six years later he was a jock, a football player who didn't do much of what his teammates did, not yet at any rate.

he always rushed home after practice to make sure his beloved mom was safe, and to try to keep his father away from her.

he tried all right, but his mother always insisted that he never physically hurt his father, so he wouldn't get in trouble, so he wouldn't go to jail.

how could she still love a monster like his father, when she was the one being attacked?

could she not let go for even her son's sake?

this time he didn't rush home after practice, knowing that his father was away on a business trip.

everything was fine, his mother was probably watching the cooking show she liked so much, eating the chocolates he had bought her for mother's day.

however, the moment he stepped through the door, he knew something was amiss.

the television was off, as were the lights, and the air felt stiff and cold.

"mom?"

but there was no reply.

"mom!"

he sprinted through the house, dumping his football gear on the floor as he headed into her bedroom, which was locked.

"mom, please come out! it's just me! you're scaring me, please come out!"

after a few moments of silence, he started trying to break through the door.

after a few painful tries, and a hammer, he had broken the door to smithereens.

his father would kill him for that later, but he could care less now, all he cared about was his mom.

his mom...

she had...

"mom! no, mom, please, you can't be dead! mom!" he yelled brokenly, searching for something to help him cut her down.

for she had hung herself from the ceiling fan, the stool kicked out from underneath her.

his mom had left him,

too tired to keep fighting a war she couldn't win.

as he found one of his father's pocketknives in the desk drawer, he wondered how he hadn't noticed the signs before.

she had been so quiet lately, she had hardly smiled, she had...

oh no...

he looked down at her body, and he saw the crimson red blood that covered her wrists, and he knew that there had been more signs he had been too blind to see.

he had failed her.

he had failed his mom, and now she was dead.

and it was all his fault.