Her Blood Moon

Goodbye

She didnt understand what happened. It all happened so fast, she didn't have time to think. Her head hurt, her arms hurt, and tears were flowing down her face as she lay on the ground staring up at her mom and John standing in front of her. Her mom was yelling and crying. John was staring at Dawn like he didn't recognize her anymore.

The room was spinning and Dawn didn't understand any of it.....

How could so much go wrong so fast?

She had been playing Tomb Raider on her playstation. She loved making the character swim. She knew there was more to the game, but with that being her favorite part, it's what she mostly did whenever she loaded it up. She would run until she got to a river or lake or into a cave and just dive in the water and swim around. Dawn loved to swim. Her dad taught her the summer before in a tiny pool outside his house. Teaching her to float on her back, it was so peaceful.

Now she was obsessed with swimming and had been begging her mom for weeks to go to a pool, so she could show her. But lately, her mom had been in a bad mood, and so had John. They sometimes argued and Dawn would just shut down the playstation and go to her room. She hated yelling. It made her skin crawl and made bad memories pop up into her head.

She jumped and turned toward the door as her mom came into the room crying, turning her back on Dawn and slamming the door shut.

Dawn just stared at her, dumb founded. Unsure what to do. Her mom stood there pushing against the door and trying to lock it, John yelling from the other side of the door.

"Danielle, please just talk to me! Why are you doing this? What did i do? Open the door and let me talk to you!"

Dawn watched as John pushed back against the door, her mom crying and yelling. Her mom was drunk again, Dawn could tell just by her appearance. Her face was flushed and as she looked back at Dawn, she could tell by her eyes. Her moms eyes always looked different when she drank, it was like she was two different people. Calm and loving and fun when she was sober, and a complete crazy person when she was drunk.

"Dawn help me! We have to get the door locked. Please help me! He's going to hurt me Dawn help me close the door! Hurry!"

Her mom's voice finally reached inside Dawn's brain and broke her out of her thoughts.

She was up before she realized what she was doing, pushing against the door with her mom, trying to help. Her hands up against the wood of the front door, her arms shaking as she put in every ounce of strength her 9-year-old body could muster. The only thought in her head was that her mom had asked her for help, and she would do anything for her mom. So she pushed and pushed, switching positions to try and put more weight behind her stance.

"Danielle, I don't freaking understand why you're acting like I'd hurt you! Why are you doing this? I don't freaking understand! Let. Me. In!"

Dawn's eyes darted between the door and her mom. Danielle stood there, her short blonde hair messy from what Dawn assumed was fighting with John, her brown eyes wide and scary. She didn't look like her mom at that moment, she looked like one of those women in horror films who just escaped a murderer and was running for her life. The look on her face scared Dawn so badly, she didn't realize what John was yelling from the other side of the door. All she knew was he was trying to get in, and it scared her mom, and it was scaring her to see her mom like this. All the reasoning left Dawn's head as she just stood by her mom's side, pushing back against Johns' brute strength.

Suddenly John pushed so hard on the door, Dawn ended up being thrown to the side, along with her mom. Dawn was thrown onto the coffee table as her mom was thrown in the opposite direction. Her arms hurt, stung like she got bit by something. She lay on the ground, she looked down at her arms in shock. They were bloody. When she was thrown against the coffee table, the table had splintered and her arms got cut up in the process. She just stared at her arms, hearing a scream of terror float in the space of the apartment. She looked up, wondering where the screams were coming from when the actual words finally made sense to her.

"You jerk! You freaking i***t, you hurt my baby! You hurt my Dawn! Get the freak out of here!"

Dawn stared at her mom as she cried, running to Dawn's side and holding her in her arms, glaring at John who just stood there.

Tears of pain and confusion started running down Dawn's face. John just stared at her and her mom on the floor. He looked hurt as he met Dawn's eyes.

"You too, Dawn? You were helping her keep me out of the apartment? Why? What did I do?"

Dawn's heart hurt as much as her arms. She didn't understand any of it either.

Her head hurt with the emotions running through her. She loved John, loved him as much as her own dad, maybe even more than her dad. But she loved her mom more. Always would, even if her mom was wrong.

John just looked defeated, his shoulders slumped, his eyes big pools of dark brown sadness as he stood there in shock.

Finally, he blinked, and looking from Dawn to her mom still yelling and screaming, he took a deep breath, turned toward the door and just walked out.

Danielle ran to the door, slammed it shut, and locked it behind him. Dawn just sat there, so confused and hurt and mad, a zillion different emotions going through her along with the pain in her arms. Her mom sat beside her and pulled her into her arms and cried. Dawn just stared at the door, not realizing the tears running down her face and soaking the front of her shirt wasn't her mom's, it was hers. There went another guy, her wish had lasted a year. Now it was just her and her mom again. Dawn knew what was in the future. Her mom losing her job because she would go back to alcohol, the apartment smelling like cigarettes, and they would move. Again.

Dawn knew her future....and her old stomach ache came back with a vengeance....