Be My Savior

The helpless little boy sat on the floor in the corner of his room, covering his ears with his hands and his eyes closed tightly. He didn't want to know what was going on around him, even though he was aware of it already. It never ended. It was an endless battle that wouldn't stop no matter how much he tried to make it… It just wouldn't. He didn't dare to tell anybody about it, not even his best and only friend, John. He had helped him through so many rough times before, but he didn't want to ask for help this time, he knew John wouldn't be able to help him anyway. No one could. Nothing would be able to erase the memories. The memories he would rather see destroyed than kept and even if he succeed in forgetting, the scars would always be there to remind him.

The screams with pain got louder and louder. The boy pressed his hands harder against his ears. He knew that kind of screams. He knew them all too well. No boy of his age should know about such horrible things. They shouldn't witness it. They shouldn't be subjected to it.

He couldn't take it anymore. He had to do something, at least for himself. He laid down on the cold wooden floor and curled up into a fetus position. He had to go to his happy place where no one could touch him.

"Come on John, your father will sail without us!" the boy said in a happy tone. He was running with his best friend in his hand.

"Slow down Cody, you're too fast," John laughed, as he tried to follow his buddy.

The boy was excited, he had only went boating twice and both times had been the biggest highlights of his life, so he was really looking forward to do it again.
He knew his father would kill him if he found out, but the boy didn't care, he knew his heart wouldn't let him pass on the invitation John had given him.

John's father, Chris, owned a huge boat. Their family used to sail a lot, but eventually it got boring, so they found themselves a couple of new hobbies, like golfing and gardening. John didn't play golf, he always told Cody that: "Golf is for old people," but he loved sailing and he missed it, so when Cody told him that he loved sailing too, he asked his farther if they could go on a small boat trip. Chris knew there weren't much light in Cody's life, so he would do anything to make the little guy smile.

They put to sea as soon as the three of them were on board.

Chris was steering, while John and Cody stood at the rail, sucking in the refreshing sea air into their lungs. Cody closed his eyes and enjoyed the liberty. John leaned over the rail and looked down at the water. It had a beautiful blue/green color and it was almost clear enough for him to see the sea bed.

Cody sat down, eyes remained closed. John looked down at him and he couldn't help but smile when he saw the peaceful face of the young boy. He sat down behind him, spread his legs and pulled the boy in between them. Cody leaned back and rested his head on John's chest. He couldn't imagine anything better than sailing with John. He wished that moment would last forever. He didn't want to leave the boat ever again. He wanted to live there, just him and John. Chris being the only person, who had permission to visit them.

A door slamming open awoke Cody.

"Get out here you son of a bitch!" the father shouted, as he took five heavy steps toward his scared son. He bent down and grabbed him by the neck, pulling him up to a standing position, "You're worth nothing, just like that skanky whore you call your mother!" his eyes were on fire, they wanted to see blood.

"I can't breathe," Cody choked, laying his hands on his father's.

"Mark, you're killing him!" a beaten woman appeared in the doorway. Blood was running from her mouth and nose and she still had a black eye from the last beating he had giving her.

Mark put a final pressure on the boy's neck, before releasing him and turning around in anger.

"Shut the fuck up!" he growled and directed his steps toward her. She screamed and put her hands in front of her face to protect it.

"Mark, please don't! Please!" she cried, tears flowing down her swollen cheeks. He grabbed her long, blond hair and pulled back, so she was forced to look up. He looked down at her with widened eyes and a smirk on his face. She tried to shake her head, but it was impossible because of his firm grip, "Mark, I swear, I didn't sleep with him," she whispered and sobbed loudly.

Mark let go of her hair and slapped her hard across the face.

"I know you did, you filthy liar! And you love him, don't you? Well, guess what, I'm gonna kill both of you!" He punched her with a fist right one the nose, causing her to collapse. He sat on her stomach and started to punch her several times in the face. She wrung and screamed with pain, begging for her husband to stop.

"I'm gonna kill you… I'm gonna kill that motherfucker… And I'm gonna kill our useless son!" he shouted while beating her. His words made her cry even more.

