I leaned my head against the open truck window as my long dark brown almost black hair flipped out in the wind almost reaching the bed of the truck. My mind had been going from Mom to Tony the entire drive to the border. It was depressing to me. The more time went on the more I thought about all the things Mom had taught me. She always thought everything she said went in one ear and out the other but it didn't. It was stored in my mind's filing cabinet. Here I was opening that drawer and remembering everything from mating bonds to survival skills she had spent hours telling me about. It's great that I'll be able to use what I had thought was useless information at the time to help me get away from Ronald if I had to. After everything that had happened yesterday he was being too cooperative. This slimy douchebag seemed to be up to something. That explosive power I had yesterday seemed to have disappeared. Not that I was going to tell him that.
In an attempt to keep my mind from thinking about my mother any more I focused on the traffic traveling alongside us on the freeway. I watched us approach an off ramp and felt panic start to set in. I think he's gonna take the off ramp and drive out to God knows where to kill me. Maybe letting my mind race is better for my health. Having an anxiety attack every five minutes because of an off ramp isn't good for my blood pressure. If Ronald's going to kill me I wish he'd just get it over with already. Luckily we just passed a sign saying the border was only ten miles away.
A headache I had been fighting off was in full swing now. I didn't know if I was sweating from how hot it seemed to be in the truck or from the pain in my head. I couldn't take it anymore and pulled off the hoodie jacket Ronald made me wear before leaving this morning. I think he thought it would hide my identity as we left. Ronald was as dumb as he looked. Everyone would know it was me who left with him. No one else lived in that house with us. I had thrown it on regardless to prevent an argument. I wanted to get as far away from that house just like he did.
If anyone went into that house they would think someone had gone crazy. Such a pretty little house now had large holes in the wall. The tile from the front door all the way to the kitchen was shattered . Blood was everywhere. That house was destroyed now. The damage I'd done to Ronald was already healing. He was almost back to normal. It had always amazed me how fast my mother healed after every beating.
We approached the end of the I-5 freeway which ended at the Mexican border. Traffic slows down quite a bit but never stops as vehicles line up to drive through lanes separated by the guard's booths. I watched as guards wave cars through and wondered why we can just drive through to Mexico without being checked but on the way back every car is checked. I'd always thought it should've been the same both ways. Check every car going in and out of the country. I guess that works out for me since it wont leave a trail for anyone to follow. It only takes a couple of minutes and then bye-bye USA as we drive into Mexico.
When the truck's wheels travel across the border, I sneak a look at Ronald. He has sweat dripping down the side of his jaw which is clenched tight. I can see his jaw throbbing even through his beard. He keeps looking in his rear-view mirror probably expecting the guards to suddenly start yelling at us to stop. After the border is out of sight, his shoulders relax a little.
I never understood what my mother saw in him. What could have been so great to stay with a man who beat her at least once a week. I know she wasn't the type of woman who liked being hit. I'd often hear her crying in her room after a beating. With my good hearing which was better than most people I couldn't help but hear her. Not just my hearing but also my sense of smell which wasn't doing me any favors being trapped in the truck with Ronald. My eyesight at night was extremely good. I could only guess that was all due to the fact that I was part wolf. I also had a six sense where I could sense danger and that sense was ringing loud and clear right now.
The relationship Mom had with Ronald wasn't the typical husband and wife. In fact they weren't even married so I didn't understand why he told me to call him my step-father. It was kind of weird in the beginning but since Mom didn't fight it, it stayed. Even though they had been sharing a room for the pass four years there wasn't even a sexual relationship between them. Well I couldn't say there wasn't anything sexual between them.
Just after my fourteenth birthday Ronald had gone into Mom's room which was next to mine upstairs at three in the morning. I had woken up as soon as I heard him walking up the stairs. It had struck me as odd since he never came upstairs. He'd gone into her room and threatened her that if she didn't start giving him oral sex he was going to turn to me. She agreed and followed him back to his room. The next day she moved all her stuff into his room.
Even though that had started it never went past that. Maybe they couldn't because he wasn't a wolf. Or maybe the rumor that wolves mated for life was true and Mom couldn't take another mate after my dad died. But with my dad being human I don't see how he could have been her mate. I wasn't sure what Ronald was at the time but I knew he wasn't human or a wolf.
Ronald's a white man standing six feet two. He has blue eyes and dirty blond hair which he shaved off. I always thought he looked stupid since he sported a full beard and mustache. I knew he only shaved his head because he was going bald in the back. His huge arms and legs were full of fatty muscles. The type of muscle that just looked like fat until he flexed. His stomach didn't get the muscle memo though because he had a giant gut. Most likely from all the alcohol he drank. My nickname for him when I was growing up was Humpy Dumpty. He looked like an egg that couldn't get put back together right.
The man made me sick. If his looks didn't turn my stomach his smell did. He always smelled like he'd just played a football game with the added scent of something burnt. Even after he took a shower, he still smelt like ash. It would only take half an hour before his unique stench was back. His breath always smelled like sour beer and an ashtray even though he didn't smoke. He had a huge drinking problem. According to Mom he also has a drug problem.
