Free Falling

Glad you all like it so far!
-Stax
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Chapter 7

Dani held Bruce’s hand as his father beat him yet again. Her blood boiled violently as she was forced to watch helplessly. Why would the sphere put me here without letting me actually DO something? she fussed, trying to comfort the terrified boy as best she could.
This was a regular occurrence, as Dani had learned over the past two weeks that she had been with Bruce. The poor kid was only about seven years old and had already lost his mother. His abusive father was literally the only family he had. Unfortunately, his father only let him go to school when he wasn’t bruised up, which wasn’t often, so the boy was stuck at home most of the time. His face was painfully thin from the stress.
And all Dani could do was hold his hand and try to comfort and play with him when he wasn’t being abused. She was even more helpless to protect him than he was to protect himself.
That’s it!
She would direct him to go get help! He could run to a pay phone and call child protective services, and then he would be out of this environment! She continued to hold his hand until his dad was through. Then, she hugged the crying boy.
“Bruce,” she started. He hiccupped a questioning- sounding grunt. “We are gonna get you out of here, ok? Next time you go to school, we’re gonna call somebody who will take you to a new family. Your dad won’t be able to find you, ok?” she said softly. He hesitantly nodded. “You have quarters?” he shook his head. Dani sighed. “We need to get some from your dad’s wallet then.” It took some convincing, but finally Bruce agreed.
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They waited for his dad to pass out drunk on the couch before making their move. Dani scoped the place out first by phazing through the walls, which she had found she could do now. Bruce thought was the coolest thing ever.
“All clear…” she signaled him. They snuck up to the snoring mass, and Bruce looked at her expectantly.
“What now?” he whispered.
“His wallet is right there,” Dani pointed. The man was lying on his stomach, wallet half hanging out of his back pocket. Bruce shuddered.
“Can’t you get it, Dani?” he pleaded in a quiet squeak. She sighed.
“If I could do that, I wouldn’t have brought you out here… You don’t have to try if you’re scared,” she concluded, noticing that the boy was beginning to shake. He shook his head.
“I can be brave.” With that, he tentatively tugged the wallet out of its place. Dani had him grab four quarters, just in case the call ran long. Bruce started to shove the wallet slowly back into the pocket. A waking grunt sounded from deep in the man’s chest. Bruce froze in a panic, and Dani instinctually stepped in front of him. The two waited in horror.
Bruce’s dad rubbed his nose without waking and seemed to return to his deeper sleep. Identical sighs of relief escaped the pair, and Bruce gently maneuvered the wallet the rest of the way in.
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“Dani, I can’t wait until Monday!” Bruce cried as quietly as he could.
Today was a Thursday. His dad had beaten him today, meaning he couldn’t go to school Friday. Bruce’s house and the school he attended were all in a crappy city, and nobody there particularly cared if a little boy was abused or if he didn’t show to school half the time. Meaning, the kid would be stuck in the house for three days until Monday. They needed to be out of the house to call child protective services, and heaven knows what damage his dad could do before then.
“You gotta crawl out the window,” Dani directed.
“What!?”
“Your dad usually stays passed out for five or six hours after he drinks like this, right?” she asked. He nodded, seeing where she was going. “Well, we can walk down to some gas station and back before he realizes you’re gone. You couldn’t go through the door, that squeaks. You game?”
“…ok. Let’s hurry though!” he agreed and promptly scrambled out the window. Dani just walked through the wall, earning a smile from the battered child.
The nearest gas station was a mile down the road, so off they ran. Bruce grew tired quickly, so they took longer to reach their destination than she would have liked, but they made it unscathed. Dani directed him to look through the mildewed phonebook provided, and they quickly found the appropriate number. Dani walked him through the conversation, and somebody agreed to come and pick him up. They breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ok, we have to wait at your house for a few hours probably, they might get there before your dad wakes up.” Dani grabbed his hand and they headed back the way they came.
XXX
His dad had woken up while they were gone, and he was mad.
They crouched under the window and listened to the enraged man curse, calling for his unfortunate son.
“We need to go hide a few blocks away, dude, this isn’t going to end well,” she whispered. Why the hell am I whispering, his butthole of a dad can’t hear me…
Suddenly, she was hit with a vision. His dad was coming outside in seconds! Bruce…
She panicked. Bruce’s dad would kill him in a drunken rage! She heard the front door slam.
“Run around the back!” she urgently hissed. They did, running through the yard to the house behind them. A roar from where they had just come told them that his dad spotted them. Cutting through to the next street over, they ran like their lives depended on it. At least one of their lives did, at least.
“I’m… getting…tired…” Bruce panted. Dani looked around.
“Crawl under those bushes!” she hollered. The large, overgrown shrubs made the perfect hiding place. Bruce’s dad thundered by, screaming his name in a terrifyingly drunken pitch. The two sat, waiting for the kid to catch his breath. For now, they were safe.
XXX
After his dad went back inside, Bruce and Dani hid in a tree in the house next-door. They climbed down when a car far too expensive for this neighborhood pulled into the driveway. Two well-dressed women stepped out and stepped up to the dilapidated door. Bruce tugged on one of their skirts.
“Uh… I was the one who called you…” he mumbled. The woman gasped, seeing the horrible bruising on his face and arms. His dad answered the door.
Yelling an expletive, the dad tried to grab for his son. Both women pulled the poor boy out of the way and stepped in between.
“You really did beat him then?” the other woman asked, plainly furious.
Dani and Bruce grinned at each other as the women had a yelling match with the horrible man. When they tried to bring Bruce to their car, his dad made one last grab for him, earning him a spray of mace in his eyes by the first woman.
The two friends slid into the back of the luxurious car together. Bruce was safe.
XXX
Free from the terror of his past life, Bruce excelled in everything. He was at the top of his new class. His new family, while they didn’t seem terribly emotionally connected to him, were at least decent and tended to his needs. At a suggestion from Dani, Bruce started focusing his newfound brilliance on the study of science, which he found he enjoyed even at his young age.
Bruce had even made a friend in school named Betty. He had emotional support other than Dani’s now. Her job was done.
She was still upset when she felt herself start to time shift. She told Bruce that she had to leave, which he didn’t deal with very well. They hadn’t even known each other for an entire month, and it still broke Dani’s heart to part this way.
She still had no say in the matter. Quickly, she was free falling yet again.

Notes