Cody was forced to watch his mother get beaten up by his own father. His mother's moaning made his eyes water. He couldn't do anything.

Nothing.

"Mm… Ma…. Mark," the mother groaned. She opened her eyes slowly and looked directly at him. He looked her in the eyes, as he pulled his arm back. He shook his head slowly.

"Fucking bitch, burn in hell," he whispered, before he punched her as hard as he could right in the face… And with that everything went silent. No screaming. No yelling. No nothing…

Tears were flowing down Cody cheeks, he had seen his mother get beaten a thousand times before, but none of the times were like this. It was worse than all the others.

Mark got up on his feet. He grabbed Ashley's arms and dragged her behind the kitchen counter. Cody followed them.

"Mom?" Cody whispered. Ashley was out of sight behind the counter, he didn't dare to come any closer, but he needed to see her to confirm that she was still alive, "Mom?" he was afraid… Why didn't she answer him?

Mark slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder at his kid. Cody froze when his father's evil eyes hit on him. Tears kept running down his cheeks. He let out a few small sobs. He couldn't move.

Mark turned his front toward the scared boy, who never broke the eye contact between them.

Cody couldn't stand the silence.

"Why won't mommy answer me?" he spoke slowly. Mark walked to him and grabbed him hard by the arm.

"Because you're a brat! You're the worst thing that has ever happened to me and her. She hates you and I hate you! You will join your mother in hell!" he shouted, lifting Cody and tossing him into the wall. He fell to the floor, screaming with pain.

"You mean nothing to us, you motherfucker!" Mark lifted him again, this time he pressed him against the wall, holding him by the neck.

Cody coughed and grabbed his father around the wrists in an attempt to take some of the pressure off of his neck. Mark's grasp got tighter and tighter by every second. Cody wheezed, it was only a matter of time, before he would pass out.

He was looking directly into his father's burning eyes. It was too much for him, he didn't want his father's eyes to be the last thing he saw before he died. Therefore he closed his eyes to go to his happy place.

"Come on, John!"

"Slow down, Cody!"

"Golf is for old people."

"Your father will sail without us!"

"You're too fast!"

Cody shut his eyes wide open, as he heard the front door get slammed open and the voice of the person he loved more than anyone else.

"Let go of him, you psycho!" John shouted and stormed inside the house.

Mark let go of Cody and he fell to the floor. He coughed insanely and tried to get back his breath.

"What are you doing here? Get out of my house!" Mark turned toward John, who looked like he was ready to kill Mark for his actions.

"You crazy son of a bitch, what the hell is wrong with you!" John ran straight into Mark's stomach with his shoulder first. Giving him the perfect spear.

They both fell to the floor where they started fighting.

Cody covered his eyes with his hands, it was too much for him. First his mother and now his best friend. He knew John was much older and bigger than himself, but he was still his best friend, age didn't matter to him. John was one of the few that had actually been nice to him. If his father killed him, he wouldn't mind getting killed too because he would already be dead… Inside…

The men were groaning, screaming, punching, kicking, both doing their best to overcome the other.

Cody peeked at them through his fingers. John was lying on his back with Mark sitting on his stomach. He knew something like that would happen. In a minute, John wouldn't answer him either.

Quickly he closed the peeking holes between his fingers. Watching John get beat to death was the last thing he wanted to do.

The fight went on and on and on and on, until one of them made a loud scream with pain. Then everything went silent. Just like it did, when Mark knocked out Ashley.

Cody shrank together and sobbed loudly. He didn't care that it was his turn because John was gone and so was his mother. There was nothing left worth living for.

Suddenly someone placed a warm hand on the little boy's shoulder. He carefully turned his head, just enough to look at the hand. It was big and bloody, but it wasn't Mark's.

"Are you okay?" a familiar soft voice asked.

Cody looked up.

In front of him was a man. A man in his thirties. A man with blood running from his nose. A man with a caring smile. A man with a huge heart. A man who had just beat his father.

That man was John, Cody's best friend.

"John!" Cody cried and wrapped his arms around John's neck. He couldn't stop crying.

