Lost, Broken and Shattered

Zack grips the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles turn white. He’s angry; Erin can tell – and it scares her. She knows she should have never gone through with Liberty’s insane idea, but she needed something to get her mind off of everything. It wasn’t a good excuse, but it was the only one she had. The two-hour car ride has been spent in agonizing silence. Erin was too scared to even breathe. She could tell that he was still trying to figure out what to say.

Finally, after what felt like forever, he pulls into his driveway, only to let out a long, stomach-churning sigh at the state of it. The yard was completely trashed – covered in plastic cups, cigarette butts, and various other debris; more people had been mingling on the front lawn than she had thought. One of the windows on the second floor was cracked; there was toilet paper in a tree on the far side of the property. Erin could only imagine what horrors awaited them inside.

Zack eventually throws the car door open and slams it behind him furiously. He leaves his bag in the trunk of the car, wasting no time in getting to the front door to assess the damage in the house. Once she can see he’s inside, she slowly steps out of the car and, more or less, follows him inside.

The house is, in fact, in an even worse state than the front yard. Not only are there used plastic cups scattered around the house, but there are also broken beer bottles from the stash Zack kept in the back of the pantry, that neither girls were supposed to touch. She finds him in the living room, where almost every picture that was either hanging, or propped up on one of the various surfaces in the room, was lying shattered on the floor. He bends over what appears to be the smallest photo – in fact, it was so small that Erin had barely noticed it before. From where she’s standing, she can tell it’s a photo of Zack and Daenerys, before she became such a fuck-up. The little two-year old Daenerys’ gray eyes are wide and curious, staring back at the camera as she sits on Zack’s lap; he keeps his hands wrapped securely around her waist, smiling widely and proudly – proud of the mini-version of him, that, by the looks of the picture, he clearly loved so much.

Erin can’t help but get emotional over the picture, and she lets out a small squeak as she tries to keep her tears from spilling over. This causes Zack to look over at her, still holding the picture in his hand, not caring about the glass that was cutting his skin. A low growl rises in the back of his throat, and he throws the picture back down on the ground angrily. Erin flinches.

“I want this whole place cleaned by the end of the day,” he tells her through gritted teeth.

“All of it?” she squeaks weakly. He glares at her.

“You,” he says, standing up and pointing a finger at her, “are in no position to argue with me. I want this whole place spotless. Do you understand me?” She nods miserably. “Good. I’ll be in my office.” With that, he turns on his heel and makes his way to the room, which he always kept locked, on the other side of the house.

A few tears roll down her cheeks before she brushes them away determinedly. Crying never got anyone anywhere, and if she was going to obey Zack, and try to get back on his good side, then she was going to have to start cleaning now.

She glances over at the clock and feels her heart sink. It was already 4:30. She didn’t have much time; the last thing she wanted was to give Zack another excuse to yell at her…

~

It wasn’t until after eight she finally got a break. While she was attempting to scrub alcohol out of the living room carpet, she could hear the door being unlocked. When she went to go investigate, she saw Brian step in, followed by a timid-looking Daenerys.

“Erin,” he nods at her, sending her a kind smile. “Know where your dad’s at?” As if on cue, Zack walks in from the kitchen, pausing for a moment when he sees Daenerys.

“Is everything alright?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at her. Erin looks over at her sister again, only then realizing how terrible she looks. She’s pale – at least, paler than usual – and her eyes are red, as if she’s been crying. There are awful bags under her eyes, and she looks thinner than ever.

“We should talk,” Brian tells him. Zack frowns slightly before gesturing for him to follow him into the kitchen. Daenerys watches after them sadly before shaking her head and running upstairs.

Curious, Erin decides to stand outside the kitchen doors so she could possibly figure out what was wrong this time.

“…said some things I shouldn’t have… running a fever… nightmares… not much sleep… cutting herself…”

She blinks, trying to make sense out of what Brian was saying, but he’s keeping his voice too low for her to understand.

“…she’s dying… drugs… has no one…”

“I think you need to leave,” Zack suddenly says.

“Zack, you need to talk to her…”

“I already have enough bullshit to deal with one daughter. I’ll worry about the other once she’s taken care of,” he all but yells.

“She needs you, Zack!” Brian argues back. “Why can’t you see that? You’ve done nothing for her –”

“I said to get the fuck out, Brian!” She hears a chair being pushed back forcefully.

“Fine.”

Brian stomps across the room and throws the doors open, stalking past Erin, not noticing her. She hears Zack sigh before opening the fridge, most likely looking for a beer. He curses loudly when he can’t find what he’s looking for, and Erin takes this as her cue to get back to cleaning.

As she picks up what seems to be her thousandth cup, she realizes what she has to do. She couldn’t let this be any more about Daenerys than Brian seemed to want to make it. She had already done enough to fuck everything up; she’d be damned if she let her be in the spotlight for at least a fraction of a second.

And she would take any means necessary to guarantee that.

Notes