12 Hours Earlier; four fifty in the morning.

"Why did you do it?" bellowed a voice.

Eli awoke with a jolt; forcing his eyes to open. He wiped away the crust that he felt wedged on the side of his sockets. His mother was standing overhead; eyes full of pure anger, but at the same time dazed as well.

"Why did you do it?" her voice roared again through the small confines of his bedroom. Eli wrinkled his nose in disgust as an overwhelming odor of alcohol filled his nostrils. It was bitter and unpleasant. He let out a short hack before regaining his sense of composure. His mom was drunk yet again, which was no surprise to Eli. He knew it was going to be a bad night. He would rather her be high out of her mind for at least then she would be mellowed out in some other part the house. With money tight lately, he knew that drugs for his mom were harder to come by causing him to have to deal with her drinking instead.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Eli spat. He had no fear when it came to his mother's sudden disturbances in the middle of the night. It happened three to five times a week; well, three if Eli was on a sudden streak of luck.

"Don't…"his mother let out a loud belch before continuing. "Don't ever dare to use that tone of voice with me. I know what you did. And here you lay in your bed acting all innocent."

Eli rolled his eyes and made sure his mother saw it. It didn't matter what he did whether it would be to admit this so called wrong doing he had committed, or put on his tough exterior. The outcome would always be the same. There was nothing that anyone could do to diffuse the situation at hand.

"You're a real bastard, Eli, you really fucking are!" His mother grabbed the edges of Eli's collar and lifted him upward out of his bed. The collar pushed into the back of Eli's neck creating a burning sensation. He was thrown to the floor; his back and head receiving most of the fall.

There was instant pain as Eli had crashed onto the tile. His back ached and it seemed as if his skull was throbbing. Eli's vision was hazy and the room was spinning which gave him no advantage over trying to avoid any other antic his mother was thinking of trying on him. He fought back a wave of nausea that was creeping up his esophagus. He tried closing his eyes to rid himself of the dizzy feeling, but it only made it worse, for he felt that his whole body was on some kind of deadly merry – go round.

Eli managed to open his eyes in the knick of time for her saw his mother raise her right hand with his lamp clutched in between her fingertips. With a quick sense of thinking, Eli elevated his arms to shelter his face from the impending attack. Suddenly, he felt a hard object collide with his limbs and in a moment's time glass, and hard plastic showered his body. The pieces that didn't hit him landed onto the floor and shattered into even more fragmented shards.

There were multiple stings that pressed against Eli's skin for he knew that the glass had cut through his flesh. He felt the presence of warm, hot, liquid run down his arms. The ability to move his body had been worse than before. Yet, he continued his short breaths, praying with all his might for this to be over. His body had suffered enough for this morning.

His prayers weren't answered for he heard his mother's overbearing footsteps stop beside him. Eli let his eyelids slowly shut for he didn't want to look at the woman who had given birth to him almost eighteen years ago. This wasn't her. This was the devil that had taken over her body. To be honest, Eli couldn't even remember a time when his mother wasn't in a rampage.

Ignoring his thoughts of a past life, he begged for this all to end and for his mother to just go into her room. There she would pass out for a few hours before getting up and leaving for work.

"You lying ungrateful, son of a bitch!" she hollered and ended her sentence with a swift kick to Eli's ribs.

Eli let out a scream as the impact sent a sharp pain rippling through his body. There were two more brutal blows to his side and finally his mother exited the room, leaving more damage than Eli wanted in the early hours of the morning.

Taking in simple amounts of air was now an effort. Each contraction of his lungs was putting Eli in more of a predicament than it was keeping him alive. He lowered his arms that were still around his face; maneuvering them around the glass and blood filled rubble. He allowed his fingers to trace the outline of his ribs hoping the pain would stop soon. He knew he had to get up, but the floor felt so inviting, so relieving, in order not to disturb his wounds even further. However, the evidence left behind of what happened had to be washed away.

Overcoming his body's wishes to stay in place, Eli pushed himself upward and then crumpled back down to the floor.

The pain forced him to remain still. Every part of him was sore. He could only wonder how many bruises would form on his body within the upcoming hours. His eyesight was focused now, but his head still beat rhythmically from hitting the floor. His arms still bled, not as profound as before, but still enough for Eli to feel the blood ooze from his wounds. His ribs on the other hand had not ceased hurting his body. His bones felt as though they were going to crumble. The underlying muscles felt as though they were bruising more and more each second. He hoped he didn't have any internal damages because if that were the case, his life would be over rather fast. Then again, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all to happen.

Trying to calm the numerous amounts of cries from his body, Eli drifted off to sleep; hoping that the numbness of his slumber would cure his injuries.

Xxx

Eli awoke due to a ray of sunlight shining through his window. He felt like he had a hangover of some kind with a headache in full blast and the twinge of pain every half a minute coming from his ribs. It wasn't as bad as it had been a few hours ago; not by far, but Eli still felt awful.

He listened quietly for a minute and to his relief, he realized his mother had left for work which means it had to be past seven thirty in the morning. With that as his motivation, Eli was able to lift his body and examine what had happened.

Blood had dried on the floor and glass was everywhere, from the edges of his bed all the way to where the opening of his room was. It looked like a crime scene that one would see on television, but to Eli it wasn't. It was reality.

Eli forced himself down the stairs leading into the kitchen; clinging onto the banister as he did so. He allowed his weight to be shifted upon the railing of the stairs so he wouldn't feel so much soreness along his ribcage. He made it into the kitchen finally, and gathered a few materials to clean up; a shovel and dust pail, a rag, and some floor polish. Mustering the items in his hands, Eli repeated the process he had just done as he made his way back up to his room.

He swept his entire room making sure he had left no remainders behind. His body told him to stop what he was doing and rest, but Eli continued on. He knelt down on his hands and knees soon afterwards, scrubbing away the red spots from the floor. Within a half hour, his room was in a decent enough shape for Eli to put the cleaning products away and head into the shower.

He stripped away his clothes that clung to his skin ever so tightly after the amount of sweat that had filled him from last night. When he was naked, Eli stared at his reflection astonished; thinking to himself that he didn't recognize his body anymore. His torso was lined with bruises saturated in a purple color. His arms were covered in small cuts, but the number of them was overwhelming. They were jagged slits that were sketched with a bright red coloring, making them noticeable to even the blind eye.

Shaking his head in disgust, Eli climbed into the shower and allowed the heat of the water to sooth his damaged skin. It was then he felt the slightest bit better as he rubbed away the stained blood and rid his body of the stench of sweat. His muscles took in a sense of joy as the water loosened up the tense feeling that caused him pain.

As Eli massaged his scalp, he felt a small bump in the back of his head. He didn't bother getting upset over that fact and just allowed the flow of water to pulsate along the swollen area. He stayed in the shower for a good twenty minutes before emerging out of it. His body was raw from the high temperature of the shower, but Eli didn't mind.

He glanced at the clock across from the shower and wondered if he should attempt to go to school or would it be too noticeable that something was wrong? Eli shrugged it off and figured a long black sleeved shirt would cover his arms well and if he concentrated, he would be able to walk without a limp. Getting out of the house would benefit him and it was with that idea that Eli prepared himself for school.