A thud and a crash, followed by a cry of pain woke little Sara in the middle of the night. She knew what was happening, the same thing that’d happened a week ago; her father was drunk again. Her tiny body shook with fear as she slipped out of bed to sneak down the hall. Her five-year old eyes had seen far too much already but she still had to find out what was happening. She had to find her mamma.
She reached the end of the hall and the sight in the living room that met her eyes caused a ball of terror to settle in her stomach and tears to trickle from her eyes. Her father was standing over her mother, kicking her in the stomach with his steel-toed boots while she tried to curl into a protective ball. Her mother’s face was red and swollen and a stream of blood ran from her temple. One of her arms was bruised and bent at a weird angle. Beside her father there was a horrible burned-looking cloaked figure with horns crowning its head whispering in her father’s ear.
That was Wrath. She’d been seeing him ever since she could see, whispering encouragement to her father when he was drunk, feeding his anger. Wrath enjoyed his anger and the pain and terror caused by it. It was how Wrath survived; by making others violent.
“You didn’t tell me you loved me!” screamed her father, jerking her attention back to him. “You stupid whore.” He leaned over and spit on her face before raising his fist back. Sara feared if he hit her mother another time she might not get back up again.
Before she could come up with a better solution, she ran in front of him with her hand out in front of her screaming, “Don’t hurt my mommy!” Instead of his fist landing on her mother’s face it landed on Sara’s, sending her backwards on top of her mother. She reached up to grasp her cheek in shock and agony and got back up after he sneered and walked away.
“Mommy?” Sara whispered to her mother. “Mommy please get up!” Her mother’s eyes twitched and Sara breathed a sigh of relief that her mom was still alive. She dragged a pillow under her mother’s head and drew a blanket over the top of her, then curled up beside her to make sure her father didn’t come back. In the corner Wrath cackled with glee and vanished, leaving her alone once more.