Prologue: A Family Dispute

She tried to cover her ears over the raised voices in the other room, even though she knew it was useless. She didn't even know why she bothered, so she let them drop to her sides. When she heard a crash, she flinched. That's another one gone, she thought, peeking through a crack between the door and the wall to look at the shattered remains of a vase. She quickly whipped her head back in case the owners of the voices noticed her presence. They would either stop and pretend everything was alright or start yelling at her too and she wasn't sure which one was worse.

She heard a door slam and knew her brother was home, most likely drunk or injured. When she peeked again, she noticed it was the latter this time. He entered the kitchen, and her parents stopped yelling to look at him. He immediately noticed her presence on the other side of the door and stared at her for a moment before turning to face the people in front of him.

"And where have you been, young man?" seethed her mother, trying to reign in her temper. He said nothing, instead choosing to move past her and open the fridge door, no doubt looking for some alcohol.

"Fighting."

"Look at me when I speak to you!"

He turned slowly and looked at her, a bottle in his hand. All three of them knew that he shouldn't be drinking, he was still seventeen after all. But no one stopped him, especially not the girl on the other side of the door, lest she give her position away.

Her mother let out a huff and put a hand on her hip, her mouth moving although neither boy nor girl was listening. Both were staring at the other, and he went to walk over to the door she hid behind, no doubt intending to head to his room with her in tow.

"Kai, listen to me!"

He turned slowly to face her once again. "Why?"

"Because I'm your mother, that's why!"

He gulped down some of the amber liquid in the bottle before muttering something that probably was offensive to someone, most of all the woman in front of him.

The girl winced. He should've known better than to provoke her and she wondered why he did. She wondered about a lot of things these days, the majority of them centred around him. What did he do when he was away? Why did he leave her behind even when she begged to come? Why did he always do bloody stupid things?

She saw her mother's mouth open to say something, but he was already opening the door that she hid behind. She flung herself to the wall before they could see her, and he slid the door closed after him, grabbing her arm and hoisting her up. Neither of them said anything until they got to his room and he had locked the door behind him.

"What were you doing? You know better than to listen in," he muttered as he flopped down onto the bed.

"Shut up. Why'd you say that?" she hissed as she reached under the bed for the first aid kit, one of the few things in their house that worked, wasn't broken and well stocked. She briefly left the room and came back with a wet cloth.

"I don't know," he growled as he raked a hand through his thick hair, the greasy black locks starting to drop into his eyes. She'd have to cut it soon. "I just did."

She huffed, but said nothing, instead concentrating on cleaning any cuts. After a while, she mumbled "At least they're all small," to which he said nothing. She sat back on her heels and looked at him, watching as he brought the bottle to his lips yet again. She knew nothing she said would convince him to stop, so she just frowned. He turned his face up and away, looking at the ceiling.

"I'm going to get out."

She didn't even pretend to be ignorant and he lowered his head to look at her face.

"And I'm taking you with me."

A/N: Hello! This is my first fanfic, so I'm sorry if it's a bit iffy. I haven't got any of the other chapters actually finished but I've got the vague idea, which is probably bad. I hope I won't change my mind in the middle and screw everyone's brains up... I'm probably just going to update when I get the creative juices flowing and I feel like whatever I've written is big enough for a chapter and good enough for you guys! Sorry this was a bit long... :/