Chapter One: New Beginnings

A/N: None of the HoO characters come into play until perhaps the next few chapters. Enjoy :)

I never realized how easy it was to kill yourself until now. I peered down off the roof of my house onto the rough, old pavement. Just one jump and all this pain and hurt would be over. No, the roof wasn't high enough, maybe a jump off the neighbor's roof would be easier.

The roof was my one and only safe spot in the house, it was my escape route from all my worries, hurt and the chaos that lived down below. The walls of my bedroom were too thin, I could hear the screaming, shouting and crying that were behind those walls even if I turned the music on full volume. Up here, I could still hear a little bit, but I continued to blast the music on full volume. Well, not always, I always earned curious and annoyed looks from my neighbors whenever I played the songs. (Once I got in trouble for doing so, my neighbor thought I was about to jump off. I got in trouble for almost a month for that). So I mainly blast the music through my earbuds even though it hurts my ears.

I got lost in the music I listened to, it was mainly youtuber music. My favorite one is Out Loud by Gabbie Hanna, it's amazing. The song touches the soul and make you feel better about your life when you see what Gabbie had to deal with. For over an hour now, I've been replaying the song over and over again, until I finally heard it.

Smash!

More screams came up from downstairs. I quickly turned off my phone and scaled down the roof, over the house walls and into my bedroom window. I tossed my phone onto my bed and ran downstairs.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" my mother wailed from the kitchen. "YOU CLEARLY HEARD WHAT I SAID," my dad roared from the kitchen as well. My little sister, huddled in the living room with tears streaming down her face and her hands over her ears. She was sitting on the couch, paralyzed by fear and anger, something both of us had a habit of. I ran to my sister, who wasn't even 7 but had her innocence stripped away from her for over three months already.

"Amaya make them stop!" Erina cried. I hugged my sister tightly and let her dry her tears in my favorite t-shirt. Erina gripped her arms around me so tightly I thought that I would suffocate. I let go of her and gave her five dollars.

"Erina, go outside to the dollar store, Ms. Abbe will know what to do," I told her. Erina nodded, pulled on a jacket and her sneakers and ran out in the pouring rain. I watched her leave and locked the door behind her. I turned around to see what the issue was.

I halted in the kitchen with shock written all over my face. The kitchen which usually neat and orderly, had pieces of ceramic plates all over the floor, a vase smashed in the vase and the knife cabinet open with all of the knives poured out.

My mom was laying on the floor, shuddering with a fork in her hand and blood dripping down her shoulder where another fork was stuck in. My dad was hovering menacingly above her, holding a knife and was clearly drunk.

"Mom, Dad! Stop!" I screamed "What are you guys doing?" My dad swiveled towards me and sneered.

"Now what are you doing, Emma? Turning my children against me?" he said to my mother. My mother was shaking hard now, her eyes were wide open, so wide, you could see the whites of her eyes.

I looked on at the scene. I remembered seeing the same image but it was long ago, back when my father was kind-hearted, funny and smiling, my mother ready to face the world. How did one car accident change everything? How did one death change everything?

"Just stop Dad, go away!" I yelled. He turned the knife on me.

"Oh, now you're a big girl now aren't you? You think you can take care of yourself and don't need your mom or dad anymore huh? I thought I taught you better than this," he sneered. "Why don't you go back up into your room and play all those stupid fantasy games on your computer with all the cannibals and zombies in it?"

My eye twitched, NOBODY, NOT EVEN MY FATHER, WILL EVER. INSULT. CLEMENTINE OR LEE (the Walking Dead). So, I did something stupid. I reached out and grab my father's right hand, which was hold the knife at me. He shook his arms, attempting to break my hold on him, gave up and pushed me into the wall.

"THOMAS!" My mother screamed with rage. She pushed my father into the opposite wall. "Don't ever hurt my children again!" My mind went blurry, mixing colors with each other, my eyes trying hard not to fail me.

My dad grabbed my mother and smashed it against the counter, about to chop it off with his knife, when another blur rushed to him and pushed him against the sink. My six year old sister, had just pushed a full grown man, into a sink.

My mom ran to me and pulled me off the floor, "Let's go Amaya!" She grabbed Erina with her other hand and we ran as quickly as we could out of the house.

We rushed into the backyard and my mom smashed the car's windows open and climbed through into the driver's seat.

"Amaya, help me," Erina pleaded. I boosted her up into the window and climbed in after her. My mom tossed her phone over her shoulder and into my lap.

"Amaya, call the cops."

I grabbed the phone and quickly dialed 911. "Erina, buckle your seat belt," I ordered. Erina quickly grabbed the seat belt and pulled it over into her lap. Just then, the house's backdoor slammed open. My father limped quickly through the doors, with a broken vase in his hand and started towards the car, red faced.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Hi," I said shakily, attempting to keep the phone in place "Um… my dad's drunk right now, he gets like this all the time but now, he's worse and he's trying to attack me, my sister and my mom."

"Alright, we'll be there right away, what's your address?"

"3498, Ashtera Street, please send an ambulance and a police car," I said breathlessly "Please, please, hurry up."

My mother stepped on the pedal and it backed right out of the driveway. Like some horror movie, the car broke down and smoke wafted out of the hood. My mom cursed under her breath.

"Please hurry! The car just broke down and my dad is heading towards us with a broken glass vase!" I screamed into the phone.

"Alright I want all of you to get out of the car and run to the nearest house where the neighbors will let you in."

"Mom," I shouted to the front "The dispatcher wants us to get out of the car and get into the nearest house." My mom nodded, unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of the window.

Erina cried, and I understood how she felt, the possibility of safety was taken away from her, and we had to take the faster, but the most risky route to safety.

I unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her out of the car. My mother scooped her up in her arms and we began running to our neighbors' house. My father came running towards us, faster than before. He lunged his hand out and grabbed my mother's collar and pulled her down onto the pavement.

My mother screamed and Erina fell out of her hands and hit the ground on her head with a crack. "Mom! Erina!" I yelled. I heard an ambulance and a police car getting near us. They wouldn't get here on time.

My father raised the vase to strike my mother's head, when I grabbed his arm. He looked down at me, furious. His eyes, didn't look like his eyes anymore. But rather a fiery snake's, which seemed impossible with his blue eyes. His eyes were filled with rage, anger and the cold, oh the cold.

I met my dark, dark brown eyes with his blue eyes with a same, identical ice cold stare. I gripped his arm until I drew blood. "Stop," I said with a cold calculating voice.

But my father smiled, grabbed my arm and pulled it down and struck my head with the vase. Everything went blurry at that moment, I watched my head in slow motion, as it hit the ground. I heard my mother's screams, warped and far away, then another smash of glass, gunshots and then the splattering of hot, red blood.

Finally, nothing at all.