mother..
So you can imagine how glad I was when the constant fighting came to an abrupt end one night when I walked in to find Dan on top of momma..just, beating the shit out of her. I don't know what she did but nobody deserves that.. A rage grew in me and boiled over.
"No more.." I told myself as I watched the woman who so tirelessly worked to keep us happy was punched in the mouth again.
"No. More."
I ran into my brother's room (Mickey was on his second tour in Afghanistan and didn't even know mom had been dating someone) and grabbed a bat from the back of the closet.
I don't remember returning to the room. I don't remember swinging the bat. All I remember was rage. The rage of a child, helpless inside. I remember screaming.....
They told the doctors I fell down the stairs. But even in my blackout. I knew that bastard threw me across the room.
My mother held me while they set the cast. She was so warm..so kind. Even in all of her turmoil she still found the light to make our lives better.
"Tiff, I'm so very sorry. Let's get you girls something sweet after this, Mmk Pumpkin?
I just stared out the window into the parking lot. That prick, he had the nerve to come while they patched up what he'd done. And there he was, standing in the rain in his fucking greasy muscle shirt. Smoking his disgusting $2 Dominican cigar.
Later that night I laid in bed and thought to myself.
I've broken a bone..
And a voice said,
" And I have been born."
I jumped up and looked around my room.
"W-who's there?"
A hiss echoed in my ears but I couldn't find the source. I pulled the blanket that Mickey had given me to my chest and looked into the dark void beyond the crack in my closet door.
"I'm not here to haunt your DreamsssSss TifffanY, I'm here To Help the GiRlssSs."
I clenched my jaws and darted my eyes around the room, the window? The doorway? I trembled.
"W-where are you? What girls are you T-talking about?"
Another hiss broke the darkness and my leg began to throb.
"The girlsSsss in this house TiffFfany, I can SsSsave you from Danny Boy'sSs rage."
My eyes widened and I lowered the blanket.
"Y-you can save us? How..? Who are you..?"
Even though I couldn't see this man, I could sense a wide smile as he spoke.
"Ooh child, I go by many namesSs. I've been called LeviathaN. I have been called Karma and SsSerendipity. But in truth I am you Child, I am the pain you have fostered in your sSskin, I am the sSorrow in your heart. But I am also the anger in your BonesSs."
I glanced down at my cast, it began to tighten around my leg and pain seeded deep within my skin.
"I broke my leg, tonight..are you saying I released you? Are you inside of me?"
The seering spread to my hips and the voice chuckled.
"YesSs Tiffany, but just a part of ME. My anger livesSs in your bones child. If you'd let me. I WouLd VeRy muCH like to take care of Danny boy. I can make you as SsStrong as Mickey. Wouldn't THAT be niccee?"
My heart sank and tears began to swell. The cast started to crack and fracture.
"Y-you know Mickey?"
"YesSs ChiLd, and Mickey wouldn't like Danny boysSs gamesSs. Just sSsay you agree and I will Ssave all of you."
"Mama and Sophia will be okay right?"
I remember the bed shaking. Pictures of me and my siblings came crashing off the wall. I heard Daniel stomping up the stairs. My fear and anger surged and the voice spoke again.
"QuicKly ChilD LeT me END HIM."
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When I was 12 years old. Tiffany Bennet; broke a bone.
And agreed to let something dark and made of hate, end the suffering of my mother and sister.
And when I was twelve years old, with a broken bone. I was sentenced to 6 years in the Wilmshire home for the criminally insane. After I dismembered my mothers boyfriend with a broken bed post....
Mickey is home and comes to visit me regularly.. He told me to write this down and maybe I'd start to remember things.
But I've told him the truth.
It was Wrath, who resides inside my bones...