Yup, here it is, the sequel. This song just seemed natural as a sequel to Cruz. Story is in normal fonts, lyrics are in italics. Song by Christina Aguilera. Please read&comment :)
Lying in her bed asleep, she tossed and turned with a frown on her face. She was dreaming; the same dream she’d dreamt almost every night since she’d left home.
Once upon a time there was a girl
In her early years she had to learn
How to grow up living in a war that she called home
Never know just where to turn for shelter from the storm
Hurt me to see the pain across my mother's face
Every time my father's fist would put her in her place
Hearing all the yelling I would cry up in my room
Hoping it would be over soon
The dream was always the same flash-back. She dreamt that she was back in the house, she was 9 years old again, and she would lie in her bed hearing her parents fight downstairs. She hated when they fought, it scared her and made her cry. She knew to stay in bed, though. One time she’d heard them fighting and snuck downstairs to see what was going on, only to see her father hit her mother repeatedly across the face. Seeing this made her entire body ache, and she ran back up the stairs before her father could notice her. It hurt all the way to her bones, and that night she had cried herself to sleep, shaking violently from shock and hiding under the covers. At this point, she would wake up. Always crying and feeling the pain return.
Bruises fade father, but the pain remains the same
And I still remember how you kept me so afraid
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday
And I'm OK
With a gasp she woke up and sat straight up in her bunk. Tears were once again flowing freely down her face. Her heart ached with every memory of her childhood that came back to her, and she could still recall the sight of her father hitting her mother. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she looked down on her left wrist to see her tattoo. She wasn’t much of a tattoo girl, but this one meant the world to her. It read one simple word in beautiful, italic letters. It read strength.
I often wonder why I carry all this guilt
When it's you that helped me put up all these walls I've built
Shadows stir at night through a crack in the door
The echo of a broken child screaming "please no more"
Daddy, don't you understand the damage you have done
To you it's just a memory, but for me it still lives on
Careful not to wake anyone, she slid out of her bunk, grabbed the covers off her bed and sneaked to the couch area, where she curled up on one of the couches with the covers over her. Tears were still running down her face, she didn’t even bother wiping them away. She sat for a while in her own world, thinking about everything and nothing. Suddenly, a gentle cough sounded behind her, and she froze, only to be relieved to see Joe standing behind the couch with his hair ruffled and a tired look on his face. As he saw the tears on her face, he rushed to the couch and sat down next to her. ”Hey, what’s wrong?” he whispered. As he gently brushed his hand along her arm, she shuddered. In moments like these, she couldn’t cope with any physical contact. Only because of what her father had done.
Bruises fade father, but the pain remains the same
And I still remember how you kept me so, so afraid
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday
Joe quickly removed his hand from her arm, seeing how it affected her. ”You’re not okay,” he simply stated. Closing her eyes, she shook her head no. ”Do you want to talk about it?” he then offered. This time, she nodded her head yes. She opened her eyes and looked at him with glassy eyes. ”I hope you have a lot of time to spare, because this is going to be a long story,” she whispered. ”I’ve got all the time in the world,” he whispered back, carefully placing his hand on hers. This time she didn’t flinch.
It's not so easy to forget
All the lines you left along her neck
When I was thrown against cold stairs
And every day I'm afraid to come home
In fear of what I might see there
Then she told him everything. About her mother’s death, about her dad abusing her mother, her siblings and herself. She told him, how she as a child had seen marks on her mother’s neck from whenever her father had pulled off her favourite necklace, creating little cuts and burns in the process. She told him about how her father would throw her against the stairs if she was in the way, and she told him about the constant fear she had lived in for a majority of her life. ”That had to be the worst part of it all,” she whispered, choking up with fresh tears, ”not knowing what I might see when I came home from school. I never knew what he could have done.” As the fresh tears started rolling, he gently wiped them away with his thumb. ”Nothing will hurt you now. I’ll look out for you, I’ll take good care of you. All I’m asking for is for you to trust me,” he whispered, looking her in the eyes. She nodded. ”I do trust you. I have from the moment I met you,” she whispered back before he pulled her into a warm hug.
As they parted from the hug, she said, ”There’s more that you don’t know.” ”You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to,” he said. ”But I want to tell you. I have to tell you. Before you hear it from everyone else and think badly about me,” she replied. Joe just nodded, even though in his head and heart he knew that he would never think badly about her. Then she showed him the tattoo. At first his eyes widened in surprise, then he carefully traced his index finger across the writing. ”Strength,” he whispered reading the writing out loud, ”but why?” he then asked, looking her in the eyes. ”After my mum,” she whispered back, ”for all the strength she had. Even though my dad made her life a living hell, she still had the strength to show me and my siblings how much she loved us.” She fought back some new tears that were threatening to break free. ”I wanted it on my left wrist. That way, she would be close to my heart without having a tattoo on the chest,” she added. Joe nodded, showing that he understood. Words weren’t necessary at this moment. She had opened up to him and poured out her soul. Now it was his turn to return a favour. Taking her in his arms once again, he held her close and kissed the top of her head gently before he whispered, ”I’m glad you trusted me. Now it’s my turn. I want to help you put this behind you. I want to help you get a normal life, where you won’t have to fear anymore. I want to help you live.” As she buried her head in the crook of his neck, a small smile spread on her face for the first time in a long time. ”Thank you,” she whispered and parted from the hug to look at him.
Walking back to their bunks, Joe held her hand. Before they went into their separate bunks, he turned to look at her. ”Do you think you will be okay?” he asked. She just nodded with a smile. With Joe here to help her, she was sure. Once again, she was okay.
Bruises fade father but the pain remains the same
And I still remember how you kept me so afraid
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday
And I'm OK
I'm OK
