Thrust Into His Arms

I snap my head to the window as I hear a sound.

The shelf that I put in front of the window—a silly excuse of a barricade was sent flying forward with a bang that deeply startles me. I scream, jumping off from my bed and standing close to it, holding little Percy tightly in my arms. He senses the commotion too and starts to cry. The window rolls aside completely.

Fear grips me as I catch sight of the familiar tattoos on his hand.

He enters my room like he owns it. I freeze in place, staring dead at him for a few seconds before I break into a bloodcurdling scream. "Relax. Keep it down. You don’t want your neighbors to hear you." He hisses like I am merely acting crazy and him breaking into my room like this is a good attitude.

"What are you doing here, Calix? What more do you want from me?!" I half-yell. My eyes pooling with tears.

"Put your brother down and let’s talk." He says.

"Talk?" I scoff. "You and I have nothing to talk about. Unless you are going to give me a knife to fucking slit that throat of yours here and now!"

He is clenching his jaw, staring at me blankly. His hand moves to his back. "I don’t got a knife. But I think this would do."

A freaking gun!

He holds it out to me. "Take it."

"And do what?" I snap. I have seen a gun before. I had learned how to dismantle, arrange, load a chamber with a bullet and pull a trigger.

Dad has taken me to the shooting range twice. He thought it was a good idea for me to learn how to shoot. Mom played the ever supportive wife and readily agreed with her husband. But I hated it. I hated holding guns. It is heavier than it looks. I hate the smell of bullets and gunpowder. I hate everything about it. I have only ever fired at lifeless targets, not a person, I will never have the fucking guts to fire a bullet at a person.

"You said you want to kill me." He replies in a normal tone like what he is doing right now is normal. Like he isn’t just offering me a freaking gun to end his life. "I would go to the abandoned Prim park to do it if I were you. You’ll have trouble getting my body out of here without being caught. Unless you want to go Jeffery Dahmer." Is that an advice? It is, isn’t it? I can’t believe he is giving me a lecture on how to end his life like it is something simple, and easy, and normal like a thrift class or a cooking lesson on how to bake pancakes.

"Stay where you are! Don’t fucking come close, I am warning you!" I said as he comes forward. But he does anyway. I run to my door to get out of the room. His hand grips my arm, holding me from coming out. I shook him off with all my strength, but It doesn’t work. After all the martial arts lessons I took, why is this guy so damn strong?

"Where the hell are you going? I fucking said let’s talk!" He furiously yells.

"Screw you. Let me go!"

"Struggling with me is only going to end up with you hurting yourself and him."

"Like you fucking care!" I sink my teeth into his hand and bit down as hard as I could. He shouts but still does not let go. I then jabbed at his crotch as hard as I could with my knee. I had hit his damn balls directly. He immediately lets go and I fell on impact, rolling down the stairs. I protected Percy with my body as we both fell down. I could take any injury but not him.

I was inches away from the main door when a hand grabs my hair and drags me backwards with it. I scream. "You never fucking listen." I heard him mutter under his breath. That kick should have kept him down. Why did he catch up to me so quickly? He throws me on the sofa and takes Percy from me.

I yell at him to give him back and he pushes me down again. The words he said throws me off guard. "Where is his bed?"

"He needs to sleep dummy." He said when I don’t answer because I am too shocked.

"I. . .in my room." He leaves me and climbs up the stairs to my room, holding Percy in his arms. I run after him. I reach my room and was met with a shocking sight. I had to blink and wipe my eyes to make I was seeing correctly. Evil Calix is pacing about and patting Percy’s butt to sleep. "Shh. It’s okay now. Don’t cry." He coaxes Percy who happens to still be crying.

"He won’t calm down because he is not used to you!"

"Has he been fed?"

"Yes."

"I will have no problem putting him to sleep then. I am quite good with babies."

I found that hard to believe. But the next few minutes proves him right. Percy not only stopped crying, but also fell asleep in his arms. I watched Calix closely with a sharp, alert gaze, unable to separate him from the crime of hurting my baby brother like he does me. But no. This is the most humane side of him there is.

Calix putting a crying baby to sleep? I never thought I’d see the day. His calm and gentle expression, I never thought I would see anything other than a trouble disdainful smirk or a snarl of anger and a frown on that face of his. He seems more like a dad to Percy than Dad.

He really is good with babies. I sit down on the bed with my knees pressed to my chest and my back against the headboard. Watching him doing all that pushes most of my anger aside without me even realizing it. Even I cannot calm Percy down in such a short time. Calix slowly and meticulously puts down a sleeping, snoring Percy in his colt.

"Take that and leave, or I am calling my Dad and the police." I hold my phone as I threaten.