Their Secrets

RECOMMENDED FOR PEOPLE 14 YEARS OF AGE AND OLDER.

WARNING: CONTAINS MENTIONS OF SELF HARM, POOR MENTAL HEALTH, RAPE , AND EATING DISORDERS.

DO NOT READ IF THE MENTIONS ABOVE ARE TRIGGERING.

"Savannah," I say, trying to be quiet. "Savannah, please wake up!" Savannah groans loudly, "What do you want Aubri?" I quickly cover her mouth with my hand, "Shh! Mom and Dad will catch us if you're going to be this loud." Savannah rubs her eyes and whispers, "Is it time to run?" I nod softly, "Yeah. I'm scared though. Maybe we shouldn't run away. Mom and Dad will be mad at us."

Savannah sighs, "I know you're scared, but Mom's not a good parent. She hurts us. You know what she does. She's beat you with a belt multiple times Aubrielle. And it's because of Morgan. It's all because you're lesbian. They don't support your relationship." I roll my eyes, "I don't care if they don't support Morgan and I! I love her more than anything in the entire world. I wouldn't give her up for anything!" Savannah smiles, "I know you do, and she obviously loves you too. But you have to tell me what you guys are hiding from us all." I avoid making eye contact with my 16 year old sister, who always tries to sneak her way into my private and social lives. "I can't say it. Mom and Dad will be more than mad if they find out what we're hiding. But it's nothing sexual between the two of us. Obviously we aren't pregnant or anything." Savannah laughs quietly and lays back down in bed, "If we aren't running away tonight, can we go back to sleep please?" I nod, "Yeah, we have school tomorrow anyways." Savannah sighs before closing her eyes, "I won't tell mom and dad if you just tell me what you're keeping a secret from us." I cross my arms and tell her everything. About the self harm, the eating disorder, the mental hospital visits, and the rape by her father. Everything I've been keeping confidential and away from my own blood related family.

Her eyes are wider than the black hole when I complete telling her everything, "I can't believe that her own father literally raped her. The poor girl is only 13 years of age." I nod, "I know, Morgan's been through a lot. That's why she has really bad trust issues. Because her own biological father completely betrayed her in one of the worst ways possibly imaginable."

Savannah takes a moment to process what I've just told her and puts her hand on my shoulder, "It's okay. At least Morgan has you to talk to about this stuff. You're a good... therapist basically. You've been my mini therapist your whole life. Even when you were a baby, I told you things I needed to get off my chest. I only told you when you weren't able to speak and talk. You couldn't tell mom and dad anything I told you, so I knew I could trust you and confide in you."

I smile, "I won't tell mom and dad anything anyways. I know what they do with the stuff we tell them. They eventually use it against us. They blackmail us with it. Threaten us with it. We can rarely trust them anymore. It's like they turned to the dark side or something." Our parents used to be the most laid back, reliable, and kind people on the planet. But ever since mom started a new medication, she's turned into a monster. Dad, however, is 0.1% monster, 99.9% nice dad.

He knows Mom's medication is making her act this way, but he doesn't know how to get her to stop taking the pills. We've tried to do everything our mother says but it's no use. She always finds the smallest thing to be mad about. Dad's even considering changing her pills secretly into some sort of relaxation medication.

"Dad's going to change mom's medication today remember?" I say quietly. Savannah quickly sits right back up, "Oh my gosh! I totally forgot about that! That means mom could go back to the way she used to be!" Our dad walks into the room and isn't too pleased to see me out of bed at 3:26 am. "Aubrielle and Savannah? What are you two talking about at this time of morning?" Our dad says. Savannah looks at our dad and says, "I'm sorry dad. Aubri couldn't sleep so I wanted to let her talk to me about her nightmare so I could help prove none of it could be true." Our dad believes in the crappy made up story, "Okay. What was your nightmare about Aubri?" I fake a weary and scared voice easily, "It was that you died and Mamma's medications never went back to calming ones. She tried to murder me in my nightmare." My dad comes into our room and walks me back to my bed, "It's going to be okay Aubri. I've already switched the medications. And the labels. The pills look exactly the same. She'll take a pill at 6:00 am and we'll see if they work. I dumped her other pills into the garbage can under all the trash bags. It'll be okay, I promise you. I won't ever let her hurt you again." That was a big promise, if the pills don't work, he'll have broken the promise. He'll have to defend us against his own wife and our own mother.

I still don't understand why our biological mother who birthed us, would ever want to hurt us physically, mentally, verbally, or emotionally. But yet she does, and it's all because of stupid medication that her doctor prescribed her to take. Savannah and I get back under our covers and try and go back to sleep.

Once 6 am rolls around, my alarm clock wakes Savannah and I both up from our sleep. I can faintly hear the pill bottle and the sound of the pills rolling around inside of it. That means she didn't notice anything about the pills. then I hear her footsteps about 20 minutes later coming towards my room.