"Shh… It's okay," John whispered and gave Cody a tight hug: "Where's your mother?" he released himself from the hug to look Cody in the eyes.

Cody stopped crying immediately. He slowly turned his head to look at the kitchen counter. John gave Cody's cheek a fast stroke in an attempt to say, 'everything is gonna be alright.' John wished that there had been someone to caress his cheek because he had a bad feeling of what he was about to see.

He got up from the squatting position and went behind the counter.

"Oh shit, Ashley!" he shouted, sounding frightened. He dropped to his knees beside her, quickly checking her pulse, "You're alive," he whispered relieved, while getting his cell phone out of his pocket and calling 911.

Cody didn't dare to go and look at his mother. He knew it was bad. He didn't need the face of his mother to confirm it. His eyes were puffy and they hurt a little after all the crying. His eyes needed rest, so he closed them carefully and listened to John talking.

But suddenly John let out a loud shriek and the phone dropped to the floor. Cody fling his eyes wide open and looked in the direction of the counter. John screamed as loud as his lungs allowed him. Mark stood behind him with a huge knife in his hand. Blood was dripping from it.

John's blood.

Cody got on his feet and stormed into his bedroom.

"You're not going to get rid of me that easily… You should have minded your own business… And you shouldn't have fucked my wife," he whispered in John's ear. The blood stain on John's shoulder got bigger and bigger by every second. It hurt like hell, but John didn't want to give Mark the satisfaction of him suffering, so he pulled himself together.

"You sick bastard, how could you do something like this to your own family?" he glared Mark right into the eyes. Mark didn't answer him, he just glared back, "And I don't need to fuck… to care," John stated, earning himself a slap across the face.

"You fucking screwed my wife, I know you did!" Mark was getting really pissed. The fight between him and John had hurt him, but not enough to stop him.

"You don't care if I did or not, the reason why you're accusing me is because you need a reason to hit her! Guess what, it's not good enough! You are a freaking psychopath!" and with that, Mark threw his hand in the air, getting ready to stab John once more, but before he managed to do so, there was a gun shot.

Mark's eyes were wide open. The hand, which was holding the knife, lowered slowly. Sweat trickled down his face. He let out a small groan, before dropping dead.

John was shocked. He looked down at Mark with his mouth half open. Then he slowly turned to find out, who the murderer of Mark was. He gasped when he saw Cody standing a couple of meters from him with a gun in his hand.

Cody sniffled and dried his eyes with his free hand. John was dumbfounded, he didn't know what to say.

Suddenly Ashley started to move. She moaned quiet and opened her eyes slowly. John turned to look at her.

"Ashley, are you okay?" he asked in a sad tone and dropped to his knees beside her. He picked her up carefully and supported her body with his. She laid the back of her head on his good shoulder.

"John? What happened?" she whispered with a hoarse voice, without noticing the blood stain on John's other shoulder.

Cody ran to them as soon as he heard his mother's voice.

"Mom!" he cried and hugged her. She closed her eyes in pain and let out another moan.

"Cody careful, she's hurt badly."

"I'm sorry, mom," he apologized and sat down beside her.

John looked at Mark's dead body. He felt sorry for Ashley and Cody. It was a mystery to him how Mark and Ashley got together in the first place... And how Mark could get such a beautiful and sweet child as Cody. But now he was worried. He was worried that Cody would turn into the same person as his father. He was only 9 and he had already killed another human being.

It was terrible.

It was tragic.

Ashley caught the sight of her dead husband lying on the floor, not far from her. She screamed, before covering her mouth with her hands.

"John, what happened?" she whispered, as her eyes watered.

Before he could answer, they heard hooting sirens coming closer.

"Ashley, I'll explain everything, but right now we need to get you to the hospital, okay?" John sounded strict, but yet caring.

"But…"

"Don't question me now, I promise to explain, just stay calm. I know how surrealistic this is, I still don't believe that a man just got killed," John looked her in the eyes. He was right. Everything was so surrealistic. Mark was dead, they couldn't believe it. A 9-year-old boy had killed his own father. John had been stabbed in the shoulder and Ashley was worn out from the beating her husband had given her.

