Hi back with another update to another story...say WHAT?! What's going on here, lol. So I just updated on a story I almost quit and now I am updating this one. You all must be so shocked. Story is...well lets just get to the story instead of delving into my personal life. R&R if you want. Also, I'm dedicating this chapter to the 'Anon,Wow,Lol' fiasco a little while ago.
Chapter 10
Onyx fell, panting to the ground, exhausted when their training was over. Axel glanced in her direction and gave a small smile. "You're improving." he said before grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her up. "Let's go again," he said. They got into position and the fight started. Not paying enough attention as she should have been, Onyx didn't see the fireball coming at her from the right. At the last second she saw it, and having no other option, she slammed it to the ground inches from her. The fireball exploded, knocking her several feet backwards. She landed on her back, smacking her head on the ground rather hard. The air rushed from her lungs, and she felt extremely dizzy. The last thing she saw, was Axel running over to her. And then there was blackness.
'Mommy?' a little girl asks running into her parents room. 'Mommy?' she asks again crawling into the bed with them. 'Mommy I had a nightmare, come tuck me in,' she says, once her mother wakes. Deeply sighing the girls mother gets up and follows the girl into her room. The girl smiles at her mom. The mother sits on the edge of the bed with her daughter who crawls under the blankets. The mother strokes the little girls hair hesitantly.
'Goodnight Tsumi,' the mother says. She stands up, shutting of the little girls light. The little girl pouts.
'Mommy, do you love me? Daddy tells me he loves me when he tucks me in,' she says, expecting the response from her mother. All she gets is a quietly closed door and the sounds of footsteps as her mother went back to her bedroom. The little girl begins to cry a little. The conversation she'd overheard between Mommy and Nana must have been right. She'd heard Mommy tell Nana that she didn't know what to do, that she was stuck with a kid she didn't want, and a husband that she'd grown tired of. The little girl wondered what Nana had said because Mommy had hung up angrily afterwords.
The blackness continued as another memory long supressed began to surface.
'Get off of me.' her mother said, shoving her father off of the couch they were sitting on. All he'd done was lay an arm across her shoulders. Daddy scooted across the couch, looking very depressed. 'Look at you! All you ever do is mope around and cry, you're useless!' her mother exclaims, getting up from the couch, walking to the door, putting on her shoes and slamming the door as she left. The little girl walks out from her bedroom where she'd been watching the scene and sits on the couch by her dad.
'You're not useless Daddy, I still love you! Why is Mommy so mad all the time?' the little girl asks. Her father wipes his eyes casually, trying to look strong for his daughter.
'She's not mad. She's just not happy,' her father says. The two sit there for a while. The little girl suddenly jumps up, runs to her bedroom and grabs her piggy bank.
'I'll be right back Daddy, you can count on me!' she shouts, running out the door, uncaring of her lack of shoes. She runs to the ice cream stand and gets two sea salt ice creams, using up every bit of munny she had. She runs back to her home, leaving the empty bank at the stand. She hands her dad one of the ice creams, she grins. Her father smiles at her.
'I'm sick of this damn house! I'm sick of this damn marriage, and I'm sick of that damn kid! I wish I'd never married you!' Her mother said, flinging two bags out the front door.
'Mommy don't leave! Please Mommy NO!' the little girl yelled, clinging to her mother's leg. Her father stepped over to grab his little girl but the mother shook her leg til the little girl, 6 years old, slid across the floor to her father.
'Get off of me brat.' the mother said, walking out the door. The girl dissolves into tears as the father crouches down.
'Are you hurt?' he asks his little girl, holding her in his arms. The girl nods, pointing to her chest and sobbing harder. The father rocks the two of them back and forth both crying now.
'Daddy are you hungry?' The little girls asks standing on a stool by the stove. She was now 8 but she'd learned a lot about doing big girl things. Her father just sat on the couch, not answering. The little girl made some food, and set a plate in front of her father. She didn't expect him to eat but a few bites. The girl took her food to her room and started on her homework. When she finished, she walked into the kitchen, got a plastic dish from the cabinet and puts away the leftovers, puts the dishes in the sink and gets her father's plate, scraping it into the trash and putting it into the sink. 'I'll do those later dad,' she said. She looks back at him. Frowning, she opens the fridge grabs him one of his drinks, and puts it in front of him after opening the can. It smelled disgusting, and he smelled even worse when he woke up in the morning after drinking several of them. But it seemed like the foul drink was the only think that would get him moving around. She goes into her room and shuts the door, then sits on her bed and hugs a teddy bear. Everything was going so wrong now that Mommy was gone.
'Dad are you gonna do anything today?' Natsumi asks, looking at him. She was now 11 and she was running around doing tasks for people in order to make enough munny to survive. By now her mother was being forced to give some munny to them for child support, but it wasn't nearly enough to support the two of them. Her father shook his head no, and Tsumi grabbed him his beer and went into her room. Hours later, she hears crashing in the kitchen and sighs. He was throwing the pots and pans around again. And the other dishes by the sounds of of plastic on cheap linoleum. She had had to buy plastic dishes after he broke all of the glass. A shattering sound alerted her to the fact that he'd decided to throw the vase of flowers she'd put out to make it seem a little cheerier in there. She quietly slipped from her room to survey the damage. Her father spins to look at her.
