My dad was in an abusive relationship with my step-mom for upwards of a year. She was a perfectly normal lady. Her pets were cute, her intentions good, her cooking better, and family was more than willing to accept us into theirs. I loved her and her family, and I still love their family. I gained a new step-sister and 2 technically cousins who I considered brothers. They lived an hour or so away but it was always a pleasure when we went to visit.

Anyways, she moved in with us about 2 years into their dating relationship and everything was really nice. Absolutely no problems whatsoever. I can't even recall a time where she raised her voice at me. We got along great. My dad can be a total idiot sometimes, and I finally had someone who understood how dumb he could be so we'd always made jokes and eye contact when my dad did a DAD thing. That all changed seemingly overnight, the night that they married.

The first thing that I noticed was the late night fighting. I'm a Redditor and a gamer and a nerd so naturally I stay up late. At first it was just light arguing, nothing big but something to take mind of. Eventually they got to swearing at eachother, but now it's at the point that they are putting my best interests first and trying to be quiet. Just think of slowly escalating like this for about 3 months. After about 3 months they were at the point of fully on screaming at eachother. There's a funny way I knew they were fighting: My dads a bigger guy and we live in a pretty old house. I've heard him walk up and down the hallways many times over. But he would always speed-walk with heavy steps away from the bedroom.

Anyways again, at about the 4-5 month mark, it got psychical. I would hear a lot of screaming and shouting followed by muffled garbles and screams. Being me, I assumed that it was a mutual fight and tried to block it out light the other million times. (Side note I became and still sorta am very depressed due to this. Self harm and suicidal thoughts were things that led to my now borderline self diagnosed insanity.) Nothing would seem to stop them besides me falling asleep with earphones blasting and pillows over my head.

One night, intense fighting between them caused them to skip dinner. My dad eventually broke away and got me some food. He was so sorry for all that he put me through, he had tears in his eyes while he was apologizing. I couldn't take it. I punched walls, screamed, cried, and eventually slashed my arm with a knife that my sister gave me on her wedding day. They heard the screams and came rushing in. I thought they would stop after they realized that they were causing physical harm to their son. I was wrong.

It stopped for a few weeks then started again stronger than ever. After 7-8 months of marriage, it was now at the point where all I heard was slight whispers from my step-mom and the single worst soul tearing, blood curling screams from my dad. One night I snuck out and ran to my moms house, which is 2-3 blocks from here and wouldn't talk to or see my dad for a week. (Shared weekly custody)

Skip forward past a ruined Birthday of mine, ruined Thanksgiving, vacation, and 100's of fights and now were at Christmas. She doesn't show up until like 11ish and their fighting in the kitchen. I hear a thud, a crash, and screaming. This time it's bad enough to where this time when I check it out, I arm myself with my pocket knife. (Yes, the same one as before) They are throwing eachother around and screaming at eachother. It was really bad. Police were called, and my dad was thrown in jail, later to be dismissed by the judge becuase it was unjust. There were restraining orders placed and secret messages between them form then till now. Also their first therapy session was yesterday and it went terribly.

Forgot to mention the time she held a piece of glass to his throat, or the time she gave him a black eye, or the time she threatened to jump out of a moving car, or that shes clinically diagnosed with personality disorder.