Hey, I know I don't need anymore stories on my plate, but this one has been driving me nuts for a while now.
Warning: This story is a really dark, AU, so if you don't like that stuff, just back out instead of leaving hateful reviews. Makes everyone's lives a little easier.
Annabeth Chase tiptoed into her living room, the screaming from her parents bedroom nearly drowning out the heavy storm outside. She pushed her thick glasses back up her nose, though she was shaking so badly they near instantly slipped right back down.
The screaming from the door just across from her was terrifying. It's not like her parents didn't fight. It had almost always been a daily thing, where they would yell at each other for a bit until her father drove off to who knows where and return late the next day to yell at his wife some more, the cycle going on and on.
But tonight was different.
Annabeth felt scared.
Her father, in his routine fights with her mother, would usually just snap at the woman for things Annabeth didn't understand while her mother would try to calm him before he would say something that would make her snap back. No, tonight was different.
He was screaming at his wife.
Annabeth had never heard anyone in her near seven years of life sound so angry. So cold. So heartless. It was terrifying. It made Annabeth want to run, hide, just get away, but she didn't move from her spot in front of her parents door.
But that wasn't the worst.
Annabeth's mother was crying.
It was muffled slightly from door, but it was there. And it made Annabeth mad. Her mother should never cry. She was too wonderful, too beautiful. Suddenly there was a loud slap, making Annabeth jump.
The door flew open then, her mother running out. There was a large hand print on her tear-stained cheeks. She ran pass her daughter and into the kitchen, the slam of the front door following. Annabeth stood there for a moment, frozen in shock, before running out after the woman. The rain was so heavy that the child's blonde locks were near instantly heavy and plastered to her face the moment she stepped outside.
She could barley see her mother backing out of the driveway, the rain and lightning so disorienting that the headlights were barley visible. Her glasses we fogged so badly she was near blind.
"Mom!" Annabeth yelled. Tears leaked down her cheeks, mixing with the rain on there descent. "Mom no! Please don't leave!"
But whether her mother didn't here her or care, she still backed out of the driveway and rode off, leaving her sobbing child behind.
"Annabeth!" Her father called from inside. "Get in this house this instant!"
The little girl turned to see her father glaring at her from the kitchen, a women she's never seen before next to him. They both looked a bit frazzled, her father without a shirt and the woman in a robe.
"Mom left, Dad!" she cried, the rain still beating down on her tiny frame. "She was crying, and she left! Isn't it bad to drive right now? What if she gets hurt in the rain? We have to go get her!"
"Freddie," the woman looked irritated, regarding Annabeth in a way that made her feel even smaller and more helpless than she already was. "She's going to wake up the whole neighborhood."
"I know, April," her father says before lunging into the rain and grabbing Annabeth by the wrist in a bruising grip. He pulled her inside, not seeming to care that she was still sobbing.
He slammed the door shut before dumping her on one of the kitchen chairs. The woman stood back with a disgusted look on her face as she regarded the soaked and tearful child. Annabeth's father keeled down in front of her, a smile on his face that she's never seen before.
"Now Annie," he says slowly, as if if he spoke too quickly she wouldn't hear. "I need you to know something very important."
Annabeth stared at him, wide-eyed and helplessly confused.
"Me and your mother," he continued "Well, we haven't been doing so well. We fight. A lot. She's a bad woman, Annie. She lies, cheats and is just not the woman I married anymore. She's not your mother anymore."
"But Da-"
"Let me speak, Annabeth!" He snapped, cutting her off. "It's horribly rude to interrupt."
Annabeth stayed silent, too scared too even move.
"Now what happened tonight, whatever you think you saw or you heard, forget it. It isn't important. It'll only stir trouble. Now we don't want that do we?"
She remained silent.
"Answer me, Annabeth!" He snapped. The woman, April, snorted from behind him.
"N-no, we wouldn't." She stuttered, frightened by his outburst.
He smiled in that weird way again, and Annabeth was starting to really hate it. "Good. Now you will go to bed like a good girl. Then in the morning you will go to school and never tell any of your little friends about this whole incident. You will never speak of this again to anyone. Right Annie?"
She nodded.
"Good girl. Now do as your told and get to bed. Now."
She couldn't get out of that kitchen fast enough. She burst into her room and scurried under her blankets, praying that this was all some horrible, twisted dream. That her mother never ran off, her father didn't give her those scary smiles and that woman was never here.
But when she awoke in the morning, her mother was still gone. When she passed her father in the kitchen, he gave her that scary smile. The woman sat at the barstool, trying her best to ignore the child.
Annabeth trudged to her bus stop, when a sight made her pause. Two leaves, connected by a tiny branch, scrapped across the sidewalk in front of her. She ran and snatched them up, almost as if she was pulled to them. One leaf was a rich, beautiful green, not yet affected by the chilly season. The other leaf, on the other hand, was pure evidence of the autumn. Bright red and wrinkling up, it was just as beautiful as its partner.
Something tugged on the back of Annabeth's mind. A dream. Someone's eyes. Yes, last night she had had a dream.
She vaguely remembered it, but she did recall something in particular.
A pair of eyes, similar to the bright green of the first leaf. Beautiful, but so angry. At what? She had no idea. She simply couldn't remember. Though she did in fact rember those beautiful green eyes changing, the green pooling away as a bright, powerful red took over, like the second leaf. Then she woke up.
Annabeth was suddenly pulled from her head when the distant rumble of the bus sounded from down the street. She quickly pulled out her book from her backpack, gently placing the leaves inside before closing it back up and stuffing it back into her pack.
She ran to the bus stop, barley catching it. When she sat down next to the redheaded mess known as Rachel Elizabeth Dare, her best and only friend, the girl examined her a moment, a sad look on her face.
"Are you okay, Annie?!" she says. "I heard what happened with your mom on TV today and I know it must be-"
"My mom?" Annabeth was incredibly confused. No one should know what happened last night. Only her family knew.
"The accident? It was all over the news. The rain, it messed up her vision. There was no way to save her. It was just down the street I think? There was a truck, it didn't see her. I don't know what happened to the truck driver. He may be in the hospital too. But I don't know. My mom turned of the TV before I could see. I just-"
Annabeth stopped listening after awhile.
Her mother was gone.
"Did anything happen last night, Annie?" Rachel asked as they pulled up to the school.
She considered telling her about the screaming. The slap she heard. Her mother running out into the rain, driving with tears down her face. Screaming out to try to get her back. That April woman who turned her nose up to her. Her father's scary smile. Even her strange dream with the beautiful changing eyes.
But she remained silent.
She was a good little girl.