Hear Me
.chapter two. broadway.
unsafety pin
Last chapter: "Son of a bitch..." Annabella came to her feet. She looked around for her "mother's" boyfriend, and found him out cold on the floor. She cocked an eyebrow at her brother, knowing the answer without asking the question. If Ryan would have known that this moment would lead to the undoing, he would have grabbed Annabella and ran as fast as his legs would have carried him.
------
Ryan and Annabella stayed the night at a friend's place. A black and blue mark was prevalent on her face. Ryan woke up to find her in the bathroom, reverently packing on the cover-up.
"What'dya think?" Annabella looked in the mirror.
Ryan gave her the "you-don't-deserve-this-and-I'm-going-to-kick-his-ass" look.
Broadway is dark tonight
A little bit weaker than you used to be
Broadway is dark tonight
See the young man sitting
In the old man's bar
Waiting for his turn to die
Annabella knew this look, and quite well. "You know, you-"
"I know, I know." Ryan cut her off sharply. "ButI can't let this keep happening."
"Ryan, " She turned away from the mirror. "Soon we won't have to deal with this, with mom, or her stupid 'boyfriends'."
"And what if soon isn't soon enough?
"Ryan..."
"No! What if next time..." Ryan stopped, realizing he was now yelling, and that Annabella had that look in her eye...the look she had during the 'incidents'. He put his hands on her shoulders. "What if next time...is the last time? What am I supposed to do then?"
Annabella patted Ryan on the head.
"I will be fine. However," She reached for the bathroom light." You, my dearest, blue eyed brother, did you study for that test in history today?" She walked out and down the hallway.
-------
The cowboy kills the rock star
And Friday night's gone too far
The dim light hides the years
On all the faded girls
The rain had gone back to a drizzle. The mud was already caked and soaking through Ryan's jeans. The coldness of the stone had seeped deeper into his bones. Well, Ryan thought to himself, it was raining just like this...
-------
Ryan ran inside; it was raining. He heard a thump from somewhere farther inside the house. Cautiously, he moved toward the sound. His mother's boyfriend was rummaging through the tiny room that Annabella occupied.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Ryan's voice boomed off the walls.
"She's got it!" A drawer was flung unto the bed. Dirty hands ran though it all." Where the fuck is it?!"
"What are you talking about? Stop it! None of that is yours to touch!" Ryan reached for his grubby hands. The boyfriend smacked him away.
"Where is it? Where is that fat ass bitch sister of yours keeping it? Where's the money?!" The boyfriend grabbed ahold of Ryan's shoulders and shook.
"You son of a bitch! Stop it!" Annabella appeared in the doorway. She was now bony thin and pale.
"Tell me where it is!!" The boyfriend let go of Ryan, reaching instead for Annabella's purse. Annabella screeched and smacked him across the face with it. Ryan couldn't, didn't, react fast enough.
Forgotten but not gone
You drink it off your mind
You talk about the world
Like it's someplace that you've been
The boyfriend power housed Annabella in the face, knocking her against the doorway and finally the floor. Ryan will always remember that sound, the sound of his sister's murder. Adrenaline pulsed through each and every cell of his being. He jumped on the boyfriend, pulling him mid-pounce from his sister, and pummeled him until he didn't move. Ryan slid over to his sister.
"Annabella..." He smoothed her hair from her face. Ryan reached to pull her head to his lap. Sticky. Warm. Ryan pulled his hand away. Red. He shook her shoulder. "Annabella!"
Her head lolled to the side. Blood freely oozed down from a gash by her temple. Ryan put his head to her chest. He struggled to hear the beats. He sprang up for the phone. Phone? Dead; no answer. Didn't pay the bill. Ryan burst out the front door, screaming to anyone that would hear him.
You see you'd love to run home
But you know you ain't got one
And you're livin' in a world
That you're best forgotten around here
Ryan watched from the swinging ER room doors. A team flurried around Annabella, sticking her with things he couldn't pronounce. 'Bella wouldn't have liked that, she was terrified of needles.
"'I'm sorry, but if I was supposed to be stabbed with foreign objects like that, I would have been born with a "stab here" spot. Last time I checked, not there!'"
Annabella's frail body jerked on the stretcher. Ryan looked away. He stared at his fists, marred and bloody. After a neighbor had called an ambulance, he had gone back inside. Ryan took another look at Annabella and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead before returning to the boyfriend.
"If she dies, so will you." His voice was ice cold. The boyfriend groaned from his spot on the floor.
"You think so, you little shit..." The boyfriend choked it out.
"Yeah, I do." Ryan sucker punched him as he tried to get up. And he did it again. Again. Again. And again until he could hear someone pounding on his door. The boyfriend no longer had a face.
Ryan sprinted to the door. It was a blur from the paramedics to where he was now. He could hear the beep go solid. Ryan slid to the floor, his emotions finally spilling over. He pounded his fists into his eyes, his grief overcoming him. Why? Why why why why why...over and over again that's all he thought until it became jumbled...why why yhwywhywyhwy. Ryan bent over, resting his forehead on the cold tiled floor. He rammed his fists into anything that could take the pain away.
Someone came running down the hall; he could hear the furious pounding on the floor. They grabbed his arms. His cry echoed in the hallway.
Broadway is dark tonight
A little bit weaker than you used to be
Broadway is dark tonight
See the young man sitting
In the old man's bar
Waiting for his turn to die
They let him in to see her.
"I got him, Annabella." Ryan ran his fingers over her forehead. He whispered. "I got him..."
Ryan ran the sleeve of his shirt under his nose. " I know, I shouldn't do that."
He didn't want to tell her that mom wasn't here, that no one had come. His mother's only daughter was lying here, dead, and she couldn't bother to come. Ryan felt the breakdown starting to form.
------
You choke down all your anger
Forget your only son
You pray to statues when you sober up for fun
Your anger don't impress me
The world slapped in your face
It always rains like hell on the losers day parade
Ryan fidgeted. The rain had nearly stopped. His mother had barely showed up on time for the funeral. Ryan was left to deal with everything. The school had a fundraiser for Annabella, to make sure she was buried with the dignity and respect that she earned but never saw. He had tried to find her father, but apparently the reason he wasn't around was because he was deceased. He wished he could say the same for his father.
You see you'd love to run home
But you know you ain't got one
'Cause you're livin' in a world that you're best forgotten
And when you're thinkin' of a joke
And nobody's gonna listen
To the one small point
I know they been missin' round here
No home. Without Annabella, would he end up like his mother? No, Ryan thought to himself, she would kick his ass if he just gave up. He decided he would study harder, stay out of trouble. He would be something. Ryan thought about what the doctors had said to him about Annabella; 'Her body was too weak to withstand what happened to her. If she hadn't been so malnourished, her chances of survival would have been so much better. Did you know that she was starving herself?'. Those words rattled in his head. Murder. The boyfriend killed her. And Ryan kept to his word.
Broadway is dark tonight
A little bit weaker than you used to be
Broadway is dark tonight
See the young man sitting
In the old man's bar
Waiting for his turn to die
----------------------------------------------------
Like: Yes or No? Song is "Broadway" by the Goo Goo Dolls. Good band. The song in the first chapter is "Hear Me" by Kelly Clarkson.