• Shadows Taken


    Joe laid back on his bed, his hands folded behind his head as he thought about nothing. A holler of anger made him look at the door, just as it swung open. His older sister flew in, her eyes alight with fire.
    “Grab your bags Joe, we’re leaving.” Sarah stated and threw his bag beside him. She retreated back to the hall and raced to her room, grabbing her own bag of luggage.
    He jumped of the bed and started throwing anything of importance in the bag. He froze when he came across a picture on his night stand; it was of his mother smiling. Shoving it into his pocket, he grabbed clothes and zipped the bag up. “I’m ready to go,” he yelled at Sarah.
    “Good, it’s time to go.” Sarah raced into his room in a panic and grabbed his bag. She sped back down the hall and he followed at a fast clip. He knew she would explain what was going on when they were in the car and driving down the road.
    He followed her out into the drive way and slipped into her silver four door. She threw their bags into the trunk and slammed it closed before jumping into the driver’s seat. They left the door to the house wide open.
    She pulled out of the drive way and started down the street, her face scrunching up. Joe looked up at the night sky as quiet music filtered through the cars speakers. He glanced back at his sister and frowned as the light from the lamps cut across her face.
    Her face had a blue bruise on her cheek and her lip was split. He frowned and the image disappeared, leaving his perfectly fine sister. She glanced at him, before returning her gaze to the road. “What’s the matter?” He finally asked her.
    “I can’t leave you with him anymore, he’ll hurt you and I can’t have that happen.” She rasped as if something was stuck in her throat.
    They drove in silence through the city, then out of it. She stopped at a motel and went to the front desk to get a room. She came back and drove the car to room 18, before pocketing the keys. They slid out of the car and it locked behind them.
    Joe was still confused as to what was going on at the moment, but he followed Sarah into the room any ways. He fell back onto one of the beds and watched his sister with weary eyes.
    She had been his protector, ever since their mother had skipped town, without them. She had mothered him since he was three and that was thirteen years ago. She was all he had left, of who he called family.
    A smile made its way onto her face as she finally relaxed. She wasn’t his protector at this one moment, but a weary woman who was tired and scared. She looked at him, meeting his eyes with hers and held them for a moment.
    Her eyes were bloodshot and bags were under them. Her cheek was a bright blue and her lip was split, her neck also had a growing brown bruise. These were her true colors.
    For once he wasn’t being protected from the truth, but being showed what had happened when she protected him. She had taken all the shadows away and she had been hurt by his father because of it.
    He stood and walked over too her, wrapping his breakable sister in his arms. She broke down and sobbed into his shoulder, her shudders running through him like shards of ice. His protector had given up her life to save him from the hardship of abuse.
    “It’s going to be okay,” He muttered and glared at the wall behind him, wishing his father had been a better person. He had used to be a good man, until his mother had disappeared, that had been when everything had changed dramatically. “He can’t get us, legally, he can’t get us.”
    “I know. It’s all over; you’re safe from him for now on.” Her fragile voice broke him from his anger and he smiled weakly. No, it wasn’t him who had been saved; she had saved herself in saving him.