Behind The Church

I

Eleanor

Oh god, not again. Not her. Please not her.

I rush downstairs to the source of the shouting. There, in the living room, is my Dad shouting at a terrified six-year-old.

She's never done anything wrong. She's never naughty or annoying, she just has to exist for him to be angry at her. I don't understand how a guy could hate something so perfect.

She has bruises all over her face and there's blood trickling out of her nose, the fear etched upon her face is scarring. There's nothing worse than seeing the genuine fear on a child's face.

"Get off of her!" I shout as I watch him take another hit to my little sister. I pick her up and she clings onto my pajama shirt tightly, sobbing into my shoulder.

"What is wrong with you?" I ask him, shielding the girl from him.

"She's being a terrible child! She's such a brat."

"No, she's not!"

"I'll beat the shit outta you of you carry on talking to me like that." he raised his cut fist to prove his point. His breath reeks of beer and even in the moonlight, you can see his eyes are bloodshot. Without any reply, I take my sister upstairs to clean her up and put her to bed. It's too late for a six-year-old, I can't believe he's been keeping her up this late. It's three in the morning.

"It's okay, Cubby. I got you. I'm here." I reassure her as we go into the bathroom.

"Why does he do this to me?" her little voice replied.

"I don't know, Cubby, I really don't know. Let's get you cleaned up."

She nods and let's me gently dab her nose with a wet tissue, then a dry one. I wet my hands and try my best to wash her eyes. Getting all of those tears with the water. Her nose has stopped bleeding now, so I dry her face, turn off the bathroom light and take her to her bed.

I set her down and kiss her head, knowing that she'll be safe in this room because of the other two.

"Goodnight, Cubby. I love you."

"Goodnight, Husky. I love you, too."

-------------------------

"Eleanor! Eleanor, get your ass down here!"

I bolt out of bed and hurry downstairs to where he called from.

"We have guests coming over today, get Christina ready."

"What about the others?"

"Adrianna will take them to the park or something, just get Christina ready, for fuck's sake!"

I turn on the stairs, dreading trying to wake my sister. She gets quite cranky in the mornings and the fact that I'll have to put makeup on her will make it worse.

"Cubby, it's time to wake up. We've got people coming over." I gently shake my sister as I whisper to her.

"Cubby?"

"People coming over?" she asks, tiredly. It makes me giggle. She loves it when people come over, even if she wants nothing to do with them. It means that she's safe.

"Yeah. We gotta get you ready." I tell her.

"Okay." she rubs her eyes as she gets out of bed. I lead her back into the bathroom where all of the makeup is. I cover the bruise on her jaw and temple. I put a little bit on her nose and she's good to go.

I kiss her head before we go back to her room to get her dressed.

"What do you wanna wear, Cubs?"

"I wanna wear my flannel outfit." she smiles. It's amazing how she can still do that after everything she goes through.