A/N: The story alerts, author adds and reviews made me so enthusiastic to update! Thanks for all the support and reviews gnomez and meganandalice!

Quick Poll: I have two ideas set out for the ending. Would you go for a unique tragedy, or more of a compromising-happy cliché? I originally intended for a tragedy, but now it sounds way too depressing and I might reconsider it in fear of disappointing you all.

Thanks.

Chapter One: Living Hell

Ivana's POV

Hearing the cries of David pierces through my heart as it deafens my ears. It feels as if someone is tugging and pulling at my heart. I can feel the tears well up in my eyes, and then they slowly trickle down my cheek.

I am so ashamed of myself.

What the hell am I doing here?! My poor baby brother is in pain because of that bitch and I'm sitting here, quivering yet furious in the living room! The anger that the drunkard of a mother had stirred up within during the past ten years feels as if it will burst! I would rip that whore to shreds if it would mean that I would be able to get through to Dave, to comfort him of all this pain. To make all the nightmares go away.

Poor little Dave is only three years old, yet he's been through so much pain. Seriously, since the day that my father walked out on our 'mom' she has released hell and chaos on the two of us. I was always the one that had to nurse and protect him from her. It's because of her, that I've lost my childhood. That barely matters to me now; all that matters is that Dave's still has a chance to survive.

"What the FUCK are you doing you little piece of shit!" I can hear her rant from the kitchen. Dave's sobs probably stopped due to his fear of the devil. "Stop moping around!" She screeched.

I grind my teeth together; it is so unfair that she's taking this all out on Dave. "You think you've had it hard! You have no fuckin' idea what you brats have done to my life! "

What we've done to her! "It's because of you that daddy left! He never wanted you from the start! You're lucky your even alive you little brat! It's because of me that you've got a chance to live!"

I heard a crack echo from the kitchen; she slapped him. I heard Dave's attempts to muffle his sobs. I can almost imagine the pain throbbing against my cheek too. That was the last straw, I stand up and I approach the kitchen. "It's because of you, that my life is a living nightmare now! I should have aborted you and your sister the minute I found out I was pregnant with either of you! You know what, time to show you what it really feels like to be in hell…"

I was in the kitchen. To my fortune, she had her back to me. I had the element of surprise to attack back. The terrifying part was that her hand was raised with a giant knife in it, facing Dave. She was going to stab him! The sick low life was going to kill one of the few people I have ever cared about!

I acted on the instant; I snapped into adrenaline mode.

I approached her from behind and grabbed her wrist that held the knife!

"Davie. Get. Out. Of. The. Way… NOW!" I ordered him as I struggled against my 'mom'. It took the moron a while to realize where my voice was coming from and why her hand with the knife was not moving.

She stank of booze. She was drunk.

This was both dangerous and advantageous to me; the good thing was that she would be slow to react. The dangerous aspect is that she is stronger when she's pissed drunk, but I think my skinny fifteen-year-old frame can take on this bitch.

"WHATTHEFUCKAREYOUDOINGYOULITTLEBITCH-" She slurred her words. "-LETTMEGO!"

She struggled more and more against me. I tried my best to keep her stabbing hand still, While I curled her free hand behind her own back.

For a second, I had lost control of her stabbing hand.

The swiftly knife glided past me,

And slashed my right arm.

The waves of pain washed over the area as the blood slowly trickled from my arm to the kitchen tiles.

"You are so cleaning that up." She smirked "Right after I'm done with you!" This woman is nuts.

I gained control over her again, only this time with a weakened right arm. The blood was still oozing from the gashing wound; the metallic smell shocked my nose. I don't have time to feel queasy over blood. I finally managed to disarm the knife from her hand, it landed on the floor next to my feet. I kicked it away.

Now with both her hands behind her back, I lead her just outside the kitchen and to the staircase leading downstairs. I don't think she realized what I was doing, she was too busy laughing like a maniac.

This woman should have been placed in an asylum!

Now that we both were on the top of the staircase leading to the basement, I still wrestled her down. I had the upper hand once more; she was on the verge of losing her balance.

I lifted my foot from the ground and placed it in the middle of her back,

Then I pushed her forward as hard as I could. She went flying down the fleet of stairs. Tumbling, and rolling down.

Revenge was sweet.

