I had to remove the lyrics of the song for this story, so while reading this story, listen to the song Another Empty Bottle by Kate McAllister

-Mom always fell for the bad guys, the rude and destructive guys, the guys who take everything that she has her love, her happiness, and her family. Our family was fine, he came into our lives when I was 5, but then, when I was 10, he changed, mama was afraid of men touching her, until him, and somehow, someway, he was able to get through to her, he was able to love her, he got her to stop drinking, then he got inside her, and then her changed, he changed into a horribly rude and destructive man, but after every fight, every blow, and every bottle she opened and emptied, he would say he was sorry, and then it would happen again, and again, but mom never learned. I became very distant with my mother, because of her drinking, and because she kept forgiving him, over and over again. -I am 17 now and they're fighting, again, it was over her drinking, dad wanted her to stop, they were yelling and fighting, I ran to my room and shut the door locking it, I laid down on my bed and stared at the wall, wanting for these walls to block out the fighting, but they just weren't, they weren't thick enough to block the hate… I shut my eyes and wondered how these were ever the voices that had soothed me to sleep 12 years ago...

-I laid down on my bed staring up at my ceiling, it felt as if the roof above me was caving in, I felt like there were empty bottles hanging in the sky, just above my roof, and as the roof caved in, mine and my parents lives were leaving our bodies and filling up those empty bottles.

-I wiped the tears off my face as I tried thinking back to when those people outside my room had lives, and cared for each other, truly cared for each other, when there was no fighting, just loving, I tried to remember all those cleaning days, when it wasn't really cleaning, we would play music as loud as possible, but we would get distracted by the music, and we would start dancing all over and singing to the songs together. I then began to wonder what I could to push the roof back up to how it was suppose to be, I wondered how I could take our lives back from those horrible bottles, I wondered if I could possible empty those bottles again…

-I heard the fighting stop, I heard a door slam, and then I heard nothing, nothing but the city… I just laid there, in the silence… I got up and left my room, I headed down the hall and past my parents bedroom, I heard my mom crying, and I broke a little more on the inside, the worst thing to hear is your own mother crying, the worst thing to know, is that there's nothing you can do to help her. I continued down the hall, turning into the kitchen, I looked into the living room and saw my dad sitting on the couch, his head was in his hands and I could faintly hear him mumbling his regrets into them…. The worst thing to see is your father living in his regrets. I grabbed a bottle of water and went back to my room; I took a sip and sat back down on my bed. I looked down at the floor and said to myself, "I guess this is the best life gets…"

-I wiped another tear and once again wondered what I could do to give my parents their lives back; I wondered how I could get them to love each other again. But, there was too much damage done, there was nothing I could do anymore, but god, I wish I could, I wish that there was anything I could do the give them their lives back…

-I shut my eyes trying to remember all those Christmas days, all those birthdays, all those wonderful days before it all changed, before it all went downhill, before I lost my parents to hatred… but all I could remember was the hatred, why? Why does anger and hatred have to overrule and overpower love and happiness?

-I just want life again, I just want love, and happiness, and life again…. But at this time, at this moment, I can't. Only in my dreams do I have love, and happiness, only in my dreams do I have my life… I'm trapped in my mind, and in my mind are my fears, my sadness, my anger, in my mind are the fighting, the yelling, the crying, I just want to escape it, I want to escape my mind, but I can only do that in my dreams… What's beyond the sky that I look up too? Will I see the light if I fall asleep? Is there happiness beyond the sky? Is there love and life? I want to know, because the only place I feel alive is in my dreams.

-And so tonight, what's done is done, what's gone is gone, and it can never come back, at least not this time… I wiped my eyes and grabbed the pills from my night stand; I poured the bottle into my hand and swallowed them. I lie back down and shut my eyes, and there was my life, my love, my happiness, it was there, like it had been waiting for me, the entire time.

-I could feel myself being lifted up through my roof, slowly being removed from that room. I was happy, so happy that my cheeks were hurting from smiling so big; I thought my face was going to get stuck like this. I sat up, and saw him standing there, he was beautiful, he was wearing all white, he had beautiful blue eyes and a gorgeous smile, he held out his hand to me, and spoke "Hello Olivia, I'm Elliot." He was quite for a second as he looked me over, disappointment in his eyes, "Is this what you wanted? Are you sure you want to leave everything behind?"

-"For my happiness, love, and life? Yes I do, I want this, I don't want all that anger, and fighting anymore, I can't take it…" I replied back. -"Okay," he said his voice filled with sadness and disappointment, "this cannot be undone, not since you said that…" he took my hand in his and I followed him in through the gates, it was so beautiful and white, it was so happy and loving here. The gates closed and that's when I looked back down and I saw into my room, my parents were in there; my mom was on her knees hitting the floor, crying, and yelling at the sky. My dad was sitting on the bed with me in his arms crying… I stopped, "Wait…"

-"I'm sorry," he began, "the gates have already closed, you're too far away to go back now…" he looked down. I nodded and we continued walking. They hardly knew me anyways, they knew my name and my age and birthday, but nothing more, they didn't know what I was going through at school, or how their fighting was effecting me; they didn't even know my favorite color, this is why I didn't fight with what he said, I didn't fall to the ground and throw a tantrum, I choose this and I now need to go through with it… this is my happiness, my love, my life, this is my dream, and here, here I am alive…

-An empty bottle took my life, but I also let it take mine… don't let it take yours, you'll regret it too. You may be happy, and feel love, and have life where I am, but you'll regret it, I did…