Chapter 21

Beating Me Down Into The Ground

Sara regretted not taking a jacket with her when she had left her house on that horrifying night now that the cold wind of her night brushed against her bare arms, causing them to feel freezing cold.

Her cold arms were wrapped around Baron's torso, making sure she wouldn't fall off the motorcycle and make a painful, possibly even deadly fall to the asphalt. She was sitting right behind the ink demon on his motorcycle. The duo sped through the dark night, the only sources of light being the motorcycle's headlight and the full moon in the black sky, brightly illuminating the road in front of them. A minor burning pain was still lingering in her wrist and on the lines of Sara's brand new tattoo, coloring the skin around it in a soft shade of red, but it didn't bother her. The cold wind caressing her arms didn't do anything to take away the strange, new energy that was now coursing through every vein in her body. Dear God, she had never felt this kind of energy before... it was without a doubt inhuman. Supernatural... yes, that was the best way to describe that energy; it was supernatural.

So this must be what Baron was constantly feeling from the inside... given the fact that he had so many tattoos on his upper body, it surprised Sara that he didn't feel like combusting due to all that energy. But then again, since Baron was a supernatural being, she assumed that he was somehow able to control the energy. Looking down, she saw that her tattoo was glowing with a red light. Just the same way it did like Baron's tattoos on that night... Sara couldn't help but be entranced by her glowing tattoo for a short moment, it looked so pretty. She thought the pain in her wrist she had felt earlier was worth it.

Even though it must've been past midnight, Baron had still agreed to take Sara to her parents' home. The ink demon was silent at first after she had given him that request, it was likely that he was considering it. Then, much to Sara's surprise, he agreed to do it; from the moment he said yes, Sara could feel her heartbeat rising a little bit, but not out of fear or anything. No... she didn't feel that anymore. She felt determined to go back to the place that was Hell itself in her eyes, to confront her parents one more time before she would officially cut ties with those abusive monsters. She was going to show them the new strength she had, the strength that they could never take away from her, no matter how much they were going to verbally or even physically abuse her. Yes, Sara was convinced that they were more capable of unleashing all that violence on her, even if Baron was around. Hell, maybe they would be too enraged to even see him. But Sara was not going to allow for a second for them to lay a finger or hurl a degrading insult at her, not anymore. She refused to be the victim any longer, she had been playing that role for too long. She was sick of all the fear, the humiliation, the powerlessness; tonight, she was going to forever step out of that role.

Of course Sara wasn't going to walk away after that was done. When she was done with her parents, she and Baron would go after Finn Bálor and stop that evil bastard. He was going to pay for siding with the people she despised so damn much. He was just as bad as those people, she and Baron had to put a stop to him before more innocent demons would be slain be him and more filthy scumbags would fall under his protection, the protection they didn't deserve. Oh, but they were going to fall as well; Sara would make sure of that.

It was funny, actually... the demons, the creatures that humanity is so afraid of in all those horror stories and whatnot, are actually more human than human beings themselves.

Just then, Sara saw the name of her hometown written on a large green sign on the right side of the road, along with the name of Levesque City. Brightpine, three more kilometers to go. A shiver traveled down Sara's spine when she read it. Brightpine, the gateway to her personal hell. Brightpine, home to Edward and Lisa Lee, a married couple who couldn't keep their ungodly rage towards their daughter in check for many years. Brightpine, paradise for the cowards and the uncaring.

'You have to turn right here.' Sara said, hoping that Baron would hear her over the whistling sound of the cold wind. 'It's not far anymore!'

'Gotcha.' Baron replied and entered the road on the right, leaving the main road. Sara took a deep breath and clenched her fists in the ink demon's leather vest. She had sworn to God that she would never set foot in that godforsaken hellhole of a town again, and yet here she was, heading straight towards it. But she was ready. She had casted all dread for her hometown aside and abandoned her role as the helpless victim.

No... two certain people living in Brightpine were going to play that role tonight.

Holy shit, it was just like she had remembered it. It was exactly the way it was when she had finally gotten the opportunity to move away and left as soon as she had the chance. It was almost like time had ceased to exist in Brightpine; it nearly made Sara shiver, the thought was that creepy.