My next move had to be fast. I knew we had only about a few minutes before the drunkard would recover and be up the stairs. It would be my lucky day if she got knocked-out by the time she was at the bottom. My heart was pounding against my chest as I snapped out of my adrenaline-influenced state.

My eyes darted around, frantically looking for Dave.

"DAVIE!" I called out.

Oh, thank God! I sighed in relief. I found him quivering in a corner of the kitchen. His small, little frame shaking and trembling in fear. He looked like a wreck. Nevertheless, he was still in one piece and he was not bleeding.

My heart skipped a beat when I noticed some shuffling sounds coming from the basement. Shit. She's conscious. I needed to act now!

I scooped up the poor boy toddler in my arms, making sure the majority of his weight was towards my good arm. As far as I am concerned, I couldn't care any less about the wound. My main priority was to get David somewhere safe.

Anywhere was better than this hell of a home.

I dashed through the back kitchen door and into the garden. Our garden doesn't have a fence, thank God for dad being lazy and not putting one up. My pain and fatigue disappeared as I ran, my goal being to get as far away as possible.

I darted out of the hell house and straight through the woods. My poor Davie was still sobbing against my chest as I ran through the wild terrain. I lost any other sense of direction, other than the mental image of our home right behind us.

The forest didn't exactly help either, the only way I could see was when the moon illuminated the highlights of certain trees. Sometimes the vegetation would be so thick that I would be running in the darkness, yet I was still aware of the trees.

We continued like this for another fifteen minutes. I had to stop, I was feeling way too light headed to run anymore and the adrenaline had disappeared as I set Dave down carefully. Surely we would have lost her by now. I guess we could call it safe.

Where we were, I had no frickin' idea. The moon only displayed a lot of trees surrounding us; it seemed to be as if we were in the middle of a circle of trees. Strange. But at least we're gone from her.

Once I had set Dave down, I sat and cuddled closer to the trembling toddler. I am definite that this night was going to scar him for life. He cried into my shoulder while I patted his back, in an attempt to soothe the poor boy.

"Shhh, Davie." I hushed him "It's okay. It's all over now. We're going to be alright." I tried to encourage him.

A few minutes later, his fear started to subside as he relaxed a little as he sat on my lap, while my back was against a tree. When he raised his head from my shoulder, I had suddenly realized the pain that was washing over the gaping wound. I hissed at this, startling Dave a little.

"Davie, can you please sit next to me for a second." I requested him. He followed on command.

I decided to inspect the open flesh that was once my arm. It didn't look too good. The wound was about seven inches long, and started to open about an inch wide. The worst part of it all was that it was still fresh.

"Dammit." I cursed under my breath. I only had one solution to this problem now. I looked down to my ragged shirt; I tore a long strip from the hem of my shirt and used it to wrap my wound closed. The process was barely easy, every time I would wind the strips closer, my arm would scream in protest against it.

"You can use my shirt if you want, Iva." David offered. As sweet as his request was, it wasn't apparently the moment to acknowledge it that way. I have to stick to some basic survival skills for now.

Though, I still smiled at his little offer and replied. "Nah, it's okay Davie." I kissed his forehead. "You're going to need it tonight; I think it might turn cold. I don't want you getting sick." I sounded strangely calm despite our current position as runaways. I guess it due to the relief of being free from her.

With that, my bandage was tightly wrapped. "See, all better." I flashed a little encouraging smile at my baby brother.

The last thing I saw was his cheerful smile die down to a face filled with horror.

I was on the ground, something cold and heavy kept me pinned down. I could hear some snarling sounds erupt from it.

Whatever it was, I was keeping Dave safe from it. Most of the air that once filled my lungs was crushed out from me; the only thing I was able to muster from the remaining oxygen was a faint order to my terrified brother:

"Run, Davie. Run!" I hissed at him. He seemed apprehensive about leaving me, but I shot him a petty glare and he was gone.

The snarl grew louder as it neared my ear.

Then, I found that my neck was started to sting like hell.

The thing was biting me!

I tried to muster all I had to defend myself. But my arms were locked and my legs were pinned down, I started to feel even weaker as I smelled more fresh blood escaping me.

The last thing I heard came only a few meters away. The voice sounded like that of an angel, only this angel sounded horrified when it called out

"Oh my god, no! Bella!"

I blacked out.