Then 8 years old

Dad is not a nice person. Dad drinks a lot, mommy says it's bad for him but he does it anyway, he shouts at me and mommy when he drinks. I don’t like him very much. Mom says it's not his fault , but it is. He got fired from his job recently and he spends all day on the couch shouting and then in his garage working on his car. He hit me the other day, my lip was cut open and I cried a lot, he didn’t stop until mommy came over , she tried to help me but he hit her too. After he left mommy's face was bleeding like me. Why does he hate us so much mommy? I ask she says it's not his fault again, she says he's not angry with us he's just stressed out. It's like mommy is making excuses for his actions. I don’t like it when he hits my mommy. I don’t like my dad at all. Mommy makes me feel angry why doesn't she just leave him, I asked once. Mommy says she's married to him and that marriage is a sacred thing. Mommy says she's a catholic and that God is watching and he'll make things better for us. She tells me a lot about things like that. If God is watching by doesn’t he help us I ask her. She doesn’t say anything and just stares into space.

Then: 12 years old

Mom is looking even more haggard. She looks withered you wouldn’t think she hit 30 this year, she looks some much older, it's her eyes they look tired. The man who I know as my father still is at home on his couch, watching TV as usual, recently he's stopped hitting me but I see bruises on mommy when I come from school. Mommy says not to worry about it , but I know she's afraid of him. She's scared of him, I can tell. She keeps telling me he isn't a bad person. But I don’t believe her, I don’t think she believes it anymore either. She says he's just angry at his not being able to find a job, she says he'll get better when he finds a job. She says it'll get better tomorrow. But that tomorrow never seems to come. He doesn’t hit me anymore but I don’t like the way he looks at me, he just follows me with his eyes when he thinks I'm not looking. I told my mommy but she just cried and pulled me into a hug. I can hear her crying as she tells me it's okay and that everything is fine.

Then : 13 years old

I got called to the hospital today, mom fell down a flight of stairs. That's what she told me when I asked her. The hospital staff told me she had bruised ribs and had broken her arm , they say it was an unfortunate accident. Mommy smiled and told me not to worry, she told me that I should be more careful on the stairs so that I don’t fall myself. My mommy really cares about me. I care about here too. That’s why I know she's lying. I ask her again if she fell down the stairs because she slipped. She smiles again and said she did. The smile, the same smile she makes when she tries to tell me not to worry about my him , when she makes excuses for him. I know who did this, it was him. It was all hIs fAulT.

Mommy gets discharges from the hospital and we go home. When we get there he is there sitting on his chair watching TV with a beer bottle in his hand. He sees us opening the door and he shouts at mommy, calling her nasty mean things. He says it's her fault for everything and she should have just died on the staircase. Mommy is crying , I don’t say a thing, but pull her into my room and lock the door. Mommy is still crying , I tell her not to worry and everything it'll be fine. I'm just like she was all those years ago, telling lies to a child to make her think everything will be okay. But I'm not like mommy. I'm not going to hope that things will get better.

Next day:

The car that he works on still isn't working properly, he removed the tyres and is trying to fix the car by using a car jack to lift the wheels vehicle up will he works under it. I see this from the crack of the garage door. I watch his try pointlessly fix his car, he gets angry and throws his tools to the ground. I watch him do this as he screams in frustration and reaches for the door. I quickly hide away from him. When he's gone I go into the garage and look at the car. It's a mess, I don’t know much about cars but I know that he is nowhere near to fixing it. I see the jack stand and look it over. In school I read about it on the internet in my free time. I made sure no one was looking. I don’t touch it. I can't, not yet anyway.

He always works on it when I'm at school , when he's not hitting my mother of course. I made sure to keep her away from him whenever I can. I make sure she sleeps with me in my room and I make sure to lock the door. I look over the jack, he left it up like that. I apply what I learnt about the structure of jack lifts from the picture on the computer and loosen the bindings ever so slightly. It's rusted and it makes a little noise, but I know my father won't be coming back today. I make sure to wear gloves while I'm doing it. Once I'm finished I go back to my room making sure nobody sees me leaving the garage. Tomorrow is Saturday, he won't go into the garage on Saturday, he'll go to the pub and come back late at night then leave for his room. He always does this, it's his pattern, I've been paying close attention to it. No one else goes in the garage except for him. Ever.

I head up to my room and talk to my mom about going to church Sunday. She always goes to church on Sundays and she tries to bring me along too. She doesn't force me by any means but she's stopped asking me after a while. She seems happy that I asked her and more than readily replies with a yes. She seems really happy , I like it when mommy smiles she doesn’t seem as tired and it's like she gets younger every time she does. I like mommy smiling, I don’t want to see her sad anymore, I won't let anyone hurt her again.

Saturday : Mommy and I stay at home because she's hurt I make sure we stay in my room and we play games , she's smiling and I'm smiling. I like it this way, both of us are happy. It should stay like this.

Sunday: Mommy and I leave for church, mommy is having difficult moving but I help her to move. She looks at me and says I'm a good girl as she takes my hand and we walk toward the church. There is a mass going on, I don’t pay attention to it much, I just look at my mom and make sure she's okay. The priest hold a ceremony and starts talking for a while, something about how god is in us all and all sinners get thee due eventually, what a coincidence he talks about it. If gods in us all then asking for help from him is asking to do something about it ourselves and if god punishes sinners doesn’t that mean I should too? All these years it suddenly comes clear to me (not it doesn’t you psychopath XD) I should have done this sooner.

Monday: Police investigate the accident , there is a small news report of a local man getting crushed by a car. People come over to express their sympathies, they didn't know how he was like, some of them barely knew who he was, but they knew my mother and I guess they were here for her.

Tuesday : We are the funeral. The local priest is leading the service

"Thomas Howard was a good man"

He really wasn’t.

"he will be missed dearly"

Not be me he won't.

"it's truly a shame for him to be gone"

Shame it didn’t happen sooner

The funeral service was a joke this man got what he deserved. Did I feel guilty? Yes, guilty I cause my mother to suffer through this, even through all the pain he put us through it would seem some part of hoped he'd turn around. Funny this man nearly killed her and yet she cared this much for him. I find it hard to understand her, but it's fine. He won't hurt my mother again. Ever. I go over to my mother , she cries as she hugs me. "everything is going to be fine mommy" I say to her over and over till she believes it and then she stops crying wiping her tears away, " I'm sorry Sam I , I'm supposed to be strong for both us here" she says. "It's fine mommy" I say with a smile on my face.

"I'm here to help".

----"Miss Samantha"?

I'm pulled into the present and I turn to the voice that called me back. Grimm's eyes stare into mine

"is everything okay? " he asks with a slight tone of concern. Aw didn’t know you cared little Grimm a smile plays on my face as I look at this little child who has gone through so much.

"Everything will be fine Grimm" I say with a smile as I get out of the car and knock on the door to the orphanage.

After all. I'm here to help.

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If you guessed c) she's a complete psychopath ding ding ding. You win. I wasn’t really thinking of making her an important character but hey here you go.