Have you ever just loved someone so much, you would do anything to keep them safe?
You would scream at the sky to stop their crying.
Would you sing them a harmony when they couldn't sleep?
How far would you go to make sure they lived a good life?
This is the story about an older sister, who would lay down her very life to keep her little sister safe.
With a deceased mother and an abusive father
she is all her sister has in life.
And her baby is her whole world.
This is the story about how they finally found somewhere safe.
Somewhere peaceful.
Somewhere they can build a life together as sisters and best friends.
"We're finally free…
We're finally safe…
We're finally loved…
We're finally… home."
A Father's Betrayal…
A young girl with long blonde hair in a braid sighs as she struggles to carry all the grocery bags to and through the door of her home. Her chocolaty brown eyes have small bags under them from barely having gotten any sleep for the past two weeks. Her violet over shirt waved around in the slight breeze of the soon-to-be fall air. Under that shirt was a white tee and she wore that with stone washed jeans and white sneakers. She silently sends thanks to god as she finally makes it to the door and tries to balance all the food in bags in one arm while opening the door.
She walks inside the dark little house and tries to navigate her way to the kitchen table. Setting all the bags purchased during her trip down on the table, she heaves a sad sigh and wipes her cheek. Her hand rubbed over her light splatter of freckles. "I'm back," she quietly said. She knew fully well if she made to much noise, he would surely go on another alcoholic rampage and she would once again be beaten.
"Jiejie? Is that you." A smaller voice was coming from the other room.
"Sure is Mèimei. I got the groceries." Now she really had to be quiet. If he became enraged now, then the child would be caught in the cross fire. And it will be a cold day in hell before the blonde ever let's harm come to her.
"Great! Did you get my favorite cookies too?" The blonde smiled at the sweet little girl as she came into the room also. The girl had shiny, ocean blue eyes and a head of thick ebony black hair that was held back by a red ribbon tied around her head to act as if a headband.
"Sure did sweetie," she smiled as she turned around and stuck her hand into one of the many bags and when she pulled it back out she had a plastic carton of chocolate chip and M&M cookies. She turned back around and opened the carton, pulling two cookies out and then resealing it. She held them out to the child, "Here you go. Just two though. I have to cook dinner soon."
The child smiled brightly and snatched the two sweets and started to munch on the first one. The girl giggles at the little one's display. Unfortunately, this peace did not last long.
"WHAT'S WITH ALL THE GOD DAMN TALKING?!" The loud male voice shouted from the second level of the house.
The younger girl starred in horror at the stairs as the loud smashing of feet on the old wood echoed through the hall along with the still shouting furry of the adult male. "Mèimei, go into another room," the blonde girl ordered.
"B-but Jiejie…"
"Go. Now." She ordered the younger out as to protect her from the inevitable display of violence.
With fear in her eyes, the little ebony haired girl clutched her snack in her hands and ran off to some other part of the house. Down the stairs came a thundering smash. She knew right away he must have thrown a vase… again. The man staggered into the kitchen. His face red, his eyes bloodshot, his clothes stained and dirty, and clutching a beer bottle in his right hand.
"Unity," he growled her name "the fuck are you talking? You damn well fucking know I can't sleep with your ass whining on all the time!"
Unity pushed a strand of blonde out of her face and emotionlessly looked at the man in the face. "I'm sorry father. Melody heard me get home with the groceries and asked for a cookie."
The man yelled at her and threw the now empty bottle at her. Unity jumped out of the way and the bottle smashed against a cabinet door. The glass landed on the floor and the little dribble of alcohol that had been at the bottom of the bottle was now splashed on the cabinet.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! COOKIES?! I HAD TO WAKE UP BECAUSE THE STUPID BITCH WANTED A COOKIE?!"
"Do not call her a bitch!" Unity screamed at him. She already knew he would end up beating her, she had nothing left to loose.
"THE FUCK YOU SAY TO ME YOU DAMN ASS WHORE?! DON'T YOU FUCKING YELL AT ME! THAT BITCH HAS EVERYTHING COMING TO HER!"
"Stop calling her that!"
"WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I? SHE IS A BITCH! A BITCH AND A MURDERER! IF SHE HADN'T BEEN BORN, YOUR WHORE ASS MOTHER WOULD STILL EB ALIVE, I WOULDN'T BE DRINKING, AND WE'D BE FUCKING BETTER OFF!"
"It was not Melody's fault mom died! Stop blaming stuff on your seven year old daughter! What is wrong with you!?"
"YOU'RE WHAT'S FUCKING WRONG WITH ME!"
The man Unity calls father charges at her and knocks her to the ground. He punches her cheek four times before stomping his foot on her stomach. All the while, Unity was whining in pain and gagging up sounds of torture from her breathes in between the pain.
But what neither knew, was that another set of eyes was watching. A small set of blue eyes.
"GET OFF MY SISTER!"
Melody came into the room with a wooden bat and screamed at her father to stop.
He didn't.
