I wish my parents would’ve gotten a divorce, as sick as it sounds. Maybe if they had separated, and we were left with less, I would still have my mom and Robin around. Whenever my parents would argue it would lead to something terrible, even death.
***
     My mom stormed towards the front door while my dad screamed after her, “Where do you think you’re going? Huh? Amy! Where do you think you’re going?” She didn’t say a word to him.
     “Kids let’s go, now,” my mom demanded. Robin and I didn’t hesitate to walk out of the front door.
     “Where do you think you’re taking my kids, Amy,” my dad shouted from inside the house. The three of us just sped towards the car while my dad continued to shout from inside. 
     “Mom,” Robin began, “where are we going?”
     “To grandma’s house, baby,” she said with a tear coming down her cheek. While we were all getting buckled in to our seats I saw my dad running out of the front door.
     “Mom, hurry,” I shouted as I slammed my door shut. My mom turned around to close her door but my dad was there in time to catch it. Then he back-handed her across the face and yelled,
     “When I’m talking to you don’t walk away from me!” At this point Robin was down in tears and I was boiling inside with anger. “Shut up,” my dad screamed at Robin. Then he looked back at my mother and grabbed her throat. “You wanna go somewhere, let’s go,” he said while pushing her into the passenger seat.
     “Don’t touch my mother,” I screamed out of boldness. My dad turned around with his fist coming fast towards my face. I tried to dodge it but I wasn’t fast enough. The blow sent my head banging hard against the window.
     “Don’t you ever talk to me like that again, boy, you hear?” I didn’t say anything back; I only held my bloody nose so I wouldn’t get everything full of blood. When my dad pulled out of the driveway it sent all of our heads flying backwards. After that he slammed his foot down on the pedal sending us speeding down the street.
     “Turn this car around now, Robert! You’re scaring your son. Just stop it already!”
     “Shut it, woman, you wanted to leave! Well, now I’m driving so deal with it!”
     “Turn this car around,” my mother shouted again. My dad didn’t say anything; he only slapped her across the face. I hated watching him abuse my mother. What could she do? She could take a hit; she was used to it but she couldn’t take many. After that everyone remained silent. Robin had his head tucked under my arm while my mother and I kept our eyes on our surroundings. Sitting here, I remained curious as to where we were going. The only thing that broke the silence was the sound of my dad rolling down his window. It startled me but just as I was turning my head to look out my window something shiny caught my attention from the corner of my eye. It came from under the driver’s seat; it was Robin’s baseball bat from last year.
     I tried to reach for the bat with my foot, slowly so that was I wouldn’t be noticed. When the tip of my toe touched the bat our car jerked to the right sending my body slamming against my door. “What are you doing,” my mom screamed. “Stop!” When I looked up I realized what she was shouting about, my dad was cutting off every car beside us. He was driving towards th- the edge of the bridge! Down below us there was a large lake. I hadn’t even noticed we were on a bridge!
     My mom struggled to grab the wheel from my dad until our car slammed into the rails of the bridge and went off. Robin was screaming his head off as I tried to keep him close to me. When we hit the water we were all taken off of our seats, but when we came back down I didn’t hesitate to reach for the bat. Water came rushing through my dad’s window soaking the inside of the car. As I reached for the bat I noticed my dad swing at my mom. The punch sent her head flying backwards causing it to bang against the window. When her eyes shut I knew she’d gone unconscious.
     “No!” I pulled the bat backwards and swung it forward as quick as I could but my dad saw it coming. Head first, he dove out of his window and into the water. The bat only hit his lower thigh and I knew I hurt him because he held on to his thigh on the way out. I couldn’t worry about him anymore though; I needed to get Robin and my mother out. Quickly, I jumped to the driver’s seat with Robin and tried to get my mom up. I continuously shook her shoulders hoping she would at least open her eyes but she didn’t. “Mom, mom, mom!” I shouted but it didn’t change anything. “Mom please get up, please!” The water began to rise higher and I knew I couldn’t stay. I tried to grab my mom with my right arm with Robin in my left but she was too heavy. “C’mon mom, please!” I banged my fist of the back of her chair in anger.
     “Mom,” Robin said softly. I looked down at him to find his cheeks wet with tears, his facial expression broke me inside.  When I turned around towards my mom I grabbed her hand and kissed her forehead.
     “I am so sorry,” I whispered into her ear.
     “Mommy,” Robin quietly said.
     “C’mon, bud, we have to go,” I said while letting go of my mother’s hand.
