The sounds of screaming and various items crashing and breaking against harder surfaces resounded in the Tusuki household; the drunken parents were fighting once more.
Evanescence slunk around the house, avoiding her parents as she scrounged for money. Though she normally waited until they had gone to sleep or were out of the house, her aching belly forced her to go out into the battlefield. She searched through drawers, checked jars, and even dug around the couch cushions, but there was nothing to be found.
"Ugh...what the hell am I supposed to do?" she muttered to herself. "I guess I'll just..." Suddenly a thought came to mind, causing her to pause and smack her forehead. "Oh yeah!"
She hurriedly made her way to her parents' room, keeping an eye out in case they left the kitchen.
The door was open, revealing the destruction of the bedroom. Evanescence weaved around broken items, torn clothing, pillows, and other various items that once decorated the room. A tall ash wood wardrobe stood against the wall close to her mother's side of the bed. There were gouges and dents scored deep into its wooden frame due to the constant war between the parents. Her mother normally kept her more formal wear in the wardrobe to prevent any damage to the various fabrics, keeping it padlocked shut.
Evanescence knew her mother kept money in the wardrobe as well and she only had to find the key to get it. The main question was where the location of the key was. She set to work overturning everything that was still intact from the fighting and opening any drawers.
The teenager was rummaging through a drawer when she was suddenly struck on the head by something hard. She screamed in pain as her knees buckled, the only thing preventing her from falling completely was the drawer. She blinked hard, trying to keep her focus. The knock to the head was making her see spots. Before she could recover from the first strike, another came swiftly to send her into darkness.
Evanescence groaned as she regained consciousness. A sudden rush of throbbing pain resounded in her skull and she wrapped her arms around her head, emitting a low sob.
"Evanescence?"
Evanescence winced at the sound of the voice, making a small distressed whimper.
The voice dropped to a whisper. "Oh, Evanescence! What have they done to you?!"
With some difficulty, Evanescence opened her eyes just enough to see Neo kneeling beside her. "N...Neo..."
"What happened?!"
Evanescence winced again. "My head..."
Neo carefully gathered the injured teenager into his lanky arms and took her back to her room.
Evanescence was slipping in and out of consciousness, the pain in her skull was proving too much to bear. She was trying to focus on what Neo was doing. He had moved her to just one of his arms and was busily sifting through her drawers.
After only a short time, she was unconscious once more.