Johnny's Pov

I was seven, and yet my mental maturity was much above what it should have been. I'd faced horrors many kids hadn't. I knew the world was a dangerous and cruel place, and yet I tried to shield my sister from the many horrors of the world, and I knew of those horrors, we lived with one.

Keith.

His name was Keith.

When he had first started dating Mum, he was charming. He had won us all over, and as Mum had been struggling financially, and loved him, within six months, she was sure that marriage was the best plan. They married a few weeks later. It was a quick wedding, but it was of love and convenience.

However, the honeymoon we all went on was to a caravan site in Darby. It was okay. We stayed for three days before going back home, and back to the 'new and better life' that awaited us. Mum had always said it would be better, and this new life would be just what we needed. I was never sure, for a six year old, I was sceptical, and yet I held onto the childish dream, despite seeing a gleam of malice in Keith's eyes.

By the time I turned seven, things had changed, dramatically.

" Keith, my friends from school are going to the park, can I..."

" No. Go keep an eye on your sister, I am going to the pub with your Mum." He spat.

" Yes Keith." I muttered.

" Sir." He corrected.

" Yes Sir."

That was the first night he hit me. The house was dark and creaky, and despite Tee falling asleep early in the evening, I sat, waiting for them to return. It worried me that it was so late. I was uncomfortable with being home alone, what was I going to do, at seven years old that would protect us?

When they came home, it was one am, and it was clear that Keith was angry about something. There was a pulse throbbing in his forehead, and his face had a slight puce hue.

" Mum? Keith?"

" What do you want you little brat?" Keith spat, angrily.

" I...I'm hungry and I..."

Keith slapped me, and I gasped as I fell to the floor, before tears sprang to my eyes at an alarming rate.

I looked towards my Mum for support, and yet she just watched on, as he kicked me in the side once more and then san down onto the old sofa, and switched the tv on loudly. I winced, pulling myself off the floor and going to check on Tee. Gladly she was still sleeping, and hadn't heard what I deemed to be a commotion.

" Maybe Mummy's too drunk to realise what she did." I muttered sleepily to myself, before the commotion and exhaustion finally caught up with me, and I fell asleep.

The next morning I slept in for school. Mum and Keith were sleeping, and it was up for me and Tee to get ready for the bus, and be out of the house. However the late night had affected me, and I hadn't woken up, and neither had Tee without me as an alarm clock.

" WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU BRATS STILL DOING HERE?" A voice screeched.

My eyes shot open in complete horror. Keith was stood over me once more, and the deja vu of the moment was overwhelming.

" JOHNNY TAYLOR!" He screamed.

My small body shook with terror, but I had no idea what I was meant to do. How was I expected to react to this situation? What did he want me to say?

" I'm sorry Sir. I didn't mean to! I was still sore from last night and..."

He lost his temper at that. He pulled me out of the bed by my hair, and I saw my Mum look into the room, before she went to quieten the screaming Tee in the next room.

" YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BRAT!"

" Please." I pleaded.

" NO! I FEED YOU, AND GIVE YOU A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD, AND A MANNER OF OTHER THINGS, AND YET YOU CAN'T TAKE A LITTLE DISCIPLINE YOU WEAK SHIT?!"

" No, I..."

" SHUT IT."

He threw my body against the wall, and I flinched as I heard my head smash against it, making my vision blur, and my stomach twist.

" I'm sorry!" I moaned, trying to pick myself up.

" JOHNNY! JOHNNY!" I heard Tee desperately cry from the next room, followed by a hasty shush.

" Tee." I wept.

" Get up." Keith spat.

" Honey, we need to be a bit more quiet, Mrs Chava from next door might hear." My Mum input.

I felt betrayed. She knew what was happening! She knew, and yet she didn't stop it.

" Mummy?" I asked.

She looked at me for a fraction of a second before turning away.

Keith grinned at me as she left.

" Mummy doesn't need you any more." He mocked.

" No! Mummy!"

She didn't come.

When I lay on the floor, covered in bruises, my head reeling from the pain, I wondered what I had ever done to deserve this. I was a good son. I tried hard, and yet here I was. I was being beaten, beaten and nobody tried to stop him.

Over the next few months, things got worse. I began to understand that Keith would take it out on me, and even Tee if he could get his hands on her, and despite it being mainly when he was drunk, if he was hung over or angry, he too took it out on Tee and I.

I developed a plan, to shut Tee in her room whenever Keith was angry. It worked to an extent, and I went out of my way to try and avoid angering him. Tee was only young though, younger than me at least, and she was clumsy and a child. She wasn't aware when she was being too loud. She often broke plates when she tried to move them for games with her dolls, and it was terrible.

The worst incident was the night she spilt juice on Keith's new coat.

Keith had gotten a promotion at his job. The money was going to increase, and both he and Mum were ecstatic, and he decided to treat himself.

It was a brown leather jacket, and it was clearly expensive by the way Mum's eyes widened at the price marked on the tag. However, he left it on the middle of the sofa, and I knew something was going to go wrong, but I didn't want to move it. If I moved it, I would be in trouble for touching his coat.