Melody ran at him and smashed the bat into his back and neck as hard as she could. Their father flew forward and off of Unity. He landed not two feet away and was rubbing his neck and head. Unity tried to move, but the repeated hits to her face left her dazed and the stomach stomping had taken away her breath. Their father growled as he got back to his drunken feet and starred Melody down. The little girl was now shaking. She didn't think this through. But at the time she hadn't cared. She went in there to save her big sister no matter the risk.
"You shouldn't have done that bitch…"
Their dad lunged at the poor girl and beat her in her face. Melody yelled in pain and cried the whole time she was being hit. Unity heard the little girl's cries and tried with every ounce of energy she had to get up. But it barley seemed to be working, just her legs twitching and shaking to move.
"YOU! DAMN! BITCH! YOU! TOOK! HER! AWAY! FROM! ME!" He punctuated each word with another hit to Melody's small and innocent body. Now there were bruises, and blood was coming from cuts and split open wounds.
Melody cried more tears as her own father continued to abuse her. But then he did something… terrible.
He growled and grabbed a chair from the kitchen table and smashed the hard wooden furniture over Melody's head. Melody finally started to pass out then and there, but something else kept her from giving up.
"GET OFF HER YOU BASTARD!'
Unity had watched in pure horror of her sister being beaten. Then their father grabbed the chair and smashed it over her head, and Unity lost it.
"GET OFF HER YOU BASTARD!" She rose from the ground, grabbed the bat on the floor, and slammed it into the back of her father's head. "YOU MONSTER! YOU JUST HIT HER WITH A FUCKING CHAIR! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!"
The adult held a hand to the back of his head. Unity smashed the bat into him so hard there was bleeding slightly from that area. But their father didn't seem to care, he grew a wicked smile and started laughing.
"No, no, no Unity. No hitting daddy with a bat now, you understand?" His voice was quiet and he chuckled after he talked.
"You. Are. Not. My. Dad!" Unity yelled at him.
Unity expected him to lung at her, and he did. But she didn't expect him to pull out a weapon. He had a knife. A pocket knife. He doesn't just want to beat them. He wanted to kill them.
Her father slashed her stomach and Unity screamed in pain. He put and arm over her wound and tried to not think about the pain. Her father strolled over to the still only semi-conscious Melody on the floor.
"Bad girl Melody," he said "you shouldn't have been born."
Then he plunged the knife into his daughter's stomach. Melody's mouth gapped open and she tried to scream, but no sound came out. But Unity saw, she had turned her head back around and saw her father plunge the same knife he used on herself into Melody's still small body. She saw him try to slice her….. and she was now out for blood as well.
"YOU GOD DAMN MOTHER FUCKING MONSTER! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW! I'LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!"
She grabbed a knife from the block on the table and ran at her father full speed, pure rage in her eyes.
"YOU KILLED MY SISTER! YOU KILLED MY BABY! I'LL FUCKING MURDER YOU!"
She threw him off of Melody and slashed his chest. He had dropped his knife when she had rammed into him by surprise, so he had nothing to fight back with. Unity slashed his chest fifteen times before just beating his face. She finally threw him against the counter and he finally passed out when his head banged against the counter top.
Unity was breathing heavily. She started to shake when she realized she might have killed him. But seeing his bloody and cut up chest rise and fall slowly made her feel better. Then she sprang as fast as she could to Melody.
"Mèimei! No! No baby please! Sweetie don't go into the light!" She held the hurt girl in her arms, rocking her gently.
Melody's eyes fluttered ever so lightly. "Jiejie…" her voice was so soft "is… is he gone?"
Unity hugged the dyeing girl in her arms. "H-He's gone baby! W-we're gonna b-be ok now! You're ok! You're ok!"
Melody closed her eyes, "Jiejie, I feel really cold."
"N-no Mèimei! Stay with me! P-Please don't leave me!"
Melody didn't respond. Her breathing stopped and her eyes remained shut.
Unity screamed. She held Melody in her arms and ran out of the house through the back door. She was in the backyard. Her screaming and sobbing continued as she dropped to her knees in the grass with Melody's body still in her arms bridle style. "Please…" she whispered to her sister "please don't leave me."
Melody still gave no response, even when Unity kissed her forehead.
Unity's grieving scream filled the air. The moon was up now. It was a full moon.
Unity looked up at the stars and screamed to them, "PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T TAKE HER FROM ME! BRING HER BACK!" She cried again and screamed one more time loudly. "PLEASE! SHE ISN'T READY YET! TAKE ME INSTEAD! DON'T SEPARATE US! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!"
Unity suddenly gagged. She looked down past her sister's body and saw her own wound. In the rush of her father killing Melody she had forgotten it even existed. Now she had lost so much blood.
Unity' eyes struggled to stay open, but the blood loss won. Unity fell over on her side and Melody's body rolled over next to her.
Unity took one last look at the stars. Oh how she loved the night. She remember her mother telling her stories about them.
Unity turned her head to her deceased baby sister. She felt tears sting her eyes, but she smiled anyway.
She grasped the tiny, cold hand in hers before closing her eyes. Her last thought, "I'm coming Mèimei. Together forever."
"Forever…" and Unity's lungs stopped breathing.