Chapter 2: Done
The orange flames cast a glow in the dark evening as Dylan steps back from the van, watching the fire consume it. It's weird, knowing that his father is in there being cremated. Caleb had crossed a line though. He had faked his sorrow just to get the chance to go right back to what he had done when he was younger.
Only twelve hours ago, he thought that maybe he had a chance of growing closer to his father. There might have been a chance of him having both of his parents in his life.
It was all a lie. He had used him. Caleb never had any intentions of being a real father to him.
Sighing, he shook his head. Dylan wanted to go back to the house and check on Norma, but he had to stick around to make sure that the fire didn't get out of control. The last thing they needed was for the fire to spread to house, and maybe even the motel.
oooooo
Her skirt landed on the floor around her ankles, her blood splattered sweater not too far from her crumpled on the ground. Traces of his blood were still on her hands and knees. Some of her own even mixed with his as it trickled from between her thighs.
Absent mindedly reaching for her robe, she spotted the scar along on her leg, a reminder of everything that she had gone through as a child. That was the worst part of all of this. No matter what they did, he had made sure to leave his mark on her. They even so much as had a son together. It was impossible for her to ever completely escape Caleb.
Norma was about to reach for the scar, lightly brush her fingertips over the damaged skin. Almost by instinct she flinched away from it. That was when she decided that it would be best to finish getting everything cleaned up for when Norman finally returned home. She wasn't about to sit down and tell him about everything that happened, he had enough that he was worrying about at the moment.
Quickly, she went and scooped up her clothes to dispose of them. As she did so, she thought back to the first time that she had thought she escaped her older brother.
1988
Norma paced in the bathroom as she waited for the results of the pregnancy test. At the time, she didn't really think it was possible. It just seemed like something that was too bad to happen, like the world suddenly just ending or the sun randomly exploding. Those events just were not expected to occur.
And if there was somehow a baby, wouldn't it be too messed up to really survive? It was her brother's for godsake. She shouldn't even expect to carry that thing for more than a couple of months.
Those were the things she told herself to keep somewhat sane as she awaited the answer. The problem was that she knew she was lying to herself. If she had fully believed any of that, she wouldn't even be taking this test. The fact of the matter was, was that there was a good chance she was pregnant and there was a chance that she would start showing before she miscarried it. She had to start thinking of ways to tell her family. Come up with some story to tell them to keep them from finding out about her and Caleb.
Not that she didn't want Caleb to get into trouble. She had always kind of hoped that maybe her father would find out about him and send him off somewhere. That was nothing but wishful thinking. He would only get mad at her and punish both of them.
Coming to a stop, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It had to be time to check the results. It certainly felt as though more than just a few moments had passed. Once she opened her eyes, she thickly swallowed. She slowly turned, hesitating as she reached out to grab the stick with a shaky hand.
"Shit."
She had meant to say it with more anger, to sound more annoyed than anything, but it was only a small whimper, a cry. Her entire body went numb and she felt as though the ground had fallen out from under her. If she hadn't spent the entire morning vomiting, she was sure she would have thrown up this second.
It only took seconds for her to start panicking, her mind rushing to look for some solution to the problem. There had to be a way to get out of this, there was always a way, right?
The young girl was brought back from her thoughts as she heard a car pull up out front. Her father. He must have gotten out of work early today.
She needed to hide that test from him. If he saw that there was no doubt that he would have questions and she wasn't ready to deal with it yet. She at least needed a couple of days to come to terms with what happened.
The small scare had caused her to drop the test from her hand down to the floor. She scurried to retrieve it, attempting to slide it into pockets that she forgot she didn't even have. Once that failed she quickly pulled at the top of her shirt and stuffed the stick into her bra. It was noticeable, but decidedly better. So she opened the door, crossed her arms over her chest and hastened to her bedroom where she would hide the stick under her mattress.
It only took her a couple hours in her room alone, but she figured out what it was that she was going to do, and that night she headed over to her boyfriend, John's house.
She walked up to the house wearing the sexiest dress that she could find in her closet. It was a light pink, somewhat low cut dress that fit perfectly. It was short sleeved and the skirt came to her knees. Along with her dress, she did the very best that she could with her hair and makeup, attempting to cover up the fact that she had been crying earlier.
