My Last Hope Chapter Four
Mina had never been a fan of busses. Once in the third grade, she had been waiting at the bus stop in the middle of winter, and the school bus never came. She stood outside for three hours, before finally she walked back to her home and her mom drove her to school. She ended up catching pneumonia and missed a week of school anyway. Ever since then, she never rode on a bus.
But today was an exception. After encountering a girl who new her from "before," Mina had made a hasty exit from the situation she had found herself in. And now she found herself walking up to the entrance of the building the apartment she and her mother shared was located inside of. It was an older building with no air conditioning and crumbling brick walls on the outside.
It wasn't perfect, but it was the only home Mina had. As she climbed the steps (there was no elevator) she felt oddly tense. For some reason the torn, maroon carpet that covered the steps seemed to be warning Mina what she was going through wasn't going to be fun or pleasant. But she had no idea what this feeling could be alluding to.
Problems with Spencer, or even worse… problems with Kyla? As she pulled her key out and slipped it into the lock of the door, she heard no noise at all on the other side, which was very odd. Mina's mother hated silence. Whenever she was at home, she would have the TV blaring, or the radio on to keep the silence away. But it was simply quiet inside of the two bedroom apartment they shared.
The lock clicked as Mina stepped inside. She heard nothing as she took a few steps inside, walking to the bathroom, as she opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out two pill bottles. The ones that she took to help her make it through life the way she wanted to. She filled a glass with water as she popped the two pills into her mouth, taking a drink from the glass to wash them down. She noticed how low the pill count was getting, so she held the bottles in her hand as she stepped out of the bathroom, reading over the labels for the thousandth time as she stepped into the kitchen.
As she raised her gaze from the bottles to see her mother, seated on the floor, crying, with a bottle of Vodka clutched in one hand, and a knife in the other, Mina gasped.
"Mom?" She asked, looking down at her Mother, sobbing, "what's wrong."
"I want my son back!" She cried, downing a mouthful of the clear liquid. "I miss my SON!"
"But Mom," Mina said, her face contorting in pain. "You have me now."
"I liked him better!" Her mom sobbed, climbing to her feet, shakily, as she grabbed Mina by the throat, her Vodka bottle left behind on the floor, but her knife along for the ride.
"What are you doing!" Mina cried out, as her Mom slammed her back against the wall, her head thudding, causing her to wince in pain.
"If I can't have my son, I don't want any kid at all!" She screamed as she held the knife up to Mina's throat.
"Please, don't," Mina whimpered trying to push her mothers arm away, but the pills she had just taken were responsible for weakening Mina's upper body strength to the point, she couldn't force her Mom's hand away.
"Why couldn't you just be NORMAL!" Her mom screeched rhetorically, not noticing Mina reaching up and grabbing a hand full of her hair, until with a strong jerk, her mother stumbled back, clutching at her head as Mina dropped the clump of her she had yanked out and turned, running out of the apartment as quickly as she could, nearly jumping past every step on her way down.
Once breaking past the front door, she felt the wetness on the top of her shirt. As she reached up to touch it, she pulled her hand away covered in sticky, red blood. HER sticky, red blood. Her hand shaking, as her chest heaved, trying to regain her breath, she grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket. With the press of a few buttons, she held the phone to her ear.
"Hey," the husky, but sweet voice on the other end said happily.
"Spen, it's Mina.. I need you to come get me... please… I'm really scared…" Mina's voice quivered as a sob escaped.
"I'll be right there," Spencer said, concern ringing in her voice.