A million times before she had sworn never to go back there again, this time was no different. And just like all of those other times she found herself sneaking in through the back door and quietly walking up the stairs into her room. Not just her room actually, it was 'their' room. And she knew that the other person in that room was the reason she would always come back. She looked down at her sisters sleeping figure. 'how could she be so peaceful, so ignorant? How could she not know about all the things going on in this family, going on in this house? But then again, she was just 5 years old and Haley didn't think her sister could understand yet what was going on. She was happy about that, it was one of the few things she could still be happy about, the innocence of her baby sister. She slowly approached her sister's bed and gave her a soft kiss on her curly hair. 'sweet dreams baby'. Afterwards she laid down on her own bed, not even bothering to take her clothes off, she was too tired, to sore, to bother doing anything like that. She closed her eyes, hoping the sleep would come and take her away. But it didn't, she couldn't relax, every sound she heard startled her, scared her. She told herself it was just the wind, which it was, but she was still scared, so scared. Eventually, after hours of lying awake, sleep took over, it slowly brought her into a state of peace, away from the terrors of daily life.

Unfortunately, this didn't last long. After what felt like 5 minutes Haley woke up, she tried to focus, not knowing exactly where she was. She opened her eyes seeing a small beam of light peaking through the curtains, then she heard her alarm going off. She quickly hit the alarm, causing it to stop. She sighed in relief, the sound was killing her, her head hurt like hell. She tried to think, what had happened last night? But her head hurt too much. Slowly she lifted her arm and her hand touched her head, she could feel dried up blood in her hair and she flinched when she touched the wound. Even though it hurt, she was grateful that it was on the top of her head, this way nobody would notice. Quickly she checked her face and arms, she felt nothing make-up couldn't hide. Slowly sitting up she felt a sharp pain in her stomach, probably her ribs, but she didn't think they were broken, so it should be ok. She stood up from the bed and walked into the bathroom. She loved mornings, her parents would still be sleeping, her brother would be passed out too, in his bedroom, on the bathroom floor or somewhere in a gutter. She didn't care, as long as he wasn't awake. She quietly locked the bathroom door. Looking at herself in the mirror she saw that her first thoughts had been right, she took a shower and afterwards put make-up on the bruise on her face. After 15 minutes of covering up she was happy with the result. Nobody would notice. Walking back to her room she looked at the pictures on the walls. They looked so happy, so peaceful. And, back then, they were. She stood still and looked at a picture of her and her brother, it was taken 10 years ago, she was 7 and her brother 12. He had his right hand protectively on her shoulder and smiled at their mom, who was behind the camera. Haley sighed and started moving again, no point in reminiscing, she knew it would never be that way again. 'Hales!' The sound of the high voice startled her, within seconds she realized it was coming from her room.