Slowly walking back to the kitchen, she was startled when she ran into a hard body. Looking up she saw her Da, a cruel smirk on his face. He always seemed angry but never had he put fear in her the way he was as he stared down at her young face.
“What happened to Mam?” She asked him, her voice slightly shaky.
A cruel smile spread across his lips as he began cracking his knuckles, “Nothing for you to worry about kid,” he told her. But her eyes were glued to his hands.
Cracked.
Bloody.
Bruised.
“You hit Mam?” She asked him angrily.
“Sod off, you little shit,” he told her with so much hate. Hate directed at her. She was at a loss. Too shocked to know what to say. To do.
Her Da had never been the warmest man, but he’d certainly never been mean to her. Not like that.
“Da?” She whispered. Her upset clear as a bell in her voice. He just watched as the tears dripped down her cheeks slowly.
“You got something to say?” He snarled.
She started to back away from him. The anger in his eyes clear as day. She didn’t understand what was wrong with him. Hearing a noise from behind her, she looked back to see her Mam coming down the stairs slowly, with a small limp holding her side.
When she finally saw them at the bottom she rushed down, putting her own body in front of Deidre’s. Protecting her. She was so confused.
“You best teach that bastard child some manners, Maureen.” He growled as he grabbed her Mam’s arms make her cry out in pain.
“Stop it Da! Stop, you’re hurting her!” She cried, pulling on her Mam’s shirt.
“Shut up brat!” He screamed at her.
“Bradshaw! You can’t speak to her that way.”
Deidre watched in terror as her Da’s face went an ugly shade of red. “Mam?” She whispered in fear, just as her Da backhanded her Mam so hard she hit the floor in a cry of pain. “Mam!” She cried out again, dropping to her knee’s just as she felt a tug on her hair so sharp it felt like it was being ripped.
All of a sudden she was sailing through the air and hitting the just a couple of feet away. Dazed, she couldn’t move. Didn’t want to move. But she scurried back as pain assaulted her body when she heard heavy footsteps coming closer.
Closing her eyes tight she waited for what was to come. Hot breath in her face and hand gripping her chin so tight it hurt, with a demand, “Open your damn eyes.”
Looking up she shivered in fear as he told her, “Watch your fuckin’ mouth and mind your business.” At her nod, he instructed, “Clean her up, she looks like shit.” Before walking back out the front door with a slam.
***
Deidre ~ 12 years old
“Deidre Lynne O’Connor get your arse in this house now!” She winced as she heard her Da screaming for her as she was dropped off from school. Barely out of her friend, Jemma’s van when he started yelling at her.
Sighing she took her time walking up the steps to their semi-mansion, in the middle of Dublin. She hated this house. It reminded of the one from American Horror Story. It was spooky, and creaked when no one was home.
“Deidre!” Her Da screamed again. His voice was full of anger now. She wondered what bug crawled up his arse this time. Over the years since she was six years old, he’d been getting meaner and meaner. Until finally her mom had left when was eight.
Deidre didn’t blame her, not really. Her Da beat her nearly daily and when he’d started taking his meaty fists to her, her Mam had, had enough and finally left. She’d tried taking Deidre with her but her Da was a powerful man, and had run her Mam through the mud. Made her look like nothing but a drug addicted whore.
It couldn’t be further from the truth but her Da was a world class manipulator. She was eight so no matter how many times she’d tried to say no it was her Da that was the mean one. No one ever listened to her. So now four years later and she saw her Mam once a year on her birthday for a very short amount of time. But it was time that she treasured.
“Yes Da?” She asked as she walked inside. Stopping short when she a huge hulking man standing sentry at the bottom of the staircase and to the side of her Da’s study.
“Get in here,” he snapped from sad study.