Hi, it's Silver. This is a preview of something I'm writing, and I could really use my followers' feedback on it. Thanks, please review :)

It was nights like this when he knew was on the brink of insanity. A sane person wouldn't have been able to last this long. No one could last this long. How could they? He was in Hell. He had been in Hell for as long as he could remember. The walls were so paper-thin he tried to pretend that it was just crickets making those noises outside. Maybe cicadas. Not someone shooting up. Not someone falling backwards into the garbage cans dying from some substance they put in their own body, be it alcohol, heroin, or something worse. The rest of the Tri-State pretended his neighborhood didn't exist. Why shouldn't he? But no matter how many cicadas he conjured, it still wouldn't drown out the screaming from two rooms down.

"WELL, MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU SHOULDN'T COME HOME DRUNK!"

"I DO EVERYTHING I CAN FOR YOU! AND HIM!"

It's the same thing every night. And it's so much worse in the summer. They're all stuck in here during the summer. No backyard, no street, no one. He hated summer with a passion. He wished school would just start so he could leave, even for a little while. Yeah, no one liked him there, but at least he could hide away for a little while.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

He popped a few pills. Yeah, that was enough. He glanced at the clock. It was midnight. He was so tired of Hell. He had dealt with exactly sixteen years of it.

"Happy Birthday, Phineas." He whispered bitterly to himself.

~O~

The apartment was crap. That's all that could be said about it. It wasn't nice and it wasn't safe. The building was literally in the only insecure part of Danville, back behind the scrap pile where the punk teens and druggies hung out. The kitchen was tiny, not like anyone cooked anyway. He didn't know how, Candace didn't have time, and Mom tended not to. He was almost too tall for the shower, which all three of them had to share. There were only two bedrooms. One was his and one was Mom's. Candace slept on the pull out couch. Candace insisted that the pullout made more sense for her; she had a few night shifts, she worked three jobs, she was in and out, she didn't want to disturb anyone. The situation made him so angry. They insisted he have his own room; he was the only boy, he was the youngest, he was the baby, etc. He would give it up. He would gladly give it up, especially if they would fight less.

They fought over everything, but they mostly fought over him. Everything came down to what was best for Phineas. Mom was just a lounge singer. Candace was working three jobs and also trying to put herself through college at once. Mom had a drinking problem. Candace was trying to juggle too much. Worst of all, they couldn't even afford the apartment.

Phineas knew there was a time before Hell. They had a house and a yard and a dog. He had the baby pictures to prove it. In a world where Mom hadn't yet blown her money on her own interests or comeback tours. He wanted to live in that world. He couldn't remember the inside of the house, but he visited it all the time. It was still his favorite place.

"Phineas?" There was a most gentle rap on his door.

"I'm up, I'm up." He grunted.

The door opened. Candace looked absolutely exhausted, but was already wearing her Slushy Dawg uniform. "There's breakfast on the table. Mom's asleep in her room."

"Ok." He sighed.

"You better start getting your school stuff ready, you only have a few weeks left, and I am not going to have time to take you to get crud." Candace quipped.

"Eh." He shrugged it off, as he got up and stared at his gaunt white face and hair that seemed to be getting redder every year in his mirror.

"Are you sure you don't want to see Dr. Rodrigues again, Phin?" she asked, cautiously.

"What? No!" He exclaimed. "Candace! I don't need a psychiatrist."

"Phineas, the evaluation he gave… he thinks you're… unstable."

"Well, what does he know?"

"What are you hiding from me, Phineas?" Candace asked. Phineas' eyes widened a little, thinking to the pills he had stashed. Candace sighed. "If it's about the money Phin, I'll make it work. We'll be able to afford it."

"Oh yeah?" Phineas barked. "Then why don't you get help for Mom then?"

"Because she doesn't matter!" Candace exclaimed.

"SHUT UP."

Suddenly, Phineas knew he had to get out of there. He didn't care where, but he just kept walking, past his sister, past his door, slipping on shoes as he left, still in the sweat clothes he had worn to sleep in. They were a little tattered, but he didn't care. He just kept walking, until he realized he was there. It was halfway across town. He was starving. But he was there.

2308 Maple Drive. Yellow and brown. It looked so nice together on a house. And the lawn and the trees, and of course, the FOR SALE sign. Ever since Linda had lost the house, the bank hadn't been able to sell it, and that's what Phineas had been counting on. That one thread holding him to this previous life. He could buy it back some day.

But, now, he saw on that beloved sign a big ugly red SOLD sticker. It was sold. After all these years, someone would actually be living at 2308 Maple Drive. And Phineas started crying.

Taste that angst? As you can see, unlike Go With It and Man of Action, the other stories I'm currently writing, (which are really coming along well, please read them), this is not a fluffy rom-com-dram like my normal stories. This is a darker AU in which the Fletchers never came to Danville. Therefore, while we still have all our characters, they are all OOC. It'll be weird, but I assure you, interesting. Besides Ferbella, I'm also planning on heavily focusing on Phinabella, Canderemy, Lindawrence, Ferbetchen, Gretchirving, Isajeet, Bufinger... I told you it was going to get weird. I really need a little input to see if this is shit or not. This is not final. This might not even be the first chapter. I'm also open for title suggestions or any other ideas. Please PLEASE review.

-Silver