He advanced on Lissy as he raised his arm. She put her arms up over her face, trying to shelter herself, when he struck her arms away and smacked her across the face. She couldn't take the blow, and collapsed. When he picked her back up and prepared to hit her again, Hayden spoke up.

"Stop it!"

Their father turned around, surprised. Hayden was usually too frightened to say anything, but this time he could not stand to see it. "What? Do you want to be taught a lesson too?"

"And what would that lesson be?"

"Don't be a smart ass with me boy." He yelled dropping Lissy, as Hayden had hoped, and coming towards Hayden again.

"Don't you touch me!" Hayden screamed.

His father started laughing. "Are you trying to tell me what to do?" He grabbed Hayden's arm, his grip like steel. He felt that if his father didn't let go that his arm would break. But he finally let go so that he could hit him. Hayden looked at his arm and could see the marks that the fingers had made. He could tell that they were already starting to bruise. His father then dealt him a blow right to the side of his head. Hayden's vision blacked for a second, as he staggered backwards trying to find balance in his new dizziness.

He heard his sister say something but he couldn't concentrate. He wondered why his father wasn't hitting him. And then he realized that if he wasn't getting beat, that his sister must be. That thought brought him back to his senses real quick. He pushed his dizziness and pounding headache aside, and saw his father drawing back to hit Lissy again. He didn't know how many times he had hit her already. Looking around frantically for something to help him, his eyes fell on a vase on the table next to the door. Getting up, he stumbled towards the door and grabbed the vase. He walked up behind his father, holding it over his head, and brought it down.

Their father let his grip on Lissy go and fell over. Hayden was still looking at what he had done in shock when he heard Lissy whimper.

"Is he dead? He's not dead…."

Hayden walked over and knelt down beside her. She flung his arms around him and a new wave of tears flowed down her face and racked her body. Hugging her, Hayden reached over to his father's motionless body, to see if he was breathing. He felt a slight air on his hand and was surprised that he didn't feel relieved. He knew that he would be knocked out until at least morning; the alcohol would keep him under until then.

"C'mon Lissy." He said picking her up in his arms. "Lets go to our room."

He carried her into his room and set her down on the bed. She finally let her arms unlock from around his neck and looked at him, tears staining her face.

"Hayden?" she asked. "Why are you blinking like that?"

He hadn't even noticed that he was doing it. He had been blinking, trying to keep the tears from flowing. He didn't want his sister to see him cry, he wanted to be strong for her. "I don't know Lissy."

"Well, you do it a lot after dad hurts us, and I didn't know what it meant."

"It's nothing Lissy. Just forget about it." Stay strong, he told himself. It was hard. Just then an idea popped into his head. He knew that he couldn't take his father's abuse, and he didn't want his sister to take it either.

"Ok Lissy, let's go."

"What? Where are we going?" she asked, confused.

"Just get your stuff, we are leaving."

"But..?"

"Lissy, I am not going to let this happen anymore, we are going to leave this house. When you get ready, I will tell you where we are going."

She was still confused. She wanted to leave this house, and the things that had happened here with it, but it was the only place she had every called home. She didn't want to argue, and she figured that anything would be better that staying there, so she started gathering her few things.

"You ready?" He asked taking Lissy's hand after gathering all the money that he had made, and a bit more figuring that he had deserved it.

"Yea. I don't think I am forgetting anything."

"Don't worry about it."

"Where are we going?" She said stopping after they had stepped out the door.

Hayden gave a sigh as he turned to her. He sure hoped that this would work.