Anastasia

A sigh left her lips as she laid next to Tyson and his dog, Bailey, on the field of sun-coloured flowers. The peace of it all contrasted with her chaotic and stormy life at home.
"I wish it could stay this way forever," Anastasia turned slightly so that she was looking at Tyson, who looked back at her. She could see his cloudy eyes shined just a little more, his smile a little wider when she said that.
He placed his hand on her arm gently, and she flinched a bit. He didn’t notice, though.
"Why can't it?"
If only it could. Her stepmother always whined about needing help with her four stepbrothers. That was her excuse.
She wanted so badly do get a dorm on campus so she wouldn't need to drive half an hour to her college every day, but her stepmother wouldn't let her because it was "too costly". It wasn't like her stepmother would be paying for it, so it didn't make any sense. She met Tyson in her college, and he lived in an apartment pretty much 5 minutes away from the college. When they got together, he offered her to stay in his place, but again her mother wouldn't allow it.
"You know how my stepmother is. If I could, I'd have it this way forever," she picked up of the red-orange flowers absent-mindedly held the flower in between two of her fingers. As she did that, she lightly brushed her painful lips, the taste of blood in her mouth still.
"You know, she can't keep you there forever. You already have a job and a car, and I have a place to stay, you could drive over," Tyson looked off into the distance, before feeling the ground around him before plucking a few of the flowers he felt at their bases.
"You think? Wouldn't she call the cops?" Anastasia asked, putting the hand with the flower in it on her chest. Bailey nudged at her hand, and Anastasia stroked her head.
"I mean, you could leave a note, maybe. You're old enough to be on your own, so the cops shouldn't come," to this, Anastasia sat up and laughed, and stopped petting Bailey. He pet his dog and had started to weave some of the flowers together, in an almost braid-like pattern.
"My mother would probably go crazy trying to get me back. She always talks about how she needs me and I can't leave or else she'd lose it," her voice was sad as she spoke. She wanted to stay with Tyson.
"Well then, let her. You are going to lose it if you stay there any longer," he chuckled a bit before placing the crown of maroon and sun-coloured flowers he'd made on her head.
There was a pause, and Tyson held his breath.
"You are breathing oddly. Are you sick?" Tyson asked curiously.
"No, not sick. I've been talking a lot today so I'm probably just losing my voice," she lied through her teeth.
"Oh, alright," he frowned, sounding unconvinced. There was worry on his face, but he brushed it off.
“You know, my mom let me leave the second I said I wanted to, and she let me go even with the fact that I sorta still needed help,” Tyson tried to change the subject since she seemed a bit odd when he brought up her breathing.
“Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense, me staying with my mom,” there was a pause.
“You know what, tonight I’m going to really confront her. If she doesn’t let me leave then too bad. She can’t stop me,” she said stubbornly, and Tyson cheered, startling Bailey.
“That’s the spirit! I can come with you if you want, so she can’t keep you there since you’d need to drive me back home,” Tyson suggested, and Anastasia nodded.
“Yeah, I think that is a good plan,” she stood up, before holding Tyson’s hand and pulling him up. He had Bailey’s leash in the other hand and she was extremely well behaved, so he was fine with her.
Anastasia led him to the car and buckled him into the passenger seat before putting Bailey into the middle of the car, which had her bed in it.
She got into the driver seat and started to drive. They didn’t speak much, but when they did they spoke about how they were going to go about this. Her heart pounded out of her chest as she pulled into the driveway. The sun was nearly gone, and the colours of the sky reminded her of the crown she wore.
“Are you going to stay here, or will you come?” She asked.
“I’ll come. That way she will really know you need to drive me home,” Tyson said, and she got out of the car and went to his door. He got him and his dog out of the car and led him up the stairs to her home.
She knocked on the door once, twice, three times. Her clenched fist hovered over the door for a moment, but her stepmother finally decided to open it.
“Oh, Ana! And Tyson! What are you two doing here?” She asked, and my face burned. Tyson grabbed my hand, and I took a breath.
“I’m moving out. I came here to tell you and to get my stuff.”
Her smile quickly left her face, along with her cheery attitude.
“We’ve already spoken. You aren’t leaving. Doesn’t matter if you bring your… boyfriend, my opinion doesn’t change,” she hissed, glaring daggers at her daughter.