All three of them got up. John had to support Ashley, he tried his best not to show her that he was hurt. The last thing she needed was more to worry about.

An ambulance and 3 police cars stopped in front of the house. John looked at Mark's lifeless body and then at Cody's hand, which was still holding the gun.

"Cody!" he shouted to get the boy's attention. He was just starting to realize what had happened and that he had shot his own father. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it, "Cody, give me the gun, now!"

Cody looked up at him, before handing him the gun. Right after that, the police stormed the house. They spotted the dead body on the floor and the gun in John's hand immediately.

"Drop the gun, now!" one of them shouted and pointed a gun toward John. He placed Ashley's hand on his shoulder to support her so she wouldn't fall, as he bent his knees to put the gun on the floor.

When the gun was dropped, two policemen ran to them. One grabbed John, the other supported Ashley.

"You're under arrested, you have the right to remain silent," the tallest of them said, as he forced John to turn around. He handcuffed him roughly.

"Ouch!" John exclaimed, the jerk in his arm made his shoulder hurt like crazy. His back was turned toward Ashley, she looked at it, seeing the huge blood stain.

"Oh my God, John, you're hurt! Get those handcuffs off of him!" she screamed, trying to get out of the police man's firm grip.

"I'm sorry ma'am, this man is too dangerous, he has to remain cuffed."

"He hasn't done anything, get them off, you're hurting him!"

"Ma'am, we need you to calm down."

"Ashley, calm down," John said calmly, hoping it would convince her that it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

"I won't before you take them off him!" she replied, without taking a note of John's comment.

Cody looked from the policeman to his mother to John as they spoke. He slowly began to understand what was going on. John had taken the gun from him, so he wouldn't get blamed for it. If he had known it before the police came, he wouldn't have handed him the gun. John shouldn't take the blame for something he hadn't done.

He poked the policeman, who was holding John. He looked down at him.

"Sir, I'm the one who shot," Cody said, looking up at the tall policeman.

"Sure you were… Guys, there's a child in here, someone come and take care of him!" he shouted.

"It was me who did it!" Cody protested, looking at John who sent him a sad smile. He would never let Cody take the blame for shooting Mark. Never in his life.

"I know you want to help your dad, but that's just not how it works… Guys, I still need help here!" Cody was stressing him. He was pretty new in this, so he wasn't used to handling situations like that.

"He's not my father? I killed my father!" Cody pointed toward Mark's dead body. The policeman made Cody angry, he didn't understand why he wouldn't believe him.

A slim, black policewoman joined them.

"Is this your mother?" the woman asked Cody and looked at Ashley.

"Yes," he replied, getting confused about the whole situation.

"Your mom has to go to the hospital and I think you have to come too beause she'll be needing someone to hold her hand in the ambulance, okay?"

"Okay, but what about John?" The policewoman took a quick look at John's shoulder.

"Damn Corey, get those handcuffs off him, we need someone to check that wound!"

"But…" the policeman, Corey, tried to protest.

"But what? There's no but! I'm in charge here and I order you to get those handcuffs off him and get your sorry ass out of here. I can handle this myself!" she ordered. Corey didn't look too pleased about it, but he did as he was told.

"Everybody else, get out of here, I need to ask them some questions!" Everybody followed her orders, they knew she would kick their asses if they didn't. When it was only the 4 of them left, the policewoman smiled at Ashley and John. John was of course supporting Ashley again.

"Thank you, Hannah," John said and smiled back at their common friend.

"Anytime… Now… I knew something like this would happen someday," she said and looked at Ashley with a raised eyebrow. Ashley looked down at the floor, she felt so guilty. None of it would have happened if she had just left Mark the very first time he laid hands on her. It was her fault Cody had witnessed all those word and fist fights. If Cody ever laid a hand on his future girlfriends, when he got older, Ashley would be the one to blame for his actions, "I know it was self-defense, I know Mark well enough to know that he started this whole thing. I'm sure he deserved whatever you did to him and I'll help you get out of this mess."

"I'm glad you're the boss of this town," John said, looking down at Cody, who was really confused.

