Chapter 3

It's been 6 years since that horrible and beautiful night. After that night, she dreaded leaving Duke with his now step father. She had married him to keep her little boy safe, even if she was beaten by him.

They did their best to be with each other every second of the day. For the mother, to keep an eye on her child. For Duke, he loved his mother and loved seeing her smile, which was warm and could light up a room.

The only part of the day Duke absolutely just hated, was when Tanner Sabrelux came home from work. Tanner was a "bigger boned man" as my mom would put it with a forced smile at the end. He was fat, that's it. Not fluffy or husky, just fat. He had a greasy head of hair, that was shaggy. He smoked cigars and cigarettes with his buddies in their apartment. Going home meant Duke had to leave his mothers side and be almost alone with Tanner, or Trash Tan. Which was true, in a sense, the guy smelled like rotting flesh, that was inhabited by a skunk for a few weeks.

Trash Tan would have his buddies yell at a game to drown out the noise of him beating Duke. He would leave Duke bloodied and bruised, limping or clutching a limb. Duke tried to hide his bruises from his mother, otherwise Trash Tan was going to beat him worse than before. He could get away with most of them. His step father was very abusive to him, but he had to be strong for his mom. There was times where he thought he wouldn't survive his next beating.

One night he came home from the playground, where he found some new friends. He was so happy to have some friends for once in his short life. He thought nothing could bring his mood down. Then he opened his door and walked into a wall of stench. It was worse than it has ever been. The odor of alcohol and cigarettes permeated the air, bringing a foul taste to the room. Trash Tan and his buddies were laughing and yelling at the large flat screen television. ESPN was blaring and they also had the radio on and their computers, keeping score of their fantasy teams.

Duke's mood drastically changed from smiling gleefully to a disgusting scrunching face, to a green, sick looking face that looked like it wanted anything other than to be here in this pigpen of a place. How his mom put up with this guy, he had no idea. He wished she would just divorce him and they can go somewhere else and live and be together.

"Where's my money kid?" No hi, how are you today Duke, no did you have fun? It was money, money, money. That's all he talked about and some other things that I didn't want to know about. He sometimes talked about his '76 baby blue Chevy Malibu. I can't deny that it was awesome looking, but how Tanner could've afforded it, he didn't want to think about it. He probably just bullied the person into giving it to him, maybe blackmailed him. Maybe he was going to tell him on his mommy? Really Duke? Why would he do that?

Well sorry, I was trying to be funny but apparently you don't have a funny bone in you. Duke replied to himself. Of course I don't have a funny bone! I have nobody, you short midget!

Ok, I need to stop talking to myself. With that, there was silence in his head.

"Well? Where's my money? Or have you forgotten our secret?" Tanner said as he slowly lifted his hand to strike me. I dug into my small pockets and pulled out a ten. Our secret was my money being given to Tanner, to fund his gambling games. They played Poker, Texas Hold 'Em, you name it, any game with cards, they've played it gambling. Even Goldfish was gambling. It was disgusting to me. It was a great game, and it was ruined by this excuse of a man.

"I hope you lose." I told him and I turned and went to my room.

"You better behave or you will regret it." he said threateningly.

I just turned around and glared at him. He glared right back. Then I turned away and I could already tell he was smirking, proud that he had won. I was about to turn around and run at him and just throttle him. But then, at that moment, my mother came out of her room. She saw me and smiled brightly. At the time, I had no idea it was going to be the last time I see her smile. Running toward me, her arms outstretched to get me. I was so happy to see her, I forgot all about Tanner. I ran and jumped in her arms, feeling her warmth. It comforted me so much to see her.

When she let go and looked at me, I saw sadness in her light green eyes, she blinked and the look was gone. As if it was never there. I thought I was seeing things, going crazy. I shrugged it off, and smiled brightly at my mom. She asked me how my day was. I told her it was great, I had met some new friends. She smiled brightly, but it almost seemed like she was forcing her lips to curve, just slightly.

We made small talk until Tanner yelled at mom, "Hey, where is the chili you promised me earlier? Me and my buddies want it!"

My mommy gave a sigh of weariness, but she still smiled, her eyes twinkling. She got up and gave me a kiss on my head. When I looked at her again, she had this look of peace that I had never seen on her beautiful face. At that moment I felt calm, and not jittery, like I usually am with my ADHD. I was told I have it, and my mom was smiling, like she always does. But there was also dread in her eyes and her ever present smile.

She started to walk away, "Mom?" I said. She turned around, "Yes sunshine?" That's what she liked to call me, because apparently I was bright like the sun. Or as she would say, bright like Apollo. When she said that, she had this half smile that looked like she had a secret behind the saying. I was always confused why she had that, but I still smiled at her.

"Why do you put up with Tanner? All he does is boss you around, you should leave him and move to better place. But you can't forget me mommy." I said with a glare toward Tanner, but with a smile at the end.

She just looked at me with a kind of seriousness in her tone, yet there was happiness in it. "This will be the last time, I promise." She smiled and left to tend to Trash Tan. I was really confused on why she would say that. 'This will be the last time?' Why did she say that? Was she trying to tell me something? These types of questions where racing through my head, like light racing to it's destination.

Then I heard a crash outside. I was curious, so I decided to look at what made the noise. What I found was a giant, midnight black, dog. I tried to figure out why there was a giant dog racing through the streets, then I noticed no one paid any attention to it. That was strange because the hound was the size of a medium sized car. It looked like it was coming toward my apartment. Then it jumped into a shadow and it vanished. I was so surprised, I did a double take to make sure I wasn't dreaming any of this up. I pinched myself to try to wake myself up, but I yelped in some pain. This wasn't a dream, this was real.