I quickly shake my head, which he raises an eye brow to but doesn't question.
He straightens up, never removing his gaze from me before stepping closer, forcing me to step back. He takes another and again, I step away. Seth keeps approaching me, hi...
"I've been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn't listen. Every time you said 'Farm Boy do this' you thought I was answering 'As you wish' but that's only because you were hearing wrong. 'I love you' was what it was, but you never heard." ― William Goldman, The Princess Bride
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**********
Feeling slightly uncomfortable, I tried shifting around, feeling warmth radiating beside me, I wriggle closer, letting the warmth wrap around me.
I'm vaguely aware of voices around me. They sound somewhat familiar, but I cant seem to just make myself care, for once I'm too comfortable and cosy. So I shut the voices out and grip onto the source of heat tightly, letting my mind drift off deeper into sleep.
**********
Looking about, I can see I'm standing in my room. But it's different. My bed covers are pokemon ones instead of my plain red and white sheets. There's posters and photos of my family and friends about all the walls. I look down at myself, I see my hair is its normal brown colour and in little braids and I'm wearing a pretty white dress with dinosaurs over them and a red ribbon tied round the waist with little red Dr Martens on my feet.
I hear my door open and there stands my step dad. He also looks younger. He crouches down in front of me, looking into my eyes. His big hands are wrapped around my tiny arms, holding me steady.
"Wills, I have some bad news. Your mum, well, she..." He trails off, looking down.
I want to shout at him, ask him what happened, demand he tell me everything but instead of speaking, he stands up to his full height, ageing as he does so a few years as he looks down at me. I look about my room again, confusion clouding my mind. What was he going to say about mum? I notice that the room has changed. My sheets are now lilac, with white flowers, the posters of cute animals and pokemon have disappeared, and the photos have changed. All traces of my mum in the photos seem to have gone. The amount of photos have dramatically decreased as there's now only three photos beside my bed, one of me and an older boy, he looks familiar, but I cant remember who he is, one of me and my old dog, Lupin. And the last one was of me and Faith, we had only just met, but she was awesome.
I look back at my step dad. He looked different. I knew he'd been drinking again. Something my little mind at the time shouldn't have known . But I did. I also knew when he was getting ready to throw a punch or kick. Something I also shouldn't have known. I must be about 10.
My step dad reaches out to grab my hair, with my flinching backwards, not wanting to receive the blow, but it doesn't come. In stead, he begins to run his hand through my hair, looking down at me. He leads me to the bed and makes me sit down, crouching down in front of me, one hand cupping my small cheek, the other rubbing up and down my leg.
I can hear myself in my head, screaming at little me to get up and get out. I know what's coming, but I don't move, I just look at my step dad, wondering what's going on as he shushes me, telling me that he's going to change, and he'll prove to me how much he loves me.