Reaching the porch, she took a moment to gather her composure. She was still somewhat shaken, but she knew that she needed to make this work. She reached out and rung the doorbell, hoping that his parents weren't home. And if they were, they would just have to find somewhere else.
"Norma?" He asked as he opened the door.
She tightly smiled. "I was wondering if you were free tonight."
John looked back over his shoulder before stepping out onto the porch. "Yeah, I'm free," he replied.
"Well let's go then," she replied, playfully grabbing his hands and starting to lead him to his car.
oooooo
The darkness surrounded Norman as he drove down the dirt road. He was isolated, the way that he preferred it. There was nothing to distract him out here, not that anything could when he was like this.
All he knew was that he had to find Caleb and bring him to his mother, dead. He needed to be the one to protect her, prove to her that he wasn't insane. So he was driving back to Dylan's thinking that he still had to be there.
He stomped on the brakes as soon as he pulled up to the house and put the car into park. The idea of turning off the ignition or even the lights was lost as he rushed out of the car.
"Caleb!" Norman angrily shouted.
There was no answer, but he didn't mind. To him that was nothing more than an invitation to storm into his house.
"I know you're here!" He yelled as he reached the door. As he tried to open it, he realized it was locked. Instead of turning around and leaving, he started beating the door, trying his best to break it down.
"Hey!" Gunner called out as he saw Norman.
Norman didn't even register that someone was talking to him. He just continued beating the door until it finally broke and he stormed in, still calling after Caleb.
Gunner ran towards Norman. "What the hell's wrong with you?" He asked as he got to the door. He quickly grabbed Norman's shoulders and pulled him away from the door, forcing him to face him.
"Let go of me!" He demanded as he pushed Gunner away from him.
"Caleb's not even here!" Gunner yelled. "He left a while ago."
Norman paused, looking to him with disbelief. "Where'd he go?" He asked, his voice filled with a sense of urgency.
"I don't know," he replied, looking to him with concern, watching him begin to leave. "Everything okay?"
Norman didn't even acknowledge the fact that he was being asked a question. The only thing that was important to him was getting back home. He wasn't sure that he thought the man had decided to go to there, but he knew that he wanted to be with Norma and protect her. Even if she didn't want to be protected he had to do something.
oooooo
Norma sat in the kitchen, her hands wrapped around the hot cup of coffee. Her palms were burning, but she didn't mind. It was a failed distraction with her mind still trying to grasp what it was that happened tonight.
She wasn't a little girl anymore, this wasn't supposed to be happening. She's an adult now, she should have been able to fight him, to say no and let him know that she meant it. There was nothing different from tonight than any of the nights from nearly thirty years ago.
Her grip tightened as she heard Dylan enter the room. Although he had helped her tonight, she wasn't so sure that she could look at him right now. Lifeless eyes focused onto the steam leaving the cup, evaporating into the air as if it were nothing, as meaningless as she currently felt.
Dylan lingered in the doorway, eyeing her with concern. The silence was uncomfortable, but he didn't want to rush to speak, to say the wrong thing. He was on thin ice as it was.
"It's all taken care of," he said, taking a few steps into the room.
"Thank you," she flatly mumbled down towards the table.
Dylan wanted to say something further, but instead he thickly swallowed as he nodded. There was so much that he should have said, such as sorry or that at least it was all over now, for good. But he couldn't.
Norma could feel him watching her, studying her. She didn't need this right now, this pity. It was obvious that he was sorry and that was all fine and great. There was no apology that would ever take away what happened. He betrayed her and made her feel like an idiot.
Lifting her head, she sighed. Her gaze remained forward. "You can leave now," she coldly stated. "We'll talk about this tomorrow."
Tomorrow. That meant that she wasn't completely cutting him out of her life. At least he had that. "Alright," he said before turning and leaving.
Once she heard the door close behind him, she carefully stood from her seat and took her cup over to the sink. Paranoia set in and she made sure to glance at the back door and the window, just making sure that she was alone. There was no real reason as to why there should be someone else there, but she didn't have the best of luck. She was halfway tempted to run upstairs and grab her gun, but all she had to do was rinse her cup and then she could head up there for the night.
"You mind telling me what Dylan was doing here?" Norman demanded as he slammed the door behind him.
