she held her breath and her brother her hand over her brothers mouth trying not to make noise breathing. both hiding in a small dark closet praying that the attacker wont check here. Shane, my brother, was shaking. not because he is cold, but because he is scared. he is too young to experience this trauma. All I could think is why did mom and dad have to leave tonight than any other night. This easily became the worst night of my life. We and Shane would play hide and seek a lot as we were younger so i'm trying to think of this as an intense game of hide and seek. But I just want my parents, I bet my brother does too. my hand thats covering his mouth is soaked from his tears. I cant cry. I cant let Shane know that I'm scared, it will just make things worse. so I'm controlling my breathing, trying not to listen to the ruckus happening all around the house. All the noises must be from at least 3 people, which makes it worse. Then a loud crash that sounded like glass breaking that made me jump and Shane whimpered panicky. My grip on Shane tightened to let him realize he cant make that noise but then slowly loosened it. The glass sounded so close. Shanes tears are dripping from my hand and footsteps are getting closer. loud, heavy thumps. Like the person is wearing big construction boots. The boots becoming louder and louder. Shane shaking more and more. Tears streaming from Shanes eyes to my hand on his mouth. the thumps getting slower but louder. Then they stop. nothing. it felt like i've never been in such silence before. My ears started to ring, it felt like minutes have passed by, but it was probably only about 15 seconds until that silence was broken, my ears stopped ringing and my hand kept dripping. me and Shane both jump when the closet doorknob rattled. They know. They know we are in here and they are tormenting us. They keep twisting the doorknob, then knocking very lightly twice. A deep giggle stem on the other side of the door. At this point I was silently weeping. Then I hear footsteps again. But this time they are getting quieter and quieter until they are completely hushed. I hear the front door open and close, but we both don't move. besides it could just be a trap and they are still inside. I do uncover Shanes mouth. he doesn't speak but he completely wraps his arms around me and cry. I try to keep him quiet just incase. We sat there for at least 2 hours. he fell asleep about 30 minutes in. then I hear the garage start to open and I feel this rush of complete relief. I dont get up. I dont move. I wait to hear their voices. I cant be tricked. I then hear my mother quietly yell my name. I say her name back. she is demented. not knowing where I was but headed my direction. she says my name again, I say hers back. she then slowly opens the closet door letting a beam of light in. She is stunned. not knowing what to say. I get up with Shane in my arms and tuck him into bed. and I walk back over to my mother. sitting her and my father down. explaining every little detail to them. They look at me almost like they don't believe me. but they do. my dad calls the cops, they interview me asking me too many questions. but they couldnt do much since we never saw them and there wasnt any evidence left of them. So we ended up getting stronger locks on all our doors and security cameras covering our entire lot and some of the street. I cant sleep at night anymore. I cant think of anything except how scared I was. how all I did was sit in a closet hiding. I did nothing. its all over now. I have to let it go. I have to get better.

I stop. Panting, trying not to drink all my water. "we made it" I say to my sister. "no shit." she slightly rolls her eyes, I giggle ignoring her comment. I walk over to an abandoned bus. The one I found while searching for a place to hide. I thought this one was perfect since it was pretty far away and quite hidden. I drop my backpack right before my sister scolds at me. "no time to rest. We need to set this up so we can stay a couple nights." I roll my eyes enough for her to see. but I do what she says. I pick up my backpack, reach inside and start spraying my disinfectant. My sister starts getting all the leaves and twigs out. when its "clean" we both start to lay our blankets out. By the time I get to sit down its sun set. So I step out the bus and find a clearing in the trees. being able to see the beautiful orange sky as the sun is slowly starting to hide below the horizon. a slight smile peaks out. All i'm thinking is how extremely happy I am because me and my sister finally made it out of our abusive household. We finally made it. We are now free. barely feeling my legs I walk back to the bus and see my sister sitting there. She looks like she is about to cry. "why the hell are you crying? We made it. we can do ANY-" She cuts me off. rudely saying "what the fuck do we do now? We barley have any food, we are already running out of water, we only have around $1000." "why are u always looking at the negatives. we are Free. I feel like I can breathe for once. finally not worrying that dad will bust in drunk screaming at me because I forgot to switch the lights off in the hallway." she stares at me. like she saw a ghost. I turn around wondering what she is looking at. "Shit." I see my father staring at me, his eyes bloodshot red, his hair is a mess, and he has multiple stains on his old wrinkly shirt. I look back at my sister. She is gone? That moment I realized she ran off. she left me, fuck.

I cant believe this. i dont know what to do. how do i react? how SHOULD i react? the love of my life, the person who i depend on. will soon be gone. will soon be thousands of miles away all because my mother is the worst. All my mother wanted is for me to be the perfect wife. but all i want is true love. someone who loves me for me. but my mother found out about relationship with one of the servants. now he is gone. and im moving away. to this small town on the other side of the world. with absolutely zero contact with the person i love most. but its too late. my bags have been packed, the jet is waiting, my life is officially over.