He got to where Danny was led, rolling in agony on the hard floor, he proceeded to beat his son, kicking him with massive strength. Danny continued to scream, yell and cry out for help! None came, he was on his own. Jake was unconscious on the ground at the other end of the room. His own dad was so angry at him that he was able to physically attack him! Not for the first time that week, Daniel feared for his young life.
He continued to take relentless blows to his weakened body. Time ticked by and the pain only worsened. He cried out but the beating continued. Again and again the hard force of the steel toe capped boots struck him. It was only when the older man began to tire that Danny managed to find the strength to reach out and grab onto his dad’s strong, muscled leg as he kicked. He pulled with all his remaining strength, causing his dad trip and fall violently onto his back. While he was down, Daniel seized his opportunity to get out of there! He stumbled as quickly as he could manage to the doorway and out into the hallway. He heard his dad calling after him, now even more furious than before. He clambered clumsily up the wooden stairway, reaching the top just as his dad reached the bottom. The older man was much quicker and had much more strength. Danny knew he had to shift! He reached his room as his dad got to the top of the stairs, slamming the thick wooden door so hard that it shook, he felt a small amount of relief but the fear remained.
He whimpered as his father’s strong hand smashed against the wooden door! The full force of his dad’s mighty strength sent shock waves through the entire building. The door shot open sending Danny flying backwards through the air once more. He landed on his ass at the other end of his bedroom by the window!
***
Boom! The horrifying and unmistakeable sound of the wooden door being ripped violently from its hinges. Daniel pulled his knees in as close to his chest as he could and huddled himself tightly into a compact corner of his room. He braced himself for what he knew was about to happen to him.
Smack!
Darkness…
…Silence…
…Stillness in time…
***
Morning. Daniel woke up suddenly to the sound of shouting downstairs. His eyes shot open like a greyhound out of the start gate at the beginning of an intense race. He found himself on the floor of his room. His back was against the hard, cold wall and his legs were folded around the 90 degree angle of the corner of the room. His right arm ached where he had been led on it. He tried to move his numb, tingling right arm out from underneath his stomach but it wouldn’t move. No matter how hard he struggled to pull his arm out from underneath him, it wouldn’t budge. Slowly the numbness started to die and it was replaced with unbearable and intense pain. That’s when Daniel realised, he was lying in a shallow pool of his own blood, and his heart started racing as he realised all of a sudden, the indescribable agony he was in. He remembered what had happened the night before.
***
The pain was unbearable. He now had two broken arms and was bleeding heavily. The shouting continued downstairs and he wondered who it was and what was going on. He wondered if his dad was still there. Was it him doing the shouting? He was scared but mainly he worried about Jake! Was he alright? He had to find out! However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move.
“JAKE?!” he yelled.
There was no reply.
“JAKE ARE YOU THERE?! Is anybody there?” he cried.
“WHO’S THERE?!” came a strange female voice.
Danny paused, unsure what was happening.
“What?” Danny asked confused.
The woman entered Danny’s bedroom. She was a nurse.
“Okay we have another one up here!” she yelled, “Another male, teen, in a very bad way! Let’s get some guys up here as well!”
“What’s going on?” Danny asked confused, “Another one? Oh my god please tell me that Jake’s alright!”
“Let’s worry about you for now, the other boy is in a bad way but he should be alright, I’m more concerned for you right now, you’re bleeding heavily.” The nurse answered truthfully.
“Yes I know but…”
“No buts!” She interrupted, “We have to stop this bleeding now! Can you tell me your name?”
“Yes, it’s Daniel, what happened to my dad?”
“Well, Daniel, everything is going be fine, your dad is fine, he has told us what happened and he is giving a statement to the police. We’re going to have to move you down to the ambulance and get you into hospital. Can you just confirm that you understand that for me?”
“Yes, but I really need to see Jake, please tell me that he isn’t hurt!”
“Like I said, he should be alright. We’re going to take him to hospital too as a precaution and get him checked over but we need to sort you out first.”
Two other men entered the room, they were male nurses and they were carrying a stretcher. The strong men placed the stretcher on the floor next to where Danny was laying.
“Alright Daniel, we’re going to move you onto the stretcher now. Can you move at all under your own power?” asked one of the male nurses in a gentle caring tone.
“I can’t move my arms, the right one was already broken,” he answered, “but I can move my legs I think”.
“Alright well we’ll do our best to keep the pain to a minimum but it will probably hurt a little bit because we will need to move your arms”.
The two men gently manoeuvred Danny onto the stretcher and although he did feel some pain, it was nothing compared to what he’d felt the night before. The nurses wasted no time in getting him out of the house and into the ambulance.
On the way to the hospital, they got the bleeding under control and made sure that Danny was as comfortable as possible. They talked to him about what was going on. They told him that the reason that they only got to him after he woke up was because they had only just got there themselves and were caught up with Jake. The nurses also told him that Jake was already there at the hospital and was fine apart from a headache and a small cut and a bruise on his face. Danny was relieved to hear that Jake was ok and at last felt some reassurance that things, for now, were under control.
***
Danny lay unconscious on the hospital bed after a long and difficult operation. Jake sat quietly by his side, simply watching him sleep. He had been out for almost twelve hours now and he was due to wake soon. They had discovered in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that Danny had indeed broken both of his arms and the left arm, which was the one he’d broken when diving out of the way of the truck, needed a metal plate in it. However, in the end, this turned out not to be the biggest worry. All of that kicking had left Danny with a punctured lung. That’s where all of the bleeding must have come from. It had been caused by a broken rib which had actually completely snapped under the sheer force of the beating. This was the main reason why they needed to operate fast, and why the operation was so difficult and risky. There was a chance that if the operation was unsuccessful, Danny may even have lost his life! It was also the main reason why Danny would never want to see or hear from his father ever again! Thankfully, the operation had gone very well and now they were just waiting for Danny to wake up after the heavy anaesthetic drugs had worn off. He was likely to still be in a lot of pain and Jake was worried about what was going to happen once he woke up. However, whatever happened, he wanted to be there when it did.