The Man of the House

The entire house should as there was a massive crashing sound from the ground below. As I had been struggling with all my might, the distraction everything caused my dad allowed me to break free. I leaped over the bed and ran to the door, but the old woman was surprisingly spry and jumped in front of me.

“Where are you going?” She asked with a deviant grin on her face.

I could hear shouting and screaming from beyond the door. There was a lot of confusion. If I could get out there, I’d be able to get pretty far, even if I was naked. Yet, as my luck would have it, this bitch was standing right in my way to freedom. I could also hear my dad behind me, and his chuckle put a chill up my spine. Before I could move though, the door slammed open and the lady was struck in the back. She fell forward and I dodge her just in time.

A person charged in. They were wearing a leather jacket and had a ski mask over their face. They immediately reached out to me. At first, I thought it was my girlfriend, but something was off. She stopped just short of touching me.

“Put on your clothing.” A voice that was all too familiar came out.

It was a commanding voice that I had listened to and ignored on countless occasions.

“Mother?”

“I’m taking you home.” Her voice held more authority than I had ever heard her speak in her life. “Get dressed.”

I didn’t feel like I could argue with her. Instead, I reached down and started putting my clothes on. As I picked up the scattered clothes that were mine, and perhaps some that had been my father’s in my hurry, I heard a shout.

“Stay the fuck back!” Mom snarled.

I looked up to see her with a baseball bat. It was pointed at the woman on the bed. She had a displeased expression on her face and was trying to step toward me.

“I’m a paying customer,” The woman said.

“Like the hell you are!”  

“Do you have any clue who I am?” The woman spoke while crossing her arms.

“When it comes to my son, I don’t give a damn.”

While they were talking, I was quickly putting on the rest of my clothing. As I put my shirt on, a caught my father in the corner of my eye. He had slinked off into a corner of the room, and he was approaching mom from behind. Whether it was because I was clothed now, or because mom was in danger, the previous fear and weakness I had felt dissipated like smoke. I ran forward without thinking, and just as dad lifted something in his hand, I shoved mom to the side and struck him with my fist.

Dad cried out, and the small pocket knife in his hand fell to the ground. Upon seeing that, I couldn’t help but grow furious. I had trusted him. I had given him money. Yet, after everything I had done, Dad had only returned awful things. He had robbed me, sold me as a sex slave, and even tried to rape me. Yet, none of it had ever made me truly angry. This, on the other hand, pushed me past the limit.

“You fucker!” I screamed.

I hit him, and then I hit him again. He fell to the floor like a lump. I jumped on top of him and continued to hit him. Every punch was harder and more violent than the last. Blood was on my knuckles, and I had no clue if it came from the knuckles or his face. Either way, it only made me want to hurt him more. I struck him over and over again, and he was crouching in a fetal position trying to protect himself from my strikes.

I vaguely was aware he was wailing and crying in an unmanly way, but that only made me want to hurt him more. This was the person I had been terrified of? This was the person that had made me feel so weak. I hated him, and I hated everything that he was.

Hand grabbed my wrists, and I turned and tried to hit who was grabbing me too, but I quickly realized it was mom. My wrists lost all of their strength, and I realized that I was sobbing even harder than my dad had been. Mom looked at me, and all I could see was her eyes through the ski mask filled with love. I broke into a sob, and my face fell into her chest. She grabbed me and pulled me to a standing position, but she didn’t pull me away. She allowed me to cry even as I held onto her.

“That’s okay. It’s okay.” She stroked the back of my head, and everything I had experienced the last few months seemed to no longer matter.

“I never should have left. I never should have-” I managed to get out, but then I broke into sobs again.

“It’s okay. Mom’s here.” Mom’s voice was soothing.

As I regained some of my sanity, I remembered where we were. This wasn’t a safe place. This was some street den. Mom had broken in to save me, but we were both in danger. I couldn’t waste time crying and sobbing. I quickly suppressed my pain, and pulled away, wiping my tears.

“It’s okay, mom. We can go.” I told her.

Mom gave a single nod, grabbing onto my sweaty palm with one hand and holding her bat with the other. I noticed the bat had some blood on it, and when I looked to the side, I saw the old woman lying on the bed. It was hard to say whether she was alive or dead. Now that she mentioned it, I did think I knew who she was. She was some kind of popular local judge. I had seen her on television one night. She was supposedly a male rights supporter and was fighting sex trafficking in the local area. Go figure. Whether she was dead or not, if she was found in this place, her career would be over. Good.

We left the room, and as we approached the stairway I couldn’t help but cough. A few minutes had passed since the explosion, but I now couldn’t see what caused the damage. All I could see was smoke. It was like a massive cloud of dust had been thrown up. It was only just reaching the second floor, but as we started to descend, we were entering the club. I had to pull up my shirt and breath through it to keep from coughing more.

“Ahh!” A woman suddenly jumped between us.

