Footsteps On the Staircase

Hearing footsteps on the staircase a young boy is silent in his room, only moonlight from the window brightens the darkness and gloom. His heart beats fast as fear increases as an angry father opens the door, staggering drunkenly towards him to inflict violent cruelty once more. He packs a bag with some clothes leaving home in the quiet of night, stepping out into the cold darkness hoping he won’t be missed till light. It’s not so much the pain and bruises more that he just can’t understand, how one man can change so much with a glass of alcohol in his hand. After months of living on the streets a stranger came and sat by his side, knowing his name and who he was he told him he no longer should hide. Telling him how a neighbour knew all that happened and told the police, his father was taken, never to return so home now was a place of peace. The rising sun glows in his room and he glances over to the door, everything there still reminds him of the things that happened before. Carrying a bag with some clothes he leaves in the morning light, his mother reads the note he left on waking from her restless night.