Alyssa went to the attic looking for pictures for a school project about her family. She went through an old box and found a journal covered in dust. She turned over to the first page and began to read.

People use the colour yellow to symbolise hope. Yellow like the sun we rarely saw. When I was very young I thought life would be like one long and perfect summer day, after all it started out that way. We were four beautiful children with blonde hair and porcelain skin. People said we looked like those fancy dresden dolls that graced shelves and mantles, only we weren't just admired we were really loved. But that was before . Life is full of surprises my mother used to say and greed and fear and shame. As I soon learned ... and hopelessness. We never coloured even one of our paper flowers yellow.

Alyssa looked at it weirdly intrigued. So she put it in the box with her pictures and took it downstairs to read more. She got to her room and sat on the bed opening the journal on the next page.

I couldn't believe it. The house was even bigger than I could ever imagine. It must have been just before dawn as we entered. I looked over at Elliot. He looked so confident and sure of himself as I nervously walked beside him. He looked over at me and smiled. At first I thought he was going to make fun of me like he did at home. Before when dad was alive and mom was happy. But instead he took my hand in his and smiled. "Don't be so nervous. This is our home now" he said softly and I nodded still a little unsure .

We walked down corridors and past big rooms that I was so excited to explore. The old woman who I had now presumed to be our grandmother stopped at the end of a long hall on the far side of the house. She opened the door revealing a room which we were all rushed inside of. Her piercing grey eyes stared disapprovingly at me as I held El's hand so I quickly let go. She was a woman to be afraid of. And she was tall roo, making her very intimidating. As we sat on the two double beds she looked us all up and down. Then at our mother with disappointment. I was confused at first. But she soon made it very clear to me, to us all what was going on.

Alyssa heard her door being opened and she immediately hid the journal and pretended to be looking at baby pictures. "Hey mom" she said when she saw Olivia walk in.

"Hi sweetie what're you doing?" she asked sitting by her.

"Just looking at pictures I got in the attic. I needed them for a school project"

"The attic?"

"Yeah... is that OK. ..." she asked as she took out a picture of four young children with fair hair. They all looked miserable. Olivia saw her staring and she quickly grabbed the picture and put it in the box, picking it up.

"You have no business being up thete. There's stuff up there that you're not supposed to be going through. Stay out of there I mean it" she said before walking out. Alyssa wondered what she was hiding and she hoped the journal would give her some answers.

Sorry I wanted to put the parts where she was reading the journal in italics but lately my ff isn't working. Hope you enjoyed I'll try update and have more new stories up soon. Please review and lemme know if you want an update. Thanks for reading!