Life Needs No Explanation

Chapter One.



Do you ever not want to wake up in the morning? This is how it always feels. Like life just had to let me down.

"CAM!!! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE" My mothers voice rocketed up the stairs in our house.

"Coming Mom!" Walking out the door of my room, I bumped into Brennan.

"Hey Brenn, do you have any idea what mommy wants?" Brennan is my 6 year old little brother, one of the seven reasons, I'm still living in this hell whole.

"No, Cameron, Mommy is mad!" Brennan said, emphasizing the word "mad".  At that point I picked him up and took him back to his room. I checked all the other rooms making sure that all the kids where in their rooms. I found everyone but Tristan.

"Maddox? Where is Tristan?" Now I was panicking.

"Downstairs with Mom." He said slowly, as if it would make me less mad.

"Oh, shit!!" I screamed as I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen to see my drug addict mother push Tristan onto the ground, yelling at him to stay away from her drugs.

"God dammit, boy, how many times have I told you useless children to stay away from my shit!" She was yelling, them she kicked him in the ribs over and over again.

"Mom!" I yelled, as I ran over to Tristan and pulled him up to me.

"oh, there you are Cameron." My mom slurred. Drunk, probably high too. Who knows. "Mom, what happened?" I questioned quietly.

"That boy, was taking my stuff." I looked from her to Tristan, there were tears in his eyes. He was clutching his stomach.

"Okay, I'm sorry Mom, it won't happen again." I said as I helped stand up Tristan, and walk with him up the stair.  I laid him down on his bed.

"What the hell Tristan? I told you to stay up stairs, your sixteen, you need to learn to listen!! Take your god damn shirt off so I can see what she did to you." I got quieter at the end.

"Cameron, I just went down there to get Bridget's teddy bear, she wouldn't stop crying with out it." Tristan explained, while pulling his shirt over his head. 

"Oh god Trist!" I started crying as I looked at the big black and purple bruise already forming over the right side of his rib cage.

"I'm alright, Cameron, It will be okay." He murmured, trying to hide the pain obvious pn his face.

"It sure as hell with not be okay! Our mother might of broken one of your ribs!" Now I was crying. "Tristan, I'm calling 911, to come take you to the hospital, you can barely move." I said as I ran to my room to get my cell phone.

"Hello, 911, what is your emergency?" A women answered the phone.

"Hi, my mother is drunk and most likely high as well and she just beat up my sixteen year old brother, he can barely move and there is a huge bruise over his rib cage." I said all in one breath.

"okay, ma'am, how old are you, whats your name and what is your address?" She asked from the other line of the phone.

"My name is Cameron Marshall, I'm 19, and my address, is 712 Hawthorn Way."

"Thank You, There is an ambulance and police on the way, I will stay on the phone until they get there, why don't you tell me what happened." I knew this was going to come up.

"Well, I was woken up from my mother screaming for me, and I checked all the rooms, to make sure, my brothers and sisters were all upstairs, and I couldn't find my brother Tristan, so I asked another one of my brothers' Maddox. He said he was down stairs with my mom."

"How many siblings do you have?" she cut me off.

"I have seven that live at this house." I told her

"Please continue." She said.

"Okay, so I ran down into the kitchen and saw my mom push Tristan to the floor and start kicking him. She kept yelling at him, to stay away from her stuff. Mostly talking about her drugs. I got her to stop and helped Tristan upstairs, he collasped on his bed and he can't move with out being hurt." Just then I heard an ambulance coming down the street.

"You mother fucking kids!! You called the cops!!" My mom yelled. Coming up the stairs. I dropped the phone and ran into, the kids' rooms and ushered them into Tristan's and locked the door. She was banging on the door. And I picked up the phone again.

"Hello? Cameron what is going on?" The lady sounded frantic. " My mom realized the police are coming down the road, and got angry." I said quietly, trying to get the children to stop crying. Then I heard the front door burst open, and people yelling. The pounding on the door stopped, and I heard people yelling to each other saying there were children in this house.

"Children? Are you in there?" a man yelled from out side the door.

"Yeah!" I yelled as I ran and unlocked the door. Standing at the door was a man, in maybe his 30's.

"Hello, I'm officer Nicholas, Are you alright?" He said in a hurried way.

"No, my brother, I think one of his ribs is broken, he passed out from the pain." I said trying not to cry. 'Be strong' I told myslef.

"How many kids are in this house?" Officer Nicholas asked.

"seven, not including myself." I answered, walking back into the room, motioning to all the kids. Officer Nicholas said something into his walkie talkie, and a few moments later two men with a strecher came into the room. I moved the kids away from Tristan, so they could get to him. After they took Tristan away, a woman walked into the room.

"Hello, children, my  name is Julie, I'm from social services, can you please come with me?" she asked. I looked around at my brothers and sisters. They were crying, Bridget was clinging to Aaron. Brennan was holding Maddox' shirt. Cara, was crying sitting with her legs crossed on the bed, her head in her hands. And I could tell Sawyer, was trying to stay strong, like I always tell him.

"Yeah, Julie, We would be happy to come with you. Let me introduce us first." I said with a new found courage, i had to be strong, stay alive for my family, even though Christopher walked out.

"My name is Cameron, I'm 19. Thats Maddox, he is 14, Thats Aaron, he is 13. Thats Cara on the bed, she is 10, Sawyer, by the closet, he is 8, The little boy over there, his name is Brennan, and clingging to Aaron, is Bridget, she's 3."

With that all the children stood up and I took Bridget from Aaron and grabbed Brennan's hand, watching as we all walked down the stairs, and out of my house. Julie told us to wait in the front yard, as she walked over to a man and started talking, pointing to us. She came back minutes later.

"Cameron, can I talk to you, alone, please?" she asked me. I handed Bridget to Maddox and followed her to a blue car.

"Cameron, is this the first time this has happened?" She asked, her eyes searching my face for the answer.

"No." was all I said. She sighed.

"Do you have any other family? Where is you father?" Dad...

"My dad, he died in a car crash, a little over two years ago. Thats when my mom got into drugs." my voice was cracking.

"Cameron, I need you to tell me about your family. This is so important, every time your mother did this, about your siblings, every single detail."

"I have a twin brother named C.j, My mom would beat him the most, broke his arm a couple times, usually, she would go get high, then come here and hurt him, his real name is Christopher, but my dads name is Chris too. She hurt him the most because he was named after my dad, she felt he should be here, if my dad wasn't. So we started calling him C.j. When C.j and I turned 18, he left. Not because he wanted to, but because I made him, on our 18th birthday, my mom pulled a knife on him. I made him leave, so she wouldn't kill him. All she saw when she looked at him, was my dad. C.j lives two hours from here. He calls every night. That why my mom broke the phone. Now that Tristan is older he's starting to look like my dad, too. Mom, hates Dad, because us."

"Cameron, I can't send you to the children's home, because your an adult, but your brothers and sisters can go there. I know it will be hard for you to leave them, but Your grandmother, we called her a few minutes ago, she will fly you out to Germany to stay with her. If you want you get your life started there, and after awhile, you can adopt them, I think it's the best idea. Start in Germany, have a place to live until you can get your own and enough money to take in 7 kids. Your Granmother also offered for C.j to come. It's up to you two." She handed me a phone to call C.j. That phone call, changed my forever.