Driving through the streets of the town's center, she watched the shops passing them by. The bakery, the flower shop, the electronic shop, the butcher, the only fashion store of the town... none of them had moved away, none of them had gone bankrupt. The lampposts revealed the names of the stores that were printed on the large windows, Sara knew each name by heart. She had walked through that street on her way to school back in those days that she wished to forget, she would pass by each of those shops. Her fresh bruises and scar were clearly visible on her arms, all the owners had seen them when she walked to school or had to pick up some groceries. As soon as they would see the dark bruises on her limbs, they glanced away and pretended like they had seen nothing, obviously knowing how she got those goddamn bruises. They never asked how she got them. It was almost like the bruises were a common part of Sara's body, like fingers or ears. Even if she walked past the stores with her arm in a cast, they didn't ask anything. The owners of the shops in Brightpine had seen her injuries and they did absolutely nothing.

'Where do I have to go now?' Baron asked, causing Sara to snap out of her thoughts.

'Um... go left at the end of the street. Then turn right. You have to go straight the entire time and then you have to turn right at the end.'

'Got it.'

As Baron followed her instructions and they got closer to the house she spend the most miserable years of her life at, Sara found it harder to breathe and a heavy weight had found itself a way into her chest; she almost had to grasp at it, it felt so heavy. Oh no. No, no, no. She was not going to fucking chicken out and tell Baron to turn around, she refused to do that! She had finally gathered the courage and strength she needed, no way in hell that she was going to fall back into her victim role now! Sara took a few deep breaths, trying to somehow breathe out the weight in her chest. It worked, but not as good as singing; some leftovers of the weight were still pressing against her heart. Sara noticed that there was nobody outside, not even one person. Well, that was actually pretty logical, since it was that late. Everyone must've been sound asleep, as all the lights inside all the houses were out, rendering all the interiors completely dark.

Baron turned right at the end of the street and there she saw it. The house on the left at the end of King Street. The house where so many beatings were given behind those walls, the silent witnesses of the on-going physical, emotional and verbal abuse, all targeted to one helpless girl and carried out by two violent adults. It was the house where Sara Lee grew up. It was there, in all of its sinister glory. For outsiders it was just your average all-American house, two stores high, the outside build with ivory-white wood, a neat small garden in the front... but Sara knew better than that; it was a house of horror.

'It's right over there.' she said, trying to hide the trembling in her voice and pointing at the house. Baron gave her a little nod and parked the motorcycle on the sidewalk. They both got off. Sara couldn't keep her eyes off the place that was her former home.

'How are you holding up?' Baron asked. 'Do you still want to keep going?'

With her sight still glued to the house, Sara nodded and slowly breathed out through her nose. 'Yeah. Let's go.'

Her legs felt heavy with each step she took, but Sara bravely decided to keep walking. As she and Baron got closer, she began to think that she had been in fact living in some kind of twisted dollhouse. Yes, that was the best way to describe it (besides the term 'house of horror'); it was a dollhouse. On the outside, you would expect that a happy, warm, loving family was living inside the neat-looking house. But nobody would guess what was actually happening inside. Nobody would guess that a young girl would be mercilessly abused on a daily basis. Goose bumps appeared all over Sara's arms. Abandon all hope, ye who enter this goddamn dollhouse.

Now Baron and Sara were standing in front of the house. All the lights were off; Sara assumed that her parents were asleep, but that didn't matter to her.

'So what do you want to do now? Enter through the front door?' Baron asked.

'No.' Sara replied, shaking her head. 'You see, my parents especially liked to harm me when I was least expecting it. Now it's time for me to give them a little surprise. I have an idea. Come with me.'

The ink demon followed her to the left side of the house, where a wooden, ladder-like structure was build against the wall, adorned with dark green climbers, leading to her old bedroom window. Goose bumps appeared over Sara's arms once again when a memory of her climbing down those climbers one time in an attempt to escape from a beating. But her father was the one who was able to catch up with her and she had received a brutal beating regardless.

Shaking off that harrowing memory, Sara pulled herself together. 'Maybe the window is open. We have to climb up there. I think it will hold.'