“You haven’t given me a reason why!” She cried out. Tyson looked at her oddly.
“Because, where would you go?” She answered confidently.
“With me,” Tyson replied firmly. She had nothing to say for a second.
“How are you going to care for my daughter? If anything, it’d just be her caring for you!” Tyson’s grip on her hand tightened as she spoke.
“I can care for myself, and Tyson has done more for me than you ever have,” Anastasia snapped at her, and her eyes narrowed. There was a long pause of silence while her mother thought.
“Fine, go ahead, stay with him. Let's see how long until you come running back,” She said, before turning back. Shock filled her body.
“That actually just happened,” she mumbled under her breath. She felt like she was free, yet she felt like something was off. How come she had given up so easily? She wasn’t shy, not in the slightest, even around Tyson.
She brushed it off and went upstairs to collect her things after making sure Tyson was ok with her doing so.
She saw her mirror, and herself. She was a mess, with a bloody lip and bruises all over her arms. Finally, this was all over. In a month or two, there’d be no more bruises, no more black eyes, no more busted lips.
She packed her backpack with all of her college stuff and two suitcases full of her belongings. She kept an image of both of her families. She didn’t really want to see her mother, but her brothers were important to her.
She made her way down the stairs with her baggage and noticed something was missing.
“Tyson?” I called out, but there was no answer. I looked outside, but he wasn’t there. She dropped all her luggage.
“Mom?” The word tasted bitter on her tongue. She wasn't a mother.
The basement door creaked open and her stepmom looked at her with a nervous smile.
“Yes, sweety?” Anastasia wasn’t falling for it. She pushed past her stepmother and nearly tumbled down into the basement, to see Tyson sitting on the ground, looking confused. Her brothers were there. They all turned to her, and she thought they were going to do something to her before she saw one of them helping out Tyson.
“What is happen-” The door slammed shut, and there was a thud. It was obvious our stepmother was leaning on the door.
“She has gone crazy. When you were gone Lucas got it bad for breaking a pot,” Mark, her oldest brother, gestured to her youngest brother. His arm looked really bad. He needed to get to a hospital, that was for sure.
“I could get you guys out of here maybe, but I don't know where we’d go,” She started to walk over to Tyson to make sure he wasn’t hurt.
“I’d be fine to bring them anywhere away from here, at this point. I can rent out an apartment, I’m old enough,” Mark said before Tyson spoke up.
“Our apartment has space. You can stay with us until this is sorted. First, shouldn’t we find a way out of this… uh, place, right now?” Tyson suggested, and everyone agreed. We could hear her pacing at the front door, and it sounded like she was talking to someone.
There was a window that led to somewhere in the backyard, but they’d need to crawl through and she wasn’t sure how good that’d be for Tyson.
“Sorry about dragging you into this,” she whispered, and Tyson shook his head.
“It’s fine, you deserve to be free anyways,” Tyson said with confidence.
“Well, Daunte and I could probably force our way out, while Anastasia can lead Tyson and Lucas out,” Mark suggested, but Lucas shook his head.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll rush out, and Ana can help Tyson out while I open the car. My arm is the broken one, not my legs,” Lucas said, and they nodded.
“Where is Bailey?” Ana asked, and Mark pointed to the dog who was sitting so still and so quiet. She was so calm. Anastasia picked up the dog's leash and prepared to get out of the cold basement. The door was a push door, so at first, Daunte and Mark would have an advantage until her stepmother got back up.
“I knew she was crazy. She gave you your bruises, didn’t she?” Mark asked, and Ana simply nodded. Tyson’s blind eyes were wide open, despite the fact he couldn’t see anything.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you before it came to this,” His eyebrow’s furrowed slightly, but she could tell he wasn’t angry. He was just worried.
“I couldn’t bring myself to,” Anastasia whispered before Mark and Daunte both started to step up the creaking stairs that warned her brothers of their mother.
On the platform by the door, they stood still, waiting for the perfect moment.
Ana counted down in her head.
5, Tyson held onto her hand tightly.
4, Bailey sat in silence, ready.
3, Lucas was ready to follow his brothers outside.
2, Mark rested his shoulder on the door silently, his hand on the doorknob.
1, The door was pushed open.