He and Mum were in the kitchen when it happened.

Tee spilt orange juice on Keith's new coat, and it left a dark,brown, wet splotch on the leather.

" Oh no." I gasped.

It was at that moment that Keith chose to walk in, and he saw what had happened to his coat, and his eyes began welling with anger and I shivered.

" YOU BRAT!" He screamed.

I ran, grabbing Tee, and shoving her into her room, and standing in front of the door, before lunging sideways to try and avoid the hand creeping towards my neck.

Tee began screaming in the next room.

Mrs Chava's Pov

Over the past few months, the screams of childish laughter had been replaced by childish terror by the family next door, and each time my heart spiked, but I tried to reassure myself it was nothing.

However, one evening, I was sat with my usual night tea, when the screams became furious. The boys screams rang for ten minutes, and I debated calling the police, especially as I heard the young child's screams clash with his.

" Oh my." I whispered, clutching my heart, wondering whether I should do something.

I tried to reassure myself it was nothing, but when the boys screams abruptly ended, and the girls increased ten fold, I knew I had to do something.

I watched as the parents left, and I knew what had to be done.

I had tried to believe it wasn't true, but my heart knew what was happening, and I couldn't stand by and let it happen. I had to stop it.

I quickly rang both the police and an ambulance before heading next door, and I thanked my lucky angels that they hadn't locked the door.

I crept towards the source of the noise, and swung open the door.

It stopped suddenly.

" Mrs Chava?"

" It's Tee isn't it?"

" Yeah."

" What's happened Tee?"

" I don't know where Johnny is! I think Keith hurt Johnny!" She wept.

" Hey now child. Why don't you lead me to Johnny, and I will help you, how does that sound?"

" Okay."

She grabbed my hand carefully, looking up for the confirmation that it was okay, and I smiled down at her reassuringly. As she led me down the hallway and around the corner, I stopped and gasped at the sight that met my eyes.

The young boy's body was thrown into the middle of the carpet, and he was bleeding from many spots, including the back of his head, and it was that I was mainly worried about.

" Johnny." Tee wept.

" Hey now Dear, an ambulance is on the way, yeah."

" Okay." She said, biting her lip, and staring down at her older brother.

I heard the sirens not long after, and the police were first to arrive, and they stared down at horror at the scene that greeted them.

" Where's the parents?"

" I am fairly sure it's the parents that caused this." I told them.

" It was Keith! Mummy let him." Tee sobbed.

I picked her up, and placed her carefully on my hip, and she buried her face into my shoulder, trying to grasp any sort of comfort she could find.

" How long has this been happening er...?" One officer asked.

" Tee." I prompted.

" How long has this been happening Tee?"

" A long long time." She told them quietly.

The officers shared a look, and I knew what was going to happen. I knew that these kids wouldn't be coming back here.

" Care?" I asked them.

" I'm fairly sure. Positive almost. We'll get the boys statement when he wakes up, but I am fairly sure that they will be."

" Yeah. Can I come to the hospital with them? Just to keep them company until..."

" I think that's for the best."

The ambulance arrived not long after. They carefully manoeuvred Johnny onto a stretcher, and both Tee and I went in the ambulance with him.

" Are you hurt little one?" One of the paramedics asked.

" Johnny put me in my room." She whispered.

" Okay then sweetie."

They focussed their efforts on Johnny, and they took him away as soon as we got to the hospital, and I sat with a very sleepy Tee until a man arrived.

" Are you Mrs Chava?" He asked me.

" Yeah, who are you?"

" Mike Milligan. I work at Elm Tree House. I just spoke with the Doctors, and Johnny is being discharged in the morning."

" Are Tee and Johnny coming with you?"

" Yeah. Johnny's awake, and the police have got their statement. We know it was the parents now, and we need to fill out some forms, but they will be coming with me."

" Okay. Is Tee able to see Johnny now...or?"

" It's getting late, Midnight if you would believe it, so they think it is best for her to wait and get some sleep, which she seems to be doing nicely."

Tee slept soundly in my arms, and I was glad that it seemed there she could escape from the horror of reality.

The next morning, Mike took Johnny, with a bandaged head, and a broken arm as well as numerous bruises and cuts to his home, and I bid them goodbye, realising that I was unlikely to see them again, but I wished them both the best in life, before watching them drive away.

Mike's Pov

We arrived at Elm Tree, and Johnny and Tee were introduced to the other children, there were a fair few, and I knew that they would soon make friends. However, as I went to fill in the paper work, I noticed that Tee and Johnny seemed quite unwilling to interact.

Johnny was very protective of Tee, and when anybody did try come and see them, and got a bit too close, he would lean forward slightly, shielding Tee from what I assumed he thought was danger.

I would need to explain that it was safe here for him and for Tee.

Though it had been difficult to get them to leave each other the night before, it seemed they were adapting well to their surroundings, and by the next morning, Johnny seemed to find it a bit easier to leave Tee's side, and talk to others, even if he did play with his sling slightly as he did so.

I had a feeling they were going to be all right, and when the papers were done, they were going to settle in here just fine, with the assurance that they were safe.