"Take of your shirt, John," she said in a demanding tone.

"What?" both he and Ashley said in chorus.

"I need to check your wound, dude, what the hell you think I wanted?" they both blushed, feeling a little stupid for assuming something else.

John took it off and turned his back toward her. She looked at it for a while and then she asked him to turn again.

"You lucky bastard, it's not as bad as it seems. So the bad news is, you're not going to die," she started laughing insanely. John just cocked his head.

"Haha, aren't you funny?" he asked, shaking his head.

"I was born a comedian!" she replied with a wide smile dominating her face.

"Sure you were," Ashley let out a small giggle. It hurt when she did, so it didn't last long.

"Well, here's how it's going to be. John, you'll go to the hospital and get that wound cleaned up and after it's checked and all, you'll get escorted to the police station. You'll probably have to spend a couple of days in jail. You'll get charged for murdering Mark, but I'm sure it's all going to be okay, 'cause it was self-defense and let's face it, Mark was a psycho, he practically asked for it. I'll of course be there to help you through this whole thing."

"I appreciate that," he said, looking at Ashley, who got a little hurt by Hannah's comment about her husband… Former husband. She knew what Hannah said was right, but she did love him once and she felt like Hannah was blaming her for marrying him.

"Ashley, you and Cody will have to go to the hospital and get checked. My guess is a couple of weeks and then you'll be fine again. Oh, and you'll get called to court as witnesses. I think Cody can get off, but he might be important to your case, so please consider using him as a witness, even though he's just a child. And last, I think you should all get psychological help after this, especially Cody and you, Ashley… And John, I think it would help your case, so you better take it as well," both Ashley and John nodded. They were thankful to have a friend like Hannah, she had done everything so much easier for them.

"Now, say goodbye to each other, 'cause John, you won't be driving with them, you'll be escorted by some policemen to the hospital. Ashley and Cody, you have to go with the ambulance now, so hurry up."

John was staring right into Ashley's eyes. He loved her eyes, he had never seen anything as beautiful as them. He leaned in and kissed her carefully.

Cody stood with his mouth wide open. Was his mother really kissing his best friend? He couldn't believe it.

"Mom?" Cody said loud and clear. She broke the kiss and they both looked down at him.

"Sorry buddy, remember when I took you for a walk in the woods and you asked me if I was in love with anyone?"

"Yes?" Cody said, even more confused, he couldn't see what that had to do with the whole situation.

"I lied… I'm sorry… I was in love… in love with your mother," John sent him an apologizing smile, "If it's too weird for you, then…" Cody cut him off.

"Are you crazy? I think it's awesome!" Cody put on a wide smile and jumped into John's arms. John had trouble catching him because of his injury, but he didn't want to ruin the moment, so he tried to ignore the pain.

"You think?" Ashley asked and a small smile started to form on her lips.

"Now John can be my daddy! John, will you be my daddy?" he asked all excited and hyped up. Ashley hadn't seen him happy in a long time, it warmed her heart to finally witness it. But what touched her most was that Cody had never used the word, daddy, to describe Mark, he always called him father. She thought that there was so much more feeling in the name daddy, than father. John put him back down.

Ashley took John's hand and gave it a small squeeze, her heart wasn't the only one which melted when Cody brought up his suggestion.

"If you want me to, I'll be it," John said, letting go of Ashley's hand and squatting in front of Cody.

"I want you to be my daddy. Then my daddy is also my best friend!" Cody gave him a huge hug. John closed his eyes and pressed Cody closer to him. Cody did the very same thing.

"Johnny boy, it's time to go!" Hannah shouted, she stood by the front door with another policeman.

John giggled softly and gave Cody a final squeeze, before letting go of him. Cody looked him right in the eyes.

"I love you… Daddy," Cody said, smiling.

"I love you too," Cody gave John's cheek a quick little kiss. John touched the spot he had kissed him. Then he held out his pinkie finger toward Cody, "Best buddies forever?"

Cody nodded and took John's pinkie with his own, "Best buddies forever."

Hope you enjoyed it :)
I don't know if I like it or not, but I think it was fun to write :D

Please review!