Chapter One - Flash Backs

*12 Years Earlier*

It was happening again. The shouting, the sounds of things being broken, the sound of our mother crying. He was relentless and angrier than usual.

Sitting up in my bed, I sucked my thumb while I twirled my long blonde hair. I had become pretty accustomed to the behavior that emanated from the living room, which was a pretty sad realization at the age of four. But what could I do? What could anyone do?

Though I had heard it practically every night of my fragile life, it still shook me to the core. It still made me cry. I didn't understand whatsoever the severity of what was really going on but I knew it was bad. All I really did know was that my father always smelled like peppermints and was angry all the time for no reason and my mother constantly had bruises on her face from not paying attention to her surroundings, or so she told me and my brothers.

I grabbed my stuffed rabbit and held him close. Jeckle was his name. The only thing besides my older brother that helped sometimes. I slid off of my bed, my long white night gown dragging across the carpet and curled up in the corner, covering my ears. I faced the wall, hugged Jeckle close and shut my eyes tightly. I couldn't stand hearing my mother cry. And it almost seemed to echo just so I could hear it. I began to sob. Nothing I did could drown out the sounds of the walls being slammed by something followed by a scream from her. Nothing.

Within a minute, I felt arms wrap around me and before I knew it, I was hiding in my closet with my brother, who was hugging me tightly. He was six. And knew no more than I did. At the time I wasn't aware of it but all he knew was that he had to protect me and he always tried so hard to do so. He covered my ears and I covered my eyes. It would be over soon. It always was.

... Or maybe it wouldn't be.

The sounds stopped. The screaming, the crying; everything. The only thing I heard was my shaky breathing as well as my brother's. I slowly uncovered my eyes and looked up at him as he uncovered my ears. He looked at me and then looked up at the cracks in my closet door that let in a small amount of light that leaked through my bedroom window. That was one of the best things about the moon, the light from it was always like a night light in the sky. Never too bright, never too dull. And the stars that always seemed to blanket the darkness helped quite a bit as well.

I wasn't sure what we were waiting for but I was more scared than usual. I buried my face in my brother's shoulder and he held me as tightly as he could.

"It's okay, Aubree. I won't let anyone hurt you, okay? I promise."

I nodded but said nothing. We were both small and innocent and should have been kept away; hidden almost, from all of the awful things that were yet to come in the world. But that wasn't the case. We were anything but hidden from it all.

At four years old, my security was nothing more than a stuffed toy and my older brother who was no less than the scared child I was. It was not my parents, whose jobs were to protect us and keep us comfortable. And I think that was the saddest realization of all.

The creaking sound of my bedroom door opening quickly caught our attention. I jumped slightly but stayed quiet, my thumb instantly going straight back into my mouth like before. My brother quietly moved in front of me, ready for whatever, or whoever it was that was coming in. I blinked furiously.

What happened next was a blur.

The closet doors ripped open and standing before us was our mother, her face battered and puffy, the front of her night gown covered in blood. She had dragged us to the front door, our father intervened and ripped my brother away from her; staggering all over the place. Everything was fuzzy.

"No! Isaac!" I screamed, trying to get lose from my mother's grip as she stumbled out the door, protectively holding me to her as she eventually got to the car that both her and my father had shared. I fought her all the way there and all the way in. We couldn't leave without my brothers. We just.. couldn't. "ISAAC!"

Isaac stood in the door way, being held into place by the shoulders from our father, who was smirking ruthlessly. His eyes were watering and the look of desperation and disparity conquered his soft features. He knew. And I knew. We were leaving without him, and my oldest brother who slept soundly. And we probably wouldn't be back.

"No, mama! PLEASE!" I begged, crawling up into the rear window. She was quick to get in before giving my brother one last look and driving off into the darkness. "ISAAC!" I banged on the window repeatedly but it was no use. It was pointless.

And that was that. I watched as my brother became nothing but a spec in the distance as I kept my small hands on the window, crying uncontrollably. My mother was silent and the moon and stars were no longer any sort of comfort.

Nothing ever would be again.

It was never going to be okay.

How could it be?