BEHAVE LIKE A MAN .

TRIGGER WARNING:
THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS CONTENT THAT MAY BE TRIGGERING TO PEOPLE; SEXUAL ASSAULT AND VIOLENCE. IF CONTENT LIKE THAT TRIGGERS YOU PLEASE SKIP.

THIRD POV

He was always a troubled child everyone knew that They never stopped for a second to wonder what had made him like that.

Maybe it was because he never told anyone the things that happened at home.

How could he though?

He was raised to think that it was shameful for a man to talk about the things that bothered him.

He was twelve.

He was twelve when all of this happened to him. He possibly couldn't protect himself. All he ever wanted was for his brother to be okay.

He never wanted Antonio to be hurt in whatever way. He was always there for him to wipe his tears if anything he never wanted to see him cry.

He knew most kids did not like him but there was nothing he could do about it. Maybe that was the sole reason why he became more bitter.

He hated everyone and everything. No one had ever seen him smile.

Raul was a sad child.

___________

As Raul walked home with his brother by his side the darkness didn't bother him. He didn't even think about what was hidden in the dark that could hurt them.

He was strong someone had to be.

He had been raised in the hardest place and he didn't think there was anything he couldn't survive.

He could hear the cries of the children behind the walls but there was no pity in him. He was already used to it.

He woke up to those cries every morning. Sometimes he wondered why they had such a miserable life.

Why were they poor?

"Will dad punish us ?", his small brother asked and Raul could feel a chill running down his spine.

He hated the man. He made their life a living hell and all he ever wanted was for him to die.

He sometimes wondered why all the bad people continued to leave. Why did only good people die?

He did not understand the logic behind it but had stopped asking and wondering. He had turned into a person who parted every day hoping that one day a miracle could happen and his father would die.

It never happened every day it was just them and him in a staring match hoping that they didn't do anything bad to make him lose his shit.

"No he won't punish us ", Raul said hoping that their father wasn't at home.

He always worried about their mother.

He could see the scars on her body. He could tell his father was beating her. He wanted them to leave but where would they go?

There were days he wondered what would happen to her mother if one day their father came back home drunk. He did not want to lose her. She was everything they had he couldn't bear losing her.

She was sweet which was the opposite of what their father was.

He could not remember a time when their mother had bought something for herself. It was always about them. Wondering what they were going to eat and what to wear.

She acted like she was the man of the family which even made him hate their father even more than he already did.

The voices and screams that came from their home startled him and his brother Antonio halted in his steps.

Raul glanced at his brother and he could see the look of terror on his face. Even if he was still small he knew what happened at home.

"Hide here I'll go check what is happening I will come for you ", Raul said as he looked around an abandoned building and walked with his brother towards it.

"Okay ", Antonio said and Raul could hear the change in his voice.

He was struggling not to break down and cry. He was the oldest one he was supposed to protect Antonio and yet he was still scared.

Scared of the things that their father could do. He never wanted Antonio to see or go through any of those things he couldn't let it happen if it meant killing their father.


"I'll be back for you ", Raul said as he took off the jacket he was wearing and gave it to Antonio to cover himself with it.

He didn't know how long he was going to take and in that time he didn't want Antonio to freeze to death.

The steady walk did not show what he was truly feeling inside. He felt like hiding and running away but he couldn't go his mother was in there and only God knew what she was going through.

The screams had seized which had even made him more worried. There was no way his father had decided to finally stop hitting her.

All he hoped was for her to be okay. There was fear in him as he opened the door of the house and looked around the small space that they shared.

He could see his father sitting on the chair across the room with a beer in his hands. He looked pissed and for some reason got more mad when he saw Raul entering the house.

Raul glanced at the floor and could see his mother lying there. He couldn't tell if she was still breathing but the sight of the blood on the floor was making him start panicking.

He walked towards where her body was and touched her hands hoping that if he tagged on it she would make up. He couldn't help the tears that fell from him. his eyes, as he stared at her helplessly hoping that something would happen and she would open his eyes.

The sounds of him crying did not make his father smile because, in a matter of seconds, he was up from the chair that he was sitting in.

Raul was scared.

Scared that it was going to happen again. He couldn't tell anyone.

He turned to look at his father who was looking down at him with a smirk on his face.

"Didn't I tell you to behave ?", his father asked as he took a swing of the drink he was drinking.

"Yes ", Raul said as he wiped the tears from his face.

"But you're not acting like a man right now. Men do but cry. You're a bad boy ", his father said and Raul couldn't stop crying.

The tears were glowing uncontrollably as he stared at his father. He didn't want it, why was he making him go through it all over again?

"You're still not going to behave I see, I'll have to teach you a lesson again I see ", his father said as he placed the bottle in his hand on the table beside him.

"No please ", Raul pleaded while he was on his knees.

The only sound he could hear was the opening of the zipper and the rest was muffled by his cries.