Light poured into the room, and Ana heard screams from her mother and a slam. Ana guessed she had fallen and hit something, but now her mother’s screams were mixed in with her brother’s. She led Tyson to the stairs, moving painstakingly slowly.
Lucas had already gotten out of the house, hopefully.
The stairs creaked loudly as they walked up. Tyson shivered in fear.
They reached the top. Bloodstained the floor, and Ana could see her brother’s arm had a horrible gash in it. She handed Bailey to Tyson.
“Can you make it to the car on your own?” Ana asked, not taking her eyes off of him. There was urgency in her voice. She needed to help her brothers.
“I’ll bring him,” Lucas spoke before Tyson could.
“That’ll work. Don’t get hurt too badly, please,” Tyson asked, and I took out my phone and handed it to him.
“I won't. Just get in the car, lock it if you need to, and call the cops,” Lucas started to lead Tyson off, and Ana turned to help her brothers. Daunte was cowering in a corner while Mark and our stepmom fought. I ran over to Daunte and picked him up in my arms. He was crying.
“Hey, hey, it's alright. It’s ok. I’m going to bring you to the car, we will get you to the hospital.” He reached for the flowers on her head. She ran to the car, placed him in, and placed her flowers on his head.
“I’m going back to get Mark,” Ana said, but she didn’t wait for a response. She went back into the house and saw her mother towering over Mark, a shard of something in her hand. It was covered in blood, but thankfully it was her own from holding it, and not Mark’s.
Ana rushed over to him and tried to haul her heavy mother off of him. She rolled off of him, and Mark got up. The gash in his arm worsened, and he was limping now.
“Get to the car!” She hissed, and he nodded, running outside. She kept her mother back, holding her arm so that she couldn’t stab her with the shard.
Sirens blared outside. Once Mark left the house, Ana bolted for the door.
Red and blue lights filled the house she looked back and saw her mother, blood, and a shattered mirror.
She neared the door, and just as she passed the door frame, her mother grabbed her leg. The shard was stabbed, deep into her leg. She yelled in pain. Officers outside aimed their guns to my mother. She was climbing over me, getting her shard closer and closer to my neck. Mark screamed and yelled, banging on the car door, but the officer who kept them in there kept the door closed. Ana silently thanked him.
She was brought back to reality by pain in her arm. She looked over to see her mother twisting the shard as it punctured her skin. She held back her screams, but she cried. The pain was unbearable.
She pulled out the shard, and blood pooled out of it.
As the shard neared her throat, she looked at it. She saw the reflection of everyone in the car crying. She saw officers yelling.
She stared her mother straight in the eyes, her pain unbearable but she didn’t show it.
Her stepmother went to stab her, and Ana flinched, but then her body went limp.
An officer with a shaky hand and blond hair had shot her and was rushing over to Ana.
“Are you alright?” He helped her up and checked her wounds.
“I’m alright. My leg is fine, just my arm,” She mumbled, looking at the limp arm. He looked at it, before wrapping it in a thick cloth that he had stored in his pocket. While the pain was burning, she doubted she would need to get anything more than stitches.
“It’s close to your radius but it doesn’t look like it is life-threatening. An ambulance is on its way for you and your brothers,”
“Is Damien ok?” Ana asked the officer, who shrugged.
“We haven’t opened the car yet,” he said. Ana walked over to the car and opened it with her left arm.
“I’ll be alright. Is Daunte ok?”
“I’m alright. I think she broke my damn leg, though.” Ana could hear the pain in his voice.
“The ambulance is coming now. It is going to be ok,” Ana assured them, and soon enough, it and it’s blaring sirens drove down the street and pulled up to our driveway. A second one arrived shortly after.
Ana helped the paramedics put her brother’s in the ambulances.
“I can drive to the hospital, but I need to bring Tyson with me,” Ana said in a somewhat pleading tone.
“I don't think it is safe to drive with that arm. We can bring you and him in a car if you are set on thinking you don't need immediate medical assistance and if the paramedics think you will be fine,” The blond officer said, and Ana nodded.
“Is that everyone?” One of the paramedics called, and the officer beckoned them over to him and Ana.
“You think she is ok to go to the police cars?” He asked, and the paramedic examined her for a few seconds.
“She should be fine,” He said before letting her go. Tyson and Ana got into the car with the officer, and they started to drive off.