Mom blamed his sudden, intense anger on Cocaine use. She would tell me to hide whenever he became angry. Once I was hiding she'd let him take his built-up rage out on her. She'd said she was built differently than other female wolves and she could handle it. Yeah right! She handled it so well she's in a bloody mess right now. It was thanks to Ronald's pack she was still alive.
Whenever Ronald got like that mom would always put me under the stairs behind some boxes. From my hiding place I could hear him beat on her. She never cried out, but I heard every hit. I would fight the urge to go out there and stop him with every thud of his fists connecting on my mother's body. In the end I couldn't do anything.
I had left my hiding spot and tried to stop him once, but it ended with him turning his fists on me. Mom tried to stop him only for Ronald to throw her onto a glass coffee table. Broken glass pieces had gone flying everywhere. One of them had cut my mother's face. The smell of her blood had stopped the fight but she ended up with a cut starting above her eyebrow all the way down to just under her cheek. The cut healed but her eye didn't. She became blind in her right eye. By coming out I had only made it worse for her, so I swore to never do that again.
Mom would always come and get me once he'd calmed down and I'd see the damage he'd done to her that day. I used to beg her to leave him and run away somewhere he couldn't find us but she always said he has his uses and I'd understand one day.
Yesterday I sat there waiting under the stairs for mom to come. The only thing I could hear was the sounds of the thud, thud, thud, of Roman's fists. Suddenly the sounds of the beating stopped only to be replaced with the sound of him cursing. Water began running in the bathroom followed by the mop brushing over the tile floor of their room. More cursing as he turned off the water.
I sat there under the stairs confused and worried since I still hadn't heard anything from mom. I looked up when I heard Ronald dragging something up the stairs. Once he reached the top he let out a loud grunt. Something began to fall down the steps above my head. There was a groan every time the object made contact with the steps. Every few seconds the groan was accompanied with a crack and crunch. I clenched my teeth as a rage like I've never known filled my entire body. Tears poured down my face as the image of my mother falling down the stairs entered my mind. I had never wanted to hurt someone as badly as I did right now.
I pushed the boxes out of my way and climbed out from under the stairs. Turning toward the foot of the stairs by the front door was my mothers body bent in odd directions. Looking up at Ronald I let the anger filled growl leave my lips.
"Come down here NOW!" I screamed.
"Do you really want to do this right now? I threw her down the stairs so I could call for help. If you fight with me it's only going to delay the help your mom desperately needs right now." Ronald pleaded with me.
"Are you blind? She's not coming back from that. You just murdered my mother!" I howled up at him while pointing toward her. A puddle of blood had already swallowed her entire body. "If you're not going to come down then I'll just kill you up there."
I turned toward Ronald. I felt energy swirling around my legs. The energy was becoming stronger and more condensed as the power build. Right when it felt like it was going to explode I released the power. It was like time had come to a stop as I climbed the stairs taking two at a time. When I was standing in front of Ronald everything went back to normal. It would seem like I moved from the bottom of the stairs to standing right in front of Ronald in the time it took for him to blink. He didn't have time to react before my palm smashed into the center of his chest. The force of my blow threw him through the doorway of the upstairs bathroom. His body collided with the tiled wall of the tub creating a giant hole. He slid down the wall landing in the tub as he was trying to gasp for air but I wasn't going to give him the chance to recover.
I rushed into the bathroom and grabbed the lid of the toilet's water tank. Ronald's eyes widened as he looked up only to find me already on top of him with the heave lid only inches from his head. The lid made contact with a crunch as it broke into two pieces. Throwing the broken lid to the side I grabbed his head with both hands letting my fingers dig into the flesh of his scalp. With power I didn't know I had I repeatedly smashed his head into the tile wall. Blood was dripping down his head. Every time he made contact with the tile wall blood would splash everywhere.
"Stop! I'm sorry Jazmin, I'm sorry." Ronald pleaded through bloody gargles. He reached up and was trying to pry my hands from his head. I clenched his head even tighter watching my nails cutting into his scalp.
"I'm sorry? You can't be serious. Are you sorry you killed her or are you sorry your punching bag is gone?" I growled. Sitting on top of him I finally let go of his head only to ball up my hands into fists so tight my knuckles turned white. I let my fists connect with anywhere and everywhere it could. It felt so good to feel the bones crack under the pressure of my attacks. "Screw you and your I'm Sorry."
"Stop. I'm sorr-'' Ronald tried to say buy my right hook connected with his jaw before I had to hear another I'm sorry.
"How many years have you used her as a punching bag? How many years did I have to sit there and listen to you beat on her? How many tears did my mother spill? How many times have you told her I'm sorry? How many bruises did she cover up? She's going to die here today but so are you, you bastard." I screamed as I allowed the rage to fill me. I let all those memories I couldn't get rid of fuel my wild punches.
Ronald's face was swollen to twice the size it normally was. I knew his nose was broken since I heard a crunch every time I connected with it. Those sounds filled me with joy and made me feel satisfied. I didn't know I had this kind of violence inside me. He has stopped fighting and his arms laid by his sides. He must have passed out. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop. I was about to turn on the shower head to wake him up when I heard a gasp behind me.