My body feels heavy. It’s still not recovered from everything it’s been through in the past twenty-four hours. Mother’s last client was particularly brutal, and my body now aches in ways I didn’t know it could. I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole, that I could disappear into a different kind of hell than the one I’m currently residing in day after never-ending day.
My muscles throb, making it hard for me to sleep as I attempt to relax on the tattered worn-out sofa. Resting is never easy when you’re nervously waiting for the next client to walk through those doors—and there will be a next one and another one after that.
I’m zoning in and out—completely exhausted from the hell that’s coursing through my veins.
Fluttering my eyes trying to stay awake, knowing, waiting, panicked, my body starts to uncoil.
Then someone grips my bicep.
My eyes shoot open.
No, not again!
My mother stands beside me, her fingers grasped tightly around my arm, a syringe in the other while my heart pummels in my chest.
I shake my head.
I can’t do this.
Not now.
Not ever again.
So, I push back, her hard eyes glaring at me. “C’mon, Talon, I have someone dropping by in fifteen, I need you dealt with.”
Mother lunges, thrusting the full syringe at my bare flesh. My tired muscles pull and ache with the strain as I grip her hand, effectively stopping her. She lets out a low growl, trying to force me to do what she needs. “Talon, you little shit, don’t fight me, or I’ll let the next guy do his fucking worst. You hear me!”
Something snaps inside of me.
The innocent teenage boy breaks at those few words.
All I see is a red haze and an absolute need to get out of this situation.
My fingers tighten on her hand, shoving it away from me. She yelps in pain as the syringe flies off to the side and lands on the floor.
I’ve found my strength.
Mother’s eyes meet mine, so I don’t hold back, my hands move straight to her throat, gripping around it tightly. Her eyes bug out of her head as my fingers tingle, going numb at the ends. The force I use sends a high through me like I’ve never experienced before. Staring into that bitch’s bloodshot eyes as they slowly dim, ignites a fire inside me I never knew existed.
My body shakes.
My muscles tense as my fingers clamp harder around her purple-tinged throat.
She gasps, fighting for breath.
Her face is blotchy, her arms torn to shreds by her nails from all the hallucinations she’s had. Ice will do crazy shit to your brain.
My mother is a fucking mess.
While the life draining from her pathetic body makes me feel like more of a man, it’s giving her a fitting end to a pathetic excuse for a life.
My breathing is slow and steady.
Surely, I should be freaking out?
The thing is, I’m not.
I’ve wanted to kill this woman for as long as I can remember. She’s brought this on herself, and as the life fades from her miserable eyes, relief floods every part of my being, knowing I will finally be free from this existence. This prison she has me enslaved in so securely inside that no one can escape, but perhaps I have found my salvation.
Suddenly, I’m being yanked away. My hands detach from her throat as I fall back on my ass, and her scrap of a body falls to the floor with a thud.
“What the fuck, kid? You gonna throw your life away for this useless whore? Jesus!” T-Max, my mother’s pimp, yells at me while running his hand through his black curls.
A single bead of sweat drips down my temple from the exertion my body has experienced.
But I feel nothing for her.
Not a single damn thing.
That woman on the floor, her eyes close, and I can’t be sure if she’s dead or alive. All I can do is hope to hell that crazy bitch is dead. Gone! Forever out of my life.
A rush of adrenaline spikes through my body. It’s like fucking nirvana as I let go of the piece of fucking shit that was my mother.
Taking a step so I am now standing over her with my chest puffed out feeling like right now I could do any-fucking-thing, I spit on her.
I am not terrified.
I won’t be violated again.
I’m not restrained.
I’m free.
Free from this terrible existence.
Draining the life from my mother was everything and nothing like I expected. I didn’t know I could experience such