     “Wait, but what about mo-” I didn’t even wait till he finished talking. I picked him up and said,
     “Listen, you and I need to leave now. This water is getting to high and we’re going to die if we don’t leave!” I could tell that I frightened him because he didn’t say a word, he only nodded. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” I began to speak quicker. The water was just below my collarbone. “On the count of three I want you to suck in as much air as possible, ok?” He nodded again with another tear falling from him eyes. “You don’t let go of me, alright?  I’ll take us to the top just don’t let go.”
     “Okay.”
     “Alright. One, two, three!” 
***

Robin died. My father made sure of that while we were still under water.  Out of nowhere he came at me and with one blow I lost my grip on Robin. Everything I had left in my hands had fallen deeper and deeper under the water. Robin had never learned how to swim, and when I went down after him my father stopped me.  The last thing I remember Robin doing was holding his hand up towards me, letting out bubbles, while falling into the dark. A seven year old can’t hold his breath under water forever you know.  My father held me by my stomach for as long as he could until I got loose and kicked him. Neither of us could hold our breath any longer so we went towards the surface. When we came up the only thing we heard were sirens. My dad went off and I swam after him but I had become dizzy since he had hit me.
     A tear slid down my cheek thinking about Robin and my mother again. I’ve gone without them for three days and the pain is unbearable. Every minute that passes by I can’t seem to get them out of my mind. At night the only company I have are my nightmares. I can never let go of what my father did to me. The happiest moment of my life was when he decided to take his own life no matter what I had to learn for it to happen. 
***
     I’ve sat through all of the fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances that have come to see that they were too late.  Actually, who’ve come to see that I failed to save my mom and Robin. What amazed me was how many people slowed down to watch what was going on knowing that they weren’t going to get out and make an effort to help. All of them remained curious instead of caring and it made me sick.
     As the sun began to set I knew I needed to leave. I wasn’t going to spend another sleepless night out by the water with nothing to keep me warm.  No, I was going home to use whatever I had left inside of me on a very special target. My dad did this so he is the one that’s going to pay for it. I rose from the sand and dusted myself off. Then I began walking back home. It took me thirty minutes to get half way to my house. The sun had already gone down but I didn’t mind the dark. It was going to give me an advantage over my father; he won’t even see me coming.
     Another thirty minutes passed and I was a block away from my house. As I was walking back I heard glass shattering. I sped up my pace and when I came to the front of my house I saw my father opening up another beer bottle. He was staring right at me with the same thing he had on the day before. It’s like he was waiting for me.
     “Well, I see you’ve decided to finally come back home,” he said in a low voice. The bottom of his eyes looked like they were black. He seemed to look sick and when he stood he could barely keep his balance.
     “And I see that your still drunk, as usual,” my voice trailed off. He took another large sip of his beer and slowly walked down the steps. He only made it down two steps before he fell. I could tell he had been drinking a lot more than usual. “You are so pathetic,” I said as I kicked at the side of his stomach. He only winced in pain. “I can’t belie-” He didn’t let me finish talking. His hand stopped my leg from coming towards him again.
     “Listen to me.” Nothing came out of his mouth after that. My dad only pulled out a gun from his hip and held it against my chest. Then he pulled back the hammer getting ready to shoot. At this point I was so afraid to speak. My own father was pointing a gun straight at me. “I will kill you,” he said with such certainty. “You are beneath me; I am the man of this house. Whatever I say goes. Do you understand?” I only nodded. “As long as you are here you have no right to disrespectfully talk to me. If you do, boy, I swear I will kill you. I will put a bullet straight through that thick skull of yours.” So many things raced through my head and I thought to myself, ‘Why would I want to continue to live a life of suffering here, knowing that my own father is probably going to kill me soon. What would it matter if he were to shoot me in the next minute? I’d rather die than live a suffering life.’ I just stopped caring. Out of boldness I said,
     “You’re going to kill me? Your own son? Ah, well I guess that doesn’t surprise me considering the fact that you were the cause of your wife’s, my mother’s, death!” I pushed myself harder against the gun and to my surprise he wouldn’t shoot. “And not to mention your seven year old son, my little brother!” Once I finished speaking he slowly put down the gun and his whole facial expression changed.  He seemed too looked shocked but yet again broken at the same time.
     “Wha…what?” He dropped the gun on the ground and dug his hands into his hair. After that, I noticed his legs became a little more wobbly like he was having trouble standing. “I..I did that?” He seriously didn’t remember.