She had a bloody forehead, and she seemed to be enraged. She was screeching at my mother and looked about ready to leap on her. My mother was about to hit her with the bat when she suddenly lurched forward. Her head slammed into the stairway and she was dragged back into the fog. Mom’s eyes narrowed and she leaned forward.

“Who’s there?”

“Mom!” Two people appeared out of the fog.

“You found Noah?”

Two familiar girls were standing there. Unlike mom, they weren’t wearing ski masks, but they had dawned surgical masks which stood out in their way. I was worried, but I couldn’t help but feel a flood of happiness.

Mother’s eyes widened. “Kristy! Kelsey! Didn’t I say you guys were to stay back?”

“We were worried!” Kristy cried.

“Mackenzie came first!” Kelsey added.

“Mackenzie?” Mother’s eyes narrowed again. “Where is she?”

“Huh?” Kristy spoke as the two girls looked around. “We must have lost her in the smoke.”

“Damn it!” You two take Noah and I’ll go find her.

“Eh… you might want to find London and Dawn too…”

“They’re here too? You damn girls don’t listen to me at all!”

“What, you thought you were just going to go in and save Noah by yourself like Ms. McClane?” Kelsey sniffed.

“Whatever… just take him…”

“No!” I cried out as I realized they were trying to pull me toward the door. “We’re all staying together.”

“Noah…” Mom looked at me hesitantly.

I glared back at her, my hand tightening on hers. After a moment, she nodded and tightened her hand.

“We’re coming too!” Kristy grabbed my other arm, acting like it was a date rather than we were walking through a smokey house. “Brother, what are you wearing?”

“Ah… that looks like something Dawn would have, that pervert!” Kelsey agreed.

“I-it’s all that was available.” I tried to sidestep their invasion, suddenly feeling ridiculous in this getup. “Why is it so hard to see anyway?”

“Ah, that would be because of the car…”

We walked down the stairway to enter the entry room or the lack of one. The entire front door had been replaced by a car that had slammed into the house. Several walls had collapsed, sending up dust and drywall.

“It’s not clearing though, I think there might be a fire.” Mom warned.

“Wait, I recognize this car.”

The wheel started spinning, causing all three of us to jump. There was someone at the wheel, and they were trying to back up the car but it was completely stuck on rubble. The wheel turning only picked up and threw another way of dust into the air.

I squinted at the person in the driver’s seat. “I-I can’t believe she wrecked my car.”

“Sorry, Anne… you said you wanted to come along.”

“You said everyone wouldn’t fit in your car!” Anne cried out, but when she saw me, her cheeks blushed. “N-noah…”

“You… came for me?”

“I-it’s not like that… I was just worried about you since I hadn’t heard from you in so long so I came just as they were heading out.”

“I see…”

Before we could say anymore, I heard some commotion in the back. The group of us moved to the back of the house where we found the source of the fire. An oven seemed to have burst open and exploded. Fiery flames were being spurted around.

“Mackenzie! London? What are you doing?” Mom demanded.

“Trying to keep the house from exploding! You just had to drive a car into a house mom!” London cried out in exasperation as she poured water onto the flames.

Mackenzie was trying to fight the flames with the spray nozzle from the kitchen counter. They were both steadily failing as the fire was growing bigger.

“Guys, let’s get out of here before this house is an inferno.” Mom offered.

The two girls were about to protest, but when they saw me standing there several expressions went over their faces.

“You ended up rescuing him after all.” London pouted.

“Hehe… it’s mother’s intuition.” Mom puffed her chest out proudly.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Mackenzie dropped the nozzle and immediately headed away. Without her dousing the flames, they immediately rose with a woosh. London stumbled back before glaring at the other woman. Mackenzie tried to pass me without looking my way, but I grabbed her arm.

“Mackenzie?”

“Don’t touch me.” She snapped.

“Mackenzie, you came for me too.”

“Idiot.” She tried to pull her arm away, but I held tighter.

“I love you.”

“T-then don’t take off and scare me again!” She turned and glared at me, but when she saw my eyes, her expression turned awkward. “You can’t ever disappear again.”

“I won’t,” I said.

“Why does Brother’s relationship with Mackenzie seem more than just a brother and a sister?” Kristy asked.

“Shhh! If Mackenzie marries brother, then we’ll be double sisters, when we have sex with brother, it would be like incest times incest… that’s like super incest!” Kelsey explained.

“There is something wrong with your head.” London sighed.

“Ah! But where is Dawn?” Mom asked as we headed back to the family room.

“Here.”

“Hah? Where did you come from? And what is with that getup?” Mom asked as a woman dressed completely in black seemed to appear from nowhere.

“Isn’t that a ninja costume?” London asked.

“We wish to hide our appearance and sneak in.” Dawn explained.

“Did you seriously go to rescue your brother in a ninja outfit?” Mackenzie chastised her. “Do you think you’re a ninja?”  

“Hai!” Dawn responded, blending back into the darkness.

“Ah! I can’t see her again.” Kristy cried.

“The outfit is super effective!” Kelsey added.

Perhaps… there was something wrong with a lot of sisters’ heads.