Page 50 of Drowned In Silence

“That’s great, Mom. I’ll let everyone know and we will head out on the next flight,” I sigh.

I have so many more questions than answers and my fuse is starting to shorten more and more as the time goes on. I don’t know how being in front of my ‘parents’ will help my anger, but I have to try. I have to pretend for a little while to be okay with everything, even though I am anything but okay.

“We will see you soon. I love you, Kiddo.” Mom says before hanging up.

I pull the phone away from my ear and stare at the blank screen of the phone. “Yeah, you too.” I toss the phone onto the bed and stare at it like it bit me. I’m so fucking angry, but I need to calm down before we get on that plane.

The last thing I want to do to Dynah is take out my anger on her instead of the people who deserve it.

“Who was it?” Spencer asks, coming into the room.

“It was Mom. She said we could come home. She fixed shit,” I tell him. I sit down on the bed and put my head in my hands.

“Are we ready to go back? I mean… We can stay here for a little bit longer if we need to. I know things are… stressful,” He asks, sitting next to me on the bed.

“I’m fucking livid. I’m so upset with our parent’s right now, I don’t even want to see them when we go home. I need to speak to Dynah, make sure she’s ready. See what her ‘plans’ are. I don’t know. I’m ready for my own house instead of sitting here seeing all the pictures on the wall,” I vent to him.

I didn’t notice Dynah creeping into the room until she speaks. “I’m ready to go back. I’m angry too, but for differentreasons than you think. I just–” She stops and I look up at her questioningly. “Where am I supposed to go?”

I stand up and cross the room. She backs away from me slowly, her back hitting the wall behind her.

“Don’t run from me now, Little Raven. You can be mad. You can be hurt. You can even hit me if it will make you feel better. But you’re coming home with me.” I wrap my hand around her throat and put my other hand on the wall, caging her in. Spencer takes this as his chance to sneak out of the room, chuckling and shutting the door. “You don’t have any other options, Darling.”

“What if I don’t want to?” She whispers, closing her eyes. I can feel her swallow against my palm. My little bird is still nervous around me.

“I said you don’t have a choice. Where else are you going to go? Back to the motel? Fine. I will slaughter every fucking person who lives and works there, just so you have nothing to go back to. Just so no one can stand in my way. You’re coming to live with me. No arguments. You want to be mad at me? Fine, then be mad. You’re beautiful when you're angry.” I do the same thing I did to her the first day she met me, I lean down and lick the lonely tear from her cheek. “Cry for me, Little Raven.”

“Elliot,” she says.

I don’t even have to ask her what she wants or needs. I know. However, I won’t give it to her. Not yet. Not while she’s mad at me. I can’t take our anger out on our bodies, she’s had too many men do that to her before.

“Not yet, Darling. Soon, but not yet,” I tell her, squeezing her throat a little more before letting go and letting her free.

She takes a deep breath and gathers herself.

“Then let’s go home. We will figure things out as we go.”

Together

Dynah

Leaving the beach houseis easy. But the flight home is bumpy and filled with uncomfortable silence. Everyone is stewing in their anger, wondering what will happen next.

I’m still upset, but the more I sit here and think about it, the more it makes sense of what he did. If I was taking care of someone who was mentally unstable, who has been through way too much trauma to even talk about it, and who is as nervous as I am… I don’t think I would have said anything either.

I’m still confused though. How are we step-siblings? If one of my parents is the same as his, wouldn’t we be half-siblings instead? Unless one of my parents isn't actually biologically related to me. But how would that have happened? My mother has complained and blamed me for everything in her life.

She blamed me for her scars, her pain from childbirth. I know she was a junkie, but I don’t see her being a liar too.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it was her, and my father got with her after my real Mom.

I shake my head and stare out the plane window.

Nope. It has to behim.He has treated me like shit my entire life. Raped me, sold me, beat me until I was bloody and bruised. He is the problem. He is the parent that I could never trust.

Yeah, my Mother did some fucked up things. Chased me with knives, allowed my ‘Father’ to do the things he did while she sat back and watched… But she was still my mother.

Buthimon the other hand, he has always treated me like the scum of the earth. He’s hated me since the day I was born. My earliest memory of him was when he pulled me down the stairs by my pigtails.