She was the first one to climb up the wooden structure. The wood loudly creaked under her weight, for a moment Sara was afraid that this would wake up her parents, but then realized she actually didn't care much about that and continued climbing. The climbers tickled the skin on her arms. Her fingers searched for the window frame and found it. As soon as she got to the top, Sara tried to open the window by shoving it upwards. Much to her surprise, it wasn't locked. She opened it far enough for her to enter and crawled through the opening. She landed on the soft, white carpet of her old bedroom.

When Sara got up on her feet, she saw something that made her jaw drop in shock and surprise.

All of her stuff was gone. Her bed, her closet, her nightstand, even the clock on the wall... they were all vanished, only leaving a few deep marks on the carpet as a reminder of their existence. The entire bedroom was empty. Sara had only taken a suitcase with some clothes on the day she escaped from her house, it was likely that the remaining clothes had vanished as well. What was going on here?

Just then, Sara heard creaking behind her, followed by a grunt. When she turned around, she saw Baron crawling through the opened window and landing on the ground with a loud thud. He immediately got up afterwards.

'They threw away all my stuff...' Sara said, her voice soft with disbelief. 'They must've done that after I moved out... but why?'

Suddenly, they heard the click of a light switch, followed by rapid footsteps which got increased in volume as they approached the empty bedroom. The door swung open and Sara could almost feel her blood freezing. Her father, Edward Lee, was standing in the doorway. He was a tall man in his early fifties with short, grey hair, wearing a pair of boxers and sweat-stained, white t-shirt; he was the man Sara feared so much for when she was young. Oh damn, he must've heard them when Baron fell on the ground... Sara's father stared at the duo with a mix of shock and anger in his eyes.

'Wha... Sara?' he asked, as if he couldn't believe that his abused daughter was actually standing in front of him. 'What are you doing here? And who the hell is this guy?'

'He...' Sara noticed that her mouth was becoming dry. 'He is...'

'I'm nobody.' Baron said, unmoved by their sudden discovery.

'Well, even if you are 'nobody', would you mind explaining me why the fuck you are in my house?' Sara's father asked. 'And I would especially like an explanation from you, young lady! Where have you been all this time? How dare you not telling us where you were going! You ran away from us like some... disobedient dog!'

'I found a place that I could afford, far away from you two.' Sara replied, trying her best to hide the trembling in her voice. 'If I told you where I was living, you would've come over and continue beating me.'

'And rightfully so!' her father spat out. 'No daughter of mine would pull off some sneaky shit like this! How could you do this to us, Sara?! You ungrateful bitch! After everything we have done for you!'

'And what exactly have you done for me, dad?' Sara's voice had grown cold at this point.

'What the fuck do you think?! Look around you! We have given you proper shelter, food, education, clothing, pocket money, a goddamn bed to sleep in! And then you stab us in the back like this!'

'Oh, really? Well, let me tell you what you and mom have done for me... You have given me nothing more but pure hell. All my life, you have beaten me with your fists, belt, and anything else that you could find that was good enough to beat the living shit out of me with. You and mom abused me on a daily basis. No matter how much I begged you to stop, you continued nonetheless. You have turned my childhood into a nightmare!'

Edward Lee scoffed indignantly. 'We? Abusing you? You call those little slaps abuse? Me and my mother loved you, Sara. We...'

'Loved me?!' Sara screamed. 'You call beating a child until bruises appear all over their body love?! Do you think you show love by calling a child stupid, worthless and pathetic nearly every single day?! How much love do you think you're showing when you break a child's bones?! Do you even still think you're a loving parent if you force your child to sleep on the cold basement floor as a punishment?! If you two loved me so much, then where the hell is all my stuff?! Did you love me so much that you felt like throwing them away instead of cherishing them as a memory of your daughter?! You tell me, dad! You fucking tell me!'

It was completely silent in the empty bedroom for a moment.

'I sold it all.' Edward Lee emotionlessly replied.

'You what?' Sara asked, slightly squinting her eyes. 'Why?'

'So that I could have enough money to pay for your mother's funeral. I was nearly broke.'

'Wait, what... Mom died?'

'Not long after you left. She suffered a stroke one night while cooking dinner and passed away in the hospital. And you... you didn't even show your sorry ass at her funeral! Your own damn mother! Now who's the terrible person here, Sara?!'

