At 14 Sean was starting to lose his beauty.
It happened one bruise after another. His arm got broken, healed badly. In fact, the only reason it healed at all was because Katherine had forced him to stay with her.
At 14 she had lost hers. They lived on one side of the Conlon apartment. She would hear every hit, unable to sleep she curled into a pillow about to burst into tears as his grunts of pain were heard.
At 14 Sean was ready to die.
He knew that his mother had given up. He doubted that he had the strength to actually move on past all that had happened. He couldn't wake up to one more day of beatings. Katherine was wrapped around him, trying to hold him to the safety of her aunt's home.
Her aunt no longer liked Sean. She glared at the malnourished boy, unable to see his mother's hair, or his father's eyes. Instead he was jerky, draining her niece of everything. He drained her of her beauty, the full blue eyes were now pale with worry, and they would never again reach the height of blue they had when she was young, She would never reach the potential of her beauty, falling because. As her aunt swore, she had given it all to Sean.
Just imagine what the neighbors would say if they could see the way the two of them were curled up in bed together. She knew Sean's life wasn't easy, but he wasn't her, or Katherine's responsibility.
Sean knew all that, as he lay, feeling Katherine's head against his boney back, he pulled away, gently, slowly. He waited for her to adjust to every new position as he moved from beside her. Then he knelt down, kissing her forehead and making sure her skirts seemed decent so her aunt wouldn't get the wrong impression of him. It was sure to be the last.
He debated waking the girl up, telling her goodbye in person, instead he kissed her forehead again and whispered it to her sleeping form. Then he left.
It was morning. New York didn't smell so bad to him in the morning. It was almost worth living for mornings. Mornings his uncle slept all the time. No use going to the apartment, the beating that would kill him wouldn't come till later anyhow. He leaned against a door, which opened in.
An old woman looked up at him. Sean didn't know where he'd seen her before. He hardly left unless it was to get beer for his uncle or because Katherine dragged him to sell papers.
"Your arm" She said in a heavy accent, defiantly not Irish, like most of the people in the building. "Is better"
"Oh, thanks" He said, she was the one who Katherine had begged to help him.
"Your..." the woman paused.
"Katherine" Sean supplemented, standing awkwardly, not meaning to have burst in on her.
"Katerina" She nodded. "She is very... how do you say" She paused "devoted."
"Yeah."
"I hear you know." The woman said,
"What"
She gestured to his arm. "You didn't let it heal right." She noted. "Come here, I can still help."
He walked over, "I'm going to get killed when I leave here."
"What?"
"You hear?" He questioned.
"I hear her crying. I hear you yelling."
"She doesn't cry."
"You do."
"What?" He looked over at her. His body really alive with asking the question, alive for the first time in months.
"In the hall, I hear it."
"Oh" He sat in silence as the old woman then pulled on his arm, he bit into his lip as the bone shifted slightly, blood poured down his chin.
"You are very quiet." The woman observed. Sean looked around the apartment.
"My husband beat me." She said.
"What?"
"The pain."
Sean sat, not wanting to say anything.
"He's dead now." She said. "You, are stronger."
He took a rag she offered him as he wiped the blood off his face.
"He, god will take care of him."
"Uh..."
"You, are no mutt" She smiled at him "Italiano"
He smiled.
"You will not die" She said.
"Thank you, Ma'am, for helping me, uh, before... and just now."
He hurried into Katherine's apartment, and they were both gone before his uncle tried to break down the door.
Author's notes: I wuv reviews -cute eyes- Okay, I would love some input on this, Is the woman a strong enough charachter? Does Cards seem like she's in love with him (she isn't). Does Sean seem to go through a change? Review?