Ch 9: Chaos

To hell with wishing you luck, I'm on my way.

I smiled as I read this. It was good to know I had backup in case things went worse than I expected. Of course, this was all assuming things went, and I saw no evidence of this. I couldn't get out the window, and I was fairly sure the door was locked.

I looked for something, anything to batter down the door with, and found absolutely nothing. Nothing other than a wooden chair. It was fairly solid, but I knew that I had little hope of actually breaking through the door.

Even so, I hefted it by the legs and swung it as hard as I could. I heard a shattering sound, flowed by a thunderous crash. The back of the chair had snapped off from the seat, and the door, which had actually been unlocked, had swung open hard into the wall.

I snapped the legs off the chair, throwing them against the carpeted floor of my room with a solid 'thud'. I now had a small shield, just in case.

I walked warily down the stairs, unsure what I would face. I tried to bring as much force as I could to my voice, announcing, "I'm leaving."

"No, you aren't. You are grounded for the rest of the year, you ungrateful little monster." My mother, who was standing next to the fireplace, replied.

"Actually, I am leaving." I replied, beginning to walk slowly to the door, still holding my makeshift shield under my arm.

Walking slowly was a huge mistake. It gave her time to pick up the fire poker and announce "I will. I'd rather have no son at all than a disgrace of a son like you."

I lunged for the door, only to realize that it was locked, and I was going to have a hell of a time opening it before my mother got to me. So I pulled the makeshift shield out from under my arm and gripped it by both sides, raising it to protect my neck and head.

As she reached me, my mother took a swing with the back of the fire poker. The swing was aimed at my right hand, probably in an attempt to make me drop the shield. I moved the chair seat a few inches to the right, intersecting her strike with it.

I hadn't realized how much force would be behind the attack, and, because I had failed to brace sufficiently, I almost dropped the shield. Instead, I just hit the door I was backed up against rather painfully. The shield shook in my hands, and the fire poker rung in my mother's hands. The seat was chipped slightly from the impact, but at least it had survived, and probably could survive several more such impacts.

I just had to hold out until Kari arrived, but I really had no time to be concerned by this. In fact, had almost no time to recover and brace myself properly before my mother took another swing. This time, however, I was prepared, and the strike wasn't half as hard as the first one, anyway, as it was clear that the first strike had caused her great discomfort due to the shaking of the bludgeon in her hands.

Even so, the strike was uncomfortable, and I really wasn't sure if I could keep this up for very long. I began to drop to a knee, to make bracing for impacts easier, due to the support of the ground. Midway through the drop, I had to intersect yet another swing, and I bashed my back into the door again, however, I persevered, and managed to take a knee.

Kari's POV:

I arrived, breathless, at T.K's house, and looked in the window, not expecting to see anything I wanted to. What I did see was worse than I had hoped, but far better than what I had expected and feared.

T.K was clearly alive, although kneeling, backed up to a door. He was holding what appeared to be the seat of a chair. It was riddled by dents, but he looked fine. His mother, however, was standing over him with a fire poker, trying to change his apparent health. Even as I watched, she took another swing, and T.K intersected it with his makeshift shield.

"Hold out just a little longer" I whispered, knowing perfectly well that he couldn't hear me. I then pulled out my phone and called Cody, who I'd called earlier during my run, to alert him as to the fact that T.K was planning to leave home.

"Where the hell are you?" I asked as soon as he picked up the phone.

"In my car. I'm about five minutes away, and Joe is with me. Is T.K alright?" Cody asked.

"For now, but that could change VERY quickly." I replied, thinking, 300 seconds. 300 seconds too long, but 300 seconds.

"Look, I have to keep driving, but don't do anything stupid. Stay put, it'll be hard enough to deal with one injury." Cody said.

"Alright." I lied, hanging up. I had no plans of staying put if things got bad.

And things very quickly did. T.K's mother took another swing at him with the bludgeon, and broke the wooden chair seat. Luckily, the weapon was still deflected, so T.K had a few moments at least.

I struck the window I was standing in front of as hard as I could, hoping to produce a distraction long enough for T.K to escape.

However, I misjudged my own strength, and my hand cleared the window. I almost withdrew it in time, however, some of my hand got caught in the rain of glass that followed, producing numerous painful lacerations on my hand.

I succeeded at producing a distraction, but it took longer than I had to spare. T.K's left hand was bleeding profusely. Considering its position, he had presumably been attempting to pick up a piece of his broken shield to defend himself with, and it had gotten caught between the ground and his mothers attempt to stop him from doing so with a swing with the bludgeon.

As his mother whirled around to face me, a look of pure rage in her eyes, T.K grabbed the poker with his right hand, attempting to wrestle it from his mothers raw hands.

I took the moments time to climb through the treacherous window. My clothing was torn in a few places by glass that remained on the windowsill, and my hand lacerated hand protested the whole way up, but I managed to clear the window.

I watched as T.K lost his grip on poker, and narrowly dodged a swing of the weapon.

The bludgeon shook in its wielder's hand, giving T.K enough time to grab a piece of the shield, and me enough time to run into the general vicinity and do similar.

"Get out." I said, "Cody will be here in a few minutes, and I think I can hold out for that long."

The bludgeon stopped ringing, and I wrestled with T.K's mother for the weapon, giving T.K enough time to narrowly escape. I knew I couldn't win the struggle, so instead, I turned and ran to the window.

His mother did exactly what I hoped she would do; she turned the poker over so she could use the point, and charged at me.

I ducked, grabbing it and pulling it out of her hands, and redirecting it so that it would fly out the window, and embed itself into the grass outside.

"You corrupted my son, you monster." She said, and pushed me, hard, into the wall. She then climbed through the window after the poker.

I turned to face her, hoping desperately T.K would be alright, and watched as a car pulled up on the side of the road.

T.K immediately opened the door, and I quickly ran around to the front door of the house, opening it, and running to enter the door of the car after T.K.

His mother charged at us with the poker, but we closed the door, and before either of us were buckled, Cody floored it. He stopped more slowly a good hundred meters away.

"Get buckled, now." He ordered, and I did, and looked at T.K.

He wasn't buckled. He wasn't moving to do so.

"Are you alright?"

No answer.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I think he's in shock, that is, emotionally." Joe said, "He'll be alright, but we still need to get him to the hospital for his hand... and probably you, for your hand."

"I'm fine." I lied. The lacerations on the back of my hand still were bleeding like crazy, and they still hurt like hell, but I would be just fine.

Joe shook his head, "You might well need stitches, your hand provides a massive risk of infection, and besides, you probably have glass embedded in your hand. Buckle him into his seat, please."

I did so, and we began the drive to the hospital.