The moment Clarke snuck through the front door and closed it behind him, his mother appeared. She walked briskly out of the kitchen and hit him across the face, manicured nails scratching his cheek. "Where have you been?!" she demanded, her voice sounded a little hoarse as if she had been crying. "I was so worried when you left? Where did you go?" she continued to beg pulling her son into a hug. Clarke could hardly believe his mother was in a good mood, especially considering he was gone for three months. The bliss didn't last long, his mother's smile and hug turned into a frown and a suffocating grip, "Go to the kitchen, now." she hissed letting go of him only to grab him by the ear and drag him to the kitchen. "The moment your father gets home, you'll regret ever trying to leave, you selfish brat." she growled before hurrying away to tell Baldric about Clarke's arrival.
Clarke did the dishes as he waited to hear the thud of Baldric's heavy footsteps along with the slam of the front door. As an hour passed, he fell into an anxious state. He wished that he would just come and get it over with that way his mind would stop coming up with worst case scenarios. It was in moments like these when Clarke wondered to himself why he hadn't made a will of some sort of at least goodbye letters for his friends. He continued to clean plates and cups as he thought about what his will might look like, he would give away all the important things to his friends: Kaitlyn would get his notebooks, his photographs, and Tulip if her mom would let her keep the small dog, Austin would receive his Star Wars merchandise since he had been the one to get him into it along with the basketball he had bought him for Christmas two years ago, he wanted Clementine to have his camera and the candles she gave him, Ben would get his invention notebook, he would leave his old stuff animals to Begonia since she had always been so fun to babysit for, Chris could have his books and Tulip if Kaitlyn couldn't have her, Eloise could have back all the sketchbooks and pens she had given him despite his insistence that he couldn't draw, Lastly, Paul and Anthony and John, he wasn't sure what to give them to tell the truth. As he thought about his will and what gifts he would leave for everyone, Baldric stomped into the kitchen without him noticing. Within moments he was only the floor, his arm about to be snapped by Baldric.
Baldric smirked down at him, he looked amused with Clarke's wide eyed expression caused from the shock of being thrown down suddenly. "Well if it isn't my long lost stepson, are you really so stupid you came back?" he sneered. "Olivia, honey, can you bring me my toolbox?" he called towards the living room. A smile of glee stretched across his face when the black metal box was set beside him. He placed a knee on Clarke's chest to keep him still as he turned away to open his toolbox. As Baldric took out different instruments and laid them on the white tile floor, Clarke tried to figure out what his step-father was planning. While Baldric had various objects to hit Clarke with, he had never brought out his toolbox. Baldric pressed Clarke's arm against the floor with one hand and picked up his hammer with the other. He then proceeded to bring the tool down to his son's arm with full force. The pain was excruciating, it reminded Clarke of when he had his hand pressed against the stove top for the first time. He began to sob as the hammer was brought back to his arm for a second time, and then a third, and a fourth. He didn't dare try to lift his arm knowing it would only cause more pain if he even had the ability to do so.
"Did that hurt you?" Baldric laughed standing up. He made sure to step on Clarke's arm as he walked to the other end of the kitchen to look for more things to use against his stepson. In a few moments, he was back hovering over Clarke with a cheese grater. "Lookie here, remember this?" he asked shoving the metal grater in his face. At the sight of the grater, Clarke tried to push himself off the floor and run off to his room or to Kaitlyn's house. Baldric cackled at his pathetic attempt grabbing Clarke by the shoulder. "You can't leave just yet. You haven't gotten all of your punishment." he taunted as he tugged Clarke over to a drawer in order to take a pair of scissors from it. With the scissors, he cut the back of Clarke's shirt off, squeezing his broken arm every time he made a motion to escape. Once the back of the shirt was sliced apart, he began to run the cheese grater along Clarke's back. He kept at it until Clarke fell to floor, sobbing, bleeding, and in raging pain. Watching Clarke cry and look close to fainting pleased him, it always did, and once he was pleased he stopped. "Clean yourself up and get out of my house, I don't want to see you for the rest of the night." he demanded pulling him up by his hair and tossing him out the front door.
Clarke could hardly stay awake, his arm was beginning to feel numb, and the pain in his back was agonizing. He got halfway to up Kaitlyn's driveway before he collapsed. He didn't own a phone so there was no way to tell her he needed help, all he could do was sleep.
Maria Gutierrez began to pull into her driveway only five minutes later, the moment her headlights fell on the bleeding child in her driveway she went into doctor mode. She swiftly turned off her car and took off her coat. She wrapped him tightly in the coat, trying to slow to bleeding. With ease, she carried him inside and set him on the open couch in the living room. "Jimena, grab my bag from my room," she ordered her youngest sister who watched her with shock as she hurried in the room. Jimena ran up the stairs to retrieve the medical bag that Maria kept under her bed. "Ian call 911, move the kids upstairs" she commanded looking over at her older brother as she continued to work to stop the bleeding. Ian did as he was told, reporting that they had a child with a shredded back and a broken arm. In ten minutes, Maria wrapped up Clarke's back and a few minutes later an ambulance arrived. It took 20 minutes to get Clarke to the hospital.