weaponised - a peaky blinders story

Three

Evangeline sat in her bed, hidden beneath her covers as her small body shuck. Tears were streaming down her face, her hand clasped over her mouth in a hope to muffle her sobs. She had been sat for at least an hour in this state, refusing to move a single muscle in case she was heard and fed fuel to the fire.

The fire in question being the uproar that had been continuing throughout the household on Watery Lane. Eve wasn't to sure how it had started, but she wasn't going to focus on the small details. Though she was only six, she was aware of her mother's habits and was more aware that she amber been threatening to flee with her since she was born. After overhearing a conversation between Arthur and Polly in the kitchen once, all she could think of was the possibility's.

If her mother did take her away, she knew her life would be like a walk in hell on a stormy day. All of the happiness that ever existed in eves life was brought by the Shelby's and the Grays, never her mother (who had refused to take the burden of the Shelby name after her and Tommy's wedding).  Amber having full control over eve would be a complete disaster, who would feed her, bathe her, do her laundry or play with her? How would she get any joy out of life? How would she survive? 

She had come to the conclusion that losing small heath and her family would hurt more then breaking her arm, which she had experienced after John had tried to teach her to ride a horse, a lot more.

"You never fucking do anything! How do you expect us to let you sit on your arse all day, doing nothing but sniff fucking cocaine!" Polly's shouts could have been heard from all of small heath.

"What the fuck do you want me to do, huh? You want me to get a job in the betting shop? I can't read or bloody write, never mind do sums! You want me to go and get a job at some pub? I'd rather be shot! What is it that I can do Polly?" Her mother screamed back, stammering over her words at how intoxicated she was.

"Look after your fucking daughter, that's what you can do!" She heard Arthur's voice pipe up for the first time, a large bang following as Arthur slammed his hands on the table. The argument had only been between Polly, Tommy and amber but she knew they were all down there.

"Fine." Her mother seemed to have calmed down, maybe this was good, maybe she was calm, "you want me to look after my daughter Arthur? Fine. Have it your own fucking way!"

It was silent.

Eves breath hitched.

She heard tommy shout no.

Her stomach churned.

She heard shouts of protest.

Her tears seemed to somehow stop, along with her breathing.

She heard Polly apologise repeatedly.

She flung the covers from her body.

She heard footsteps creeping up the stairs.

She was going to be sick.

Her door flung open.

She couldn't breathe.

Her tears flooded back in ten folds as her mother scrambled around her room. She couldn't stop shaking, she couldn't breathe. She clawed at her throat for air. She couldn't fucking breathe!

Her mother was frantic in her search, wobbling as she went. She stopped for a second and looked down at eves trembling body that was struggling to find any type of oxygen, but she didn't pay any mid to it. Amber was seething, her eyes red raw and wide open, a vein threatening to pop in her forehead, that was the exact same shade as her eyes. She locked the door. Eve sat in a heap on the floor, she couldn't breathe and was hyper aware of the fact that she may die. 

you cant breathe when your dead, eve knew that, and Evangeline couldn't fucking breathe.

"Eve pack your shit!" She shouted, going over to her draws and flinging out clothes left and right. Eves knees buckled underneath her, why wasn't her mother helping her, she couldn't breathe.

After she got no response from eve, she turned to face her, screaming with all of her might for a consistent twenty seconds, clearly frantic. It took a second for Eves body to realise what her mother had done, struggling to grasp the reality that her mother had just hit her. She couldn't move, she couldn't feel her right cheek and she couldn't fucking breathe. Why couldn't she breathe?

Ambers head flew towards the door at the sound of multiple people running up the stairs, bangs on the door that amber had locked. Her father shouting her name, her uncle's threatening Ambers life, her aunt sobbing and Pol threatening police. Eve couldn't process any of it, or the women who stood in front of her, still in a sate of complete rage. She flung things around the room, yelling about something. But all eve could focus on was her breathing, she couldn't. She couldn't breathe.

She had huddled herself into a corner, head against her knees as she tried as hard as she possibly could to reconnect to reality, her ears ringing and her eyes feeling like they would pop out of her skull. She couldn't breathe. Why couldn't she fucking breathe? Why was no one helping her? Was she going to die?

Her vision was blurry, though she wasn't sure if that was from the tears that were pouring from her eyes or the lack of oxygen.

Her body completely blocked everything out, her senses coming to an almost complete stop. She couldn't breath, couldn't see, couldn't hear. she tried to feel around for something, anything to try and grip onto reality but couldn't find anything. She could feel the floor, its cold wood not giving the girl any sense of security. She could feel the wall digging at her back, the chipped paint running against her neck, but she couldn't physically grab onto anything. She had nothing to hold onto to stop herself from slipping into whatever it was pulling her in. Was this death? Was this really how she was going to go? Was she dead? She didn't feel it. The pain in her chest was unbearable, her head felt as if it would explode, her lungs were begging her for oxygen but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it. Surely she wasn't dead, she can't be.

Arms wrapped around her, pulling her tight. She tried to scream but she couldn't, there was no oxygen in her to scream with. Either way, her hands found their way to the persons arms, griping them as hard as she could muster, trying to hold into whoever it was to stop herself from slipping into whatever darkness that was trying to consume her.

She heard her father whispering in her ear, stroking her back and holding her as tight as he could to his chest. She could breathe.

Eve was gasping for air, clutching onto her dad as hard as she possibly could, tears staining through his top but he didn't care. His daughter was shaking so much that he had to physically hold her still. Arthur had managed to knock down the door of Eves room, taking the first chance they could to get to the little girl. John and Arthur had managed to grab Amber and sit her down, though she had fought against them as much as she possibly could. Screaming and shouting, biting at them and doing everything she possibly could to get out her grasp It didn't help her, they wasn't letting go and she wasn't calming down.

"Let me take my child, let me take her away for fucks sake! You'll ruin her, you'll ruin her purity, she can't grow up around you lot she'll turn out to be a fucking monster! Please, please let me get away! I can't stay here anymore!" Amber was sobbing now, not fighting or resisting against the brothers. Her manic state had fled, now replaced with sorrow. Everyone in the room knew this was her way of manipulating them, she couldn't give less of a shit about Evangeline or her well being

"Don't let her take me daddy, please! Please don't let her take me daddy!" Eve cried into her father's shoulder. How could he promise her something that he knew he might not be able to keep?

"I won't princess, I promise."

But alas, his promise did not suffice. In the middle of that same night, Amber had snuck into Evangeline's bedroom, packed her a case and took off with eve, feeding her with lies that if she made a noise or woke anybody up, she would never see them again. Eve was naïve, she didn't want to bet against it. She would just have to persevere.

She didn't even get to say goodbye.