“No, please, stop!”
Trevor found himself once more cowering in the corner under the stairs, sobbing quietly.
Please don’t hurt her.
“Pathetic excuse of a boy!”
His eyes were closed. His body trembled at the sound of plates being smashed to pieces.
Then everything shifted.
He felt the warmth of his mother’s hand as she held his.
“Come, my love. Let’s go.”
Soft. Loving. Protective.
Trevor stirred.
Hushed conversation. Beeping sounds.
Where am I?
His body felt numb. His breathing, shallow. Despite not being able to open his eyes, the bright light behind his eyelids felt almost too painful.
Damn it. What happened?
“Give him some more fluids.”
“His condition is stable.”
Despite the muffled voices, one sound was particularly clear. Haunting.
Beep. Beep.
He’d heard it before. He’d been to the hospital countless times during—
“For how much longer will you lie there?”
Trevor stilled. It was the voice he’d learned to fear a long time ago. The beeps grew closer together.
Father?
He struggled with all his might to break the constricting spell binding him to the bed in which he lay. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t even move. And in the muted light, he could barely discern anything through his stubbornly closed eyes; he could only feel the rush as it all came back once more.
“Failure!”
“I wish you were never born!”
“You are a disgrace.”
The nights spent scrambling from door to door, in desperate attempts to escape from his moods. The days they’d remained hungry just because he felt like throwing away their food. The endless humiliations, belittlings, shouts, while his mother covered his ears and sang lullabies.
Then, his illness. The endless hospital visits.
Was it punishment?
“Heart rate’s spiking. Increase midazolam. Hurry—he’s going into shock.”
Urgent voices. Violent shaking.
He barely managed to clench his fists before—
“What’s happening to him?”
Deidre.
“Please, step back madam. We need to—”
“Help him! He’s dying!”
Deidre, run. That bastard might hurt you too.
A cold sensation rippled into his arm. He felt himself being pulled back, slowly, surely—
Deidre.
“He’ll be fine. Please, let us do our jobs.”
“What happened? I’ve been here the whole time. He seemed stable!”
What? Had she? Was he?
He felt his consciousness drift away into the abyss of nothingness.
Was he ever truly there? Or had he imagined him—
He did.
His father had died.
Long ago.