For some obvious reason, Sara didn't feel any sadness for the passing of her mother. No, she didn't feel anything for that violent woman. 'How could I have known she had died?!'

'You know... I've realized something now. Even if you had shown up on her funeral, I don't think I would've wanted you there anyway. You wouldn't be any help to me. You forced me to mourn alone. Me, your own father. I hope you will live with that guilt for as long as you live, Sara.'

It took a few large steps for Sara's father to cross the bedroom and stand in front of his daughter. Sara knew exactly what was going through his mind right now; he was about to give her a beating. But she refused to cower away, not for a second. Her father was now standing in front of her, his face enough to hers to feel his hot breath. His cold blue eyes expressed nothing more but hate. This man was supposed to be her father, he was supposed to love, take care and protect her... but he did none of that.

'And you know what? I think it's your fault that your mother died. It's because of you that she suffered that stroke. Sara... you're a monster.'

'No, dad...' Sara replied. 'You're the monster here.'

For the very first time in her life, Sara had enough. She grabbed her father's throat and squeezed it shut with all the strength she had; the tattoo on her wrist glowed red as it multiplied her strength. Edward's eyes bulged out of their sockets and his face colored in a deep shade of red. He opened his mouth in an attempt to scream for help, but the only sound he could produce was a miserable little squeak. But Sara wasn't planning on stopping now. Thanks to her newfound, supernatural strength, she managed to throw her father across the room, sending him flying against the wall. As soon as her father's sore body touched the ground, Sara ran towards him, got on top of him and started to punch him in the face over and over again. Her father desperately tried to push his enraged daughter off of him, but without avail. Sara was so absorbed by her own rage, she didn't even feel the skin on her knuckles bursting.

'You have been a monster to me for years, along with mom!' she screamed. 'You have never been a father to me, you are and always will be an abusive bastard! I couldn't give less than a fuck about the death of that abusive bitch! How dare you denying everything that has happened?! You know goddamn well what you have done to me! Remember that time you beat me with a baseball bat and you broke my arm on three spots?! Do you still remember the time where I caught a cold from sleeping on the basement floor and you slapped me for complaining about it?! Hell, do you even remember those nights where you came into my room and wanted me to undress, so you could see how much I had grown?! Sick bastard! Abusive fuck! Why?! What did I ever do to deserve all this shit?!'

Despite the fact that his face was now a bloody mess, Sara's father glared at her with the most hateful look she had ever seen; when her eyes met his, she stopped punching but still didn't feel the pain in her knuckles.

'You really want to know why...?' Edward hissed, spitting out droplets of blood mixed with saliva. 'It's because... you are the biggest mistake we have ever made! You should have never been born! We hated you before you were even born!'

Sara Lee finally snapped. Letting out an ear-piercing, bloodcurdling scream, she grabbed her father's head and smashed it against to floor, her tattoo glowing in a bright red light. As she continued to smash her tormentor's head against the floor over and over again, she could only see a bright red shade covering her sight, blinding her. She heard a skull crack, followed by a sickening wet sound, like something was being pummeled into a pulp. It felt like a century had passed before her arm began to feel heavy and tired. The red shade faded away, slowly bringing back her surroundings... and the first thing Sara saw was the blood-stained carpet. Loudly panting, she saw what had happened during her livid rampage. Her father's head was nothing more but a bloody mush of brains, pieces of bone and blood. Most of his teeth had been smashed out of his mouth; his jaw was the only piece of his head that came close to being intact.

Sara had bashed her father's head on the floor until it burst like a watermelon. Edward Lee, her tormentor, was dead.

Sara thought she was going to hyperventilate when she got up on her feet, trembling all over her body. Oh God, oh Jesus fucking Christ, she had done this... she had killed him! Warm, fresh blood soaked her hand, just the feeling of it send her closer to the verge of hyperventilating. A large hand touching her shoulder snapped her out of her shock and somehow eased her breathing. Looking up, Sara saw that it was Baron. He had been standing there, he had seen it all... and yet it didn't look like he was shocked by the violent outburst at all.

'Come on, Sara.' he said. 'It's time to go.'