Norma closed her eyes. This was not what she needed right now. All she wanted was to finally have a few hours of being unconscious.
"He followed Caleb here. Made sure to kick him out of town," she answered, hoping that it would suffice.
Some part of her wanted to tell Norman that he had been killed. The only problem with that was that there would be questions. He would ask what happened prior to the trigger being pulled.
"He's the one who betrayed you by keeping him here!" Norman yelled as he entered the kitchen.
He could not believe that his mom was handling this the way she was. Dylan had hurt her. He pretty much lead her abuser to this house. And here she was acting calm? Did she even kick Dylan out?
"It's over, Norman," she sighed with exasperation as she started towards the front door. "What do you want me to say?" She inquired as she passed him.
Norman turned and watched as she locked the door. "I want you to be angry! He hurt you, mother!"
Norma, who was about to head to the staircase paused, facing him. "Look, if this is about earlier, I'm sorry that I didn't believe you. Alright? I should have believed you and I didn't. You happy now?" She implored, her agitation obvious.
"No!" Norman quickly answered. He started towards her, pointing accusingly. "You're refusing to acknowledge the fact that your new favorite betrayed you and it's insane!"
"I'm not in the mood to deal with this crap right now. Caleb's gone and Dylan's not here either. So you're not getting the tantrum you want right now," she explained as she made it to the stairs.
"So that's it?" He inquired, his eyes glued to her as he stood beside the banister.
"I'm going to bed, Norman," she responded, slowly climbing the staircase.
oooooo
It was harder getting to sleep than she thought it would be. Laying in bed alone the silence was suffocating her. There was nothing to distract her from the thoughts running through her mind, threatening to punish her with a restless sleep full of nightmares that would bring forth the toxic memories that would always plague her.
She stared blankly into the darkness. She was starting to wonder how much time had passed. Perhaps it was close enough to dawn to just get up and start the day. It wasn't like she was about to get any sleep. And at least that way she could be getting something productive done.
The door creaked as it opened, causing Norma to quickly turn her attention to it. "Norman?" She asked, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the light flooding in from the hall.
Norman stood there, watching her for a second before he spoke. "I want to apologize for earlier," he began.
Norma sat up and shook her head. "You were trying to warn me and I didn't listen," she stated. "I'm sorry."
Nodding, he got the hint that things were okay between the two of them. That was all he really wanted. Knowing this though, he decided that it would be all right to go ahead and join her. It was something that he had been wanting to do for a while now. Ever since Dylan had told Norma that she shouldn't be sharing a bed with her son, she hadn't been allowing him to lay with her which was making it harder for him to sleep.
He closed the door and went over to the bed where he sat down on the edge. Looking to her, he awkwardly began to fidget with his hands, playing with the fabric of the blanket.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened when Caleb got here?" He questioned, his eyes focusing on his hands. Once his words were out, he looked up to his mother. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
The sudden seriousness in Norman's voice took her by surprise. Sitting up, she eyed him with concern. "No. Why'd you ask?" She asked, hoping that there weren't any bruises or cuts that she didn't notice.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You seemed weird," he mentioned, hoping to buy himself an excuse for his earlier behavior.
Norma's expression softened as she sighed. It was obvious that he was trying to ease his way back into bed with her. He wanted to start this conversation, stay the night. She should tell him to go back to his room, but in all honesty, she missed those nights herself. She missed having the one person that she trusted in this world wrap his arms protectively around her as she slept. It made her feel secure.
Scooting over to give him room, she shook her head. "Nothing happened," she assured him. "He just came here begging for a second chance and Dylan came and got him to leave."
The teenager softly smiled and climbed into the bed with her. He got under the covers and offered her a look of sympathy. "Well if he does come back, I'll make sure nothing happens," he promised.
No one else ever made those promises to her and meant it. Everyone else had ended up hurting her somehow, but not Norman. Maybe she was a little too close to him, but he was all she had.
"I know," she replied with a worn smile, reaching over and pulling him in for a hug.
Norman smiled, wrapping his arms around her and holding her. They were all each other really had when it came down to it. He only ever really had her. Growing up his father was abusive, he never really had friends and she would smother him. He had to protect her though, if he lost her, he wasn't all too sure of what he would do.