For the next week after that first incident, Lucas crept around the house not daring to make any loud sounds that would set off his father again. Lucas had even stopped eating a lot, to make his father happy. Soon Lucas had dark circles under his eyes, where he couldn't sleep on his bed and had moved onto the floor, for all the nightmares he was having. He was so skinny that you could see his skeleton bones if you looked carefully. Also his broken rib was hurting him a lot, but Lucas knew Lawrence would kill him if he said something.

Lucas was growing bored around the house, his father had gone out that day and Lucas had finally got some more food for his secret supply, he never knew when he might need it. He had already e-mailed Baz and Matt to say that he was fine, and enjoying himself and had also spoken to a couple of his friends that were online, but that was hours ago and Lucas had just watched TV after that. Just then the sound of his fathers car pulling up to the drive made Lucas jump, as he quickly dashed to the door to greet his father. Opening the door, he was surprised to see a woman was with his father.

The woman had brown hair, with clashing orange and blonde streaks running through her hair. She wore a short skirt, and a short top, that matched and had long hoped earrings. With her, came a strong scent of perfume, which smelled awful. Lucas had to wrinkle up his nose, to stop himself sneezing.

"Is this your son? Ah! How cute!" The woman spoke to him in a patronising voice, which annoyed Lucas to the high heavens.

"Yes, this is Lucas. Lucas this is Leanne, my girlfriend." Lawrence pretended to look proud of his son, while Lucas shook hands with the woman.

"Shall we go inside, then? I can't wait to see your room," Leanne hinted to Lawrence.

"Well, I'm sure Lucas is more than capable of handling the food, right?" Lucas just nodded his head, "Well, maybe I can give you a 'guided tour' of the house" Lawrence said, before kissing Leanne long and hard. The couple moved inside the house, and disappeared upstairs. Lucas sighed and started to unpack the food shopping.

****

The next day Lucas awoke on the floor, to find Lawrence staring at him from the bed. Lucas started to tremble again. Lawrence didn't do anything; he just stared at Lucas a little while longer before saying,

"You remember Leanne?"

Lucas nodded.

"Well, I asked her to marry me and she said yes, so from now on, she's your new mother. No questions asked, got it?"

The nine-year-old just looked at his father in shock at what his father had just asked him to do.

"No, I wont." Lucas said, trying to sound confident.

"What did you just say to me?" Lawrence's face had turned bright red in anger and his eyes had turned into slits, as Lucas backed up into the smallest corner he could find. "Big mistake. The wedding's today and looks like you can't make it. And you know what? Leanne has gone into town to look for a wedding dress and she wont get back here until we get back from our honeymoon in three weeks time. So that leaves you and me in the house alone, and do you remember what happened last time? Well let me refresh your memory." With this he dragged Lucas kicking and screaming out of his room, and down the stairs. Lucas tried to stall his journey, but this just made Lawrence madder still.

Lawrence didn't stop dragging Lucas until they had reached the top of the basement stairs. Lucas really began to scream now; the basement hadn't even got a working light and had hard, concrete stairs, which led to a small concrete room that always had a draft. Lawrence had often taken Lucas down there, when he was younger to be 'punished'.

"No, don't leave me, please. Somebody help me!" Lucas screamed.

"Three weeks remember, don't get too bored while I'm away." Tired of Lucas's screams, he kicked Lucas on the back, so he went tumbling down the flight of concrete stairs and landed at the bottom, painfully knocking his head.

****

Lucas awoke, feeling cold and all alone. He suddenly remembered all that had happened and backed into a corner, looking for a sign if his abuser had come into the basement and was there, waiting for him. After making sure there was no one down there, Lucas buried his face in his knees and began to cry.

****

Three weeks later.

Lucas was still in the basement and was now ravenously hungry and very thirsty. He was floating in and out of consciousness and was feeling very dizzy. He had grown used to the dimness of his concrete prison a long time ago, and had stopped looking for any means of escape after a week had past. There was no one around on the outside world to hear his screams, not even the postman.

'Lawrence must have told the post man he wasn't going to be here and not to come up here.' Lucas thought gruffly to himself.

The high pitched squeaking had started again, but Lucas had grown used to living with the rats and the mice a long time ago for this wasn't the first time he had been shut down in the basement and Lucas doubted it would be his last time either. Just then Lucas thought he could vaguely heard the sound of a car pulling up to the driveway. Lucas thought he would never be so glad to hear that sound, but he was. There was the sound of two car doors slamming, followed by two pairs of footsteps travelling to the door. That was the last thing he heard, before he drifted into unconsciousness.

****

"Lu…. Up… Luc… Luca…Lucas. Wake up!" Lucas gradually woke up to the sound of a familiar female voice calling his name. Frowning, Lucas shook his head before he was finally able to open his eyes and croak,

"Water, please."

A cup was then passed to Lucas, which he gratefully sipped, letting the cool liquid slip down his aching throat slowly. He looked around the room and saw Lawrence and Leanne standing over him. Lucas shrank away when he saw his father, but neither of them spoke a word to each other.

"How did you get trapped down in the basement anyway? Did the door slam on you while you were down there?" Leanne asked in a patronising voice.

Lucas just nodded his head at the threatening look that Lawrence gave him, behind Leanne's back. Coldly Leanne said,

"Well, I hope you learnt your lesson from that. Don't play down in the basement."

Lawrence looked at her in amazement as he realised something about Leanne.

"You mean you don't like kids?" Lawrence asked.

"Nah can't stand 'em. An useless waste of space if you ask me." Leanne gave Lucas a nasty look.

Lawrence just looked smugly and Lucas realised that his whole world had gone down hill. If things were bad before, then they had only just started to get worse.

****

The next day.

"So do you want a cigarette, honey?" Leanne asked.

"Yeah sure." Lawrence replied.

Leanne, Lawrence and Lucas were in the sitting room, watching the football at his father's request. Lucas was just trying to not get noticed by sitting in the corner farthest away from Leanne and his father, who were sitting in a chair together. Leanne got up and got two cigars, followed by two cans of beer. Lucas watched the couple as they drank and smoked, he was worried by the amount of beers they had drunk already. There were eight cans lying around the living room and when Lawrence drank, he got even more aggressive Lucas knew that from experience.

"Lucas, come 'ere, would ya'?" Lawrence slurred.

Lucas obeyed at once.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH! Isn't he obedient?" Leanne cooed.

"Yeah, years of training that took." The couple laughed at Lucas's expense. "Watch this, Lucas hold out your arm."

Lucas, nearly trembling with fear and coughing from the smoke inhalation, did as he was told. He closed his eyes shut tightly, and the next thing he could feel was a burning sensation in his outstretched hand.

"Ouch!" Lucas cried and opened his eyes in time to see his father's cigarette being pulled away from his arm. Leanne laughed as if it were all some kind of a joke. All of a sudden, Lawrence stood up, grabbed his son's arm and pulled it behind his back. Lucas cried out in pain, but either Leanne or Lawrence seemed to notice or care. Next, Leanne suddenly tripped the boy, so he landed flat on his face on the carpet while Lawrence pinned him down with his legs and arms.

"Belt or shoe?" Lawrence hissed at his son.

"Shoe," Lucas decided, before closing his eyes.

Lucas cried out every time the shoe hit his back, head and legs, leaving Lucas little choice but to start openly crying. Leanne laughed even harder from her position on the chair, before she too joined in hitting the helpless boy with Lawrence's belt. After they grew tired of their 'game', they left Lucas alone on the floor while they went up to tend to other business.

'Why me? Why me? Why me?' Lucas cried into the carpet, before falling asleep with the TV still blaring away in the background.

TBC…