'Clean this up!' he roared at her storming from the house. She sullenly begins picking up dishes, sweeping up the glass and then moping up the floor to make sure there weren't any little pieces left. She washed all of the dishes he'd thrown on the floor. When he came home, he looked at the kitchen and glared at her before storming into the bedroom and slamming the door.
'I've cleaned the house, may I go out to see the fireworks dad?' Tsumi asks, biting her lip. In celebration of some even there were going to be fireworks starting at dusk and she wanted to go to the clock tower and see them. Her father glared, running his fingers across the surface of everything, inspecting the dishes. He then went to her room. Everything was spotless. Just as she knew he expected it to be. She was 13. He glared again and nodded, flopping into the depressed seat of the couch, where he spent most of his time. Elated, she ran and watched the fireworks. When the last firework went up, she climbed down from the tower, smiling at the three other people that had shared her idea. Hayner, Pence, and Olette, kids that were in her class in school. She ran home, happy, having had fun. Only when she got home, her mood dropped. The door was half open, and the lights were on. Just from the door being open as much as it was, she could tell it was gonna be a bad night. There were things knocked over everywhere. Taking off her shoes, before she even goes to her room, she picks up everything in the hallway, then the kitchen, and steps into her room to drop off her munny purse. Then she steps out of her room and the few steps to the living room, picking up the wooden remains of the broken coffee table. The center glass was shattered on the floor. She grabs the vacuum and uses that to get rid of the glass. The sound wakes her drunken father who comes flyng out of the room.
'You weren't supposed to stay out so late,' he says lowly. She flinched. Usually when he spoke it was in a loud voice. This...was something different. 'You haven't finished cleaning yet?' he says, his voice remaining low.
'I'll be done in just a little while,' she says softly. It didn't seem good enough. It seemed to have been a bad idea to speak actually. He took a step towards her, raising his hand. She flinches back. He pauses, and then goes back to his room.
Two weeks later, was the first time he'd hit her. She'd cut her finger on a knife, and when she went to the bathroom to get a bandage, she'd tripped over a towel on the floor and as she fell forward, the hand she'd cut slammed into the bathroom mirror, shattering it. It was a complete accident, but he was enraged at the fact that she'd broken something, never mind all of the things he'd broken. He'd slapped her in the face. It wasn't to bad, and he didn't leave to big of a red mark. But it was like the opening of a door. She'd cleaned up the bathroom, bandaged her hand and continued the dishes. After, she went to her room, and stayed there the rest of the night. That was the first time she'd dreamed of Axel.
She was 16, and she'd just returned from school. The house was a mess, which was normal. Her father was awake, which was abnormal. Doing the usual clean as she went routine, she dropped her backpack in her room before she did the kitchen. She stepped silently past him to clean the living room next, but he grabbed her. 'Can't even greet me when you come home?' he asked in the dangerous voice.
'Hello father, how was your day,' she replies monotonously. His eyes narrowed. He hadn't liked her answer. In the ensuing anger, her father never once hit her face. Not after the first time. And when he was done abusing her in his drunken rage, he told her how much he loved his precious daughter, and that he appreciated everything she did for him. Just like always.
She had a nightmare that night. Her father beating her, calling her name, telling her how awful she was calling her trash. 'Natsumi, you're a terrible daughter. Natsumi you can't do anything right.' Natsumi, Natsumi, Natsumi, Onyx, Onyx, when had it become Onyx?
Light floods her vison and she sits up suddenly. She'd been unconscious. She finds herself inches from a wide eyed Axel. He backed up, looking apologetic. Then he steps forward, feeling the back of her skull. Not finding any bumps or anything that might lead to a concussion, he sighs in relief. "Sorry," he mutters. Onyx was too dazed to respond. He picks her up, one hand on the middle of her back, the other under her legs, and steps into a corridor, depositing her on her hammock. "You ok?" he asks again. She nods numbly. "You aren't in pain?" he asks again. She shakes her head. It must have been something she dreamed while she was unconscious. "I've got to go, I will be back later," he tells her. He returns to The World That Never Was, but guilt wracked at him for two hours. He went to another town, one with a large shopping center. Buying Onyx something should relieve the terrible guilt he felt for knocking her unconscious. He walks around idly, looking from store to store. He sees something from a window. He walks into the jewelry store, and to the shelving he'd seen. On it, was a hair piece, it was silver and red with a silver and red pin that pushed through it. It wasn't anything special really, but it reminded him of her. He bought it. When he returned to her island, she was asleep. He left the box with a little note saying he was sorry.
Ok, so how was that? Hope it was sufficient. Sorry if its a little short I'm just getting back into my writing. This wasn't what I originally had planned for this chapter but when I laid down in bed last night I was hit with the idea. I've been writing this for around 4 hours now, between the story, dinner, and doing some chores, and it was crazy difficult to go to bed last night with this idea brewing.