     “Yes! Maybe if you would quit drinking all of that alcohol you would remember this! Look at what you’ve done to yourself, to your family! I don’t even know how you live with yourself! But no, you were just about to shoot me! What happened, huh, have you finally gotten feelings? You are a monster!” Not one ounce of sympathy came out of me. I reached down for the gun while he was still struggling to figure out how he had murdered his wife and son. When I pointed the gun at his head he only looked up at me. “Now, look at where we’re at! You are beneath me! I hate you! You deserve to die!” Now his facial expression had become more serious.
     “Son, I love you. What are you doing,” A tear rolled down his eye.
     “Shut up! Whatever you’re trying to do to me just stop!” My mind is racing in many different directions. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
     “Uriah,” he knew my name? “Please, son calm down. I understand you’re upset. Put down the gun and we can talk this through.” I didn’t know what to do. Slowly, I lowered the gun and looked eye to eye with my father. “Listen, son, I never meant to hurt anybody you have to believe me,” he said it with such innocence. I couldn’t look into his eyes anymore. A tear slid down my cheek as I looked up at the porch. A ton of shattered glass and ripped beer cases sat there. My father did this, how could any kid be proud of it? Then something caught my eye right beside the leg of the chair that he was sitting on when I arrived. It was a small orange bottle, but not any bottle; it was a medication bottle with only a few pills left in it. I dropped the gun and ran up towards the small bottle.
     When I picked it up and read it, it said lithium. My father has bipolar disorder. This whole time my parents kept this a secret from me. I would’ve understood their situation if they would’ve just said something to me. Now I really understand why they never split up, it was because my dad wouldn’t be able to handle life on his own. Now, the only person that was here to care for him is dead because he killed her. Funny, I had never seen his decent stages, but yet again he was always out drinking. Everything made so much more sense to me, but I am still upset.  I dropped the bottle on the porch and turned around towards my father. He held the gun in his hand, but it wasn’t pointing towards me this time. No, he had it held up towards his head. “You’re right, I don’t deserve to live. I am a monster. You deserve a much better father than me. I would do anything for you son, except watch you suffer. Goodbye.” And just like that he pulled the trigger.
***

I ended up burning the house down with my father’s body. I didn’t want to remember that old prison. He and everything in that house are now ashes, and for me there is no turning back. Now, I began to feel the gun getting heavier. Everything replayed through my mind like a horror movie. I knew I wouldn’t want it on replay for the rest of my life.
     I continued to walk down the alley with my head down until I bumped into someone, causing this person to drop their book.  I hadn’t even noticed that someone was coming, but then I realized that I was at the end of the alley.
     “I am so sorry young man,” the man apologized as the both of us bent down to pick up his book. I made it to the ground before he did and picked up whatever he was reading. When I turned it over to read the title it said THE HOLY BIBLE in gold lettering.
     “Here you go,” I said while handing him his Bible. He was a very tall, slim man who had black and gray hair and wore a very sharp suit. He only stared at me for a few seconds before grabbing his Bible.
     “Thank you,” he said.
     “No problem, you have a nice evening sir.” After that I walked around him but he called after me and said,
     “Excuse me, young man, are you alright?” I stopped right where I was and slowly turned around to find him waiting for an answer.
     “Yes, absolutely,” I lied and turned around to continue walking.
     “I’m afraid not,” he said. “You are being blinded by something causing you to keep your eyes off of your purpose, your life.” Again, I stopped because I knew what he was talking about. What amazed me more was how he knew I was planning on taking my own life tonight. 
     “I don’t understand, sir,” I lied again. “Nothing’s wrong, I can see.”
     “Young man, you may not be willing to tell me what’s wrong but God is willing. Now I don’t know your situation but let me tell you something, God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. Whatever you’re going through it’s not worth taking your life. This is where your old life will end, but now you have a chance for a new beginning.”
     At this point this man had me in tears, how would he know what I was contemplating? I took the gun out of its holster and dropped it on the ground, but the man seemed more relieved than worried.  He was showing me that he cared and that I still have a chance to turn my life around. I didn’t even think before rushing into his arms but he didn’t seem to mind. He embraced me in return. While in his arms I felt a weight being lifted off of my shoulders, like all my cares had gone away and I was going to be cared for. Everything was going to be alright. For the first time in a long time someone had showed me love, and who would’ve known that it would come to me in my darkest time.
THE END

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18