Page 155 of We Are Yours

They wrestled around for a few minutes, grunting and groaning. Each one tried to gain the upper hand on the other.

Elbows.

Fists.

Legs flew everywhere, entwining together as they fought.

More tables knocked over.

Blood…

The living room suddenly became a battlefield between father and son.

Kraven positioned himself on top of him, getting a few hits to his face, taking out all the years of pent-up anger and resentment toward him. Each punch meant something to him.

“You fucking piece of shit!” Kraven sneered and punched him in the face.

Every memory.

“I fucking hate you!”

Every emotion.

“It should have been you, you deadbeat!” He hit him in the gut. “You should have died!”

Every nightmare.

It was all there, exploding all around us as he made his father bleed, hurt, die…

“Kraven, stop!” I roughly jerked on his jacket, trying to pull him off. “You’re going to kill him!”

He struck his father again.

“You’re going to fucking kill him!”

Another hit to his face.

“Kraven! He’s fucked up! It’s not going to take much! Please listen to me!”

He didn’t.

Not for a second, punching him over and over again.

“Please, Kraven! You’ll go to jail this time! I can’t lose you too!”

With his fist midair, he abruptly stopped. Both of us were panting profusely. His eyes remained wild and brazen as we took in one another. After a few seconds, he lowered his fist, shoving Joe to the ground before standing. We never took our intense, crazed stares off of each other.

In seconds, a certain understanding that hadn’t been there before this happened unexpectedly made itself known, and that truth was almost too much to handle.

Kraven didn’t put up a fight until Joe offended me.

He wasn’t fighting for revenge; he was fighting himself, believing every accusation Joe threw at him.

I stumbled back, his truths crashing down on me.

Kraven’s stare shifted to Joe, warning, “If you think I killed Melody, what do you think I’ll do to you? If you ever come back to this house, I won’t let her stop me next time. Do you understand me?”

He groaned in response, and it was all Kraven needed to hear. With that, he gripped the collar of his shirt and threw his ass out the front door. I watched through the window as Joe’s body rolled down the driveway.