Chapter 1

Everything Might Not be Fine

"Aubrey! Aubrey get in here now!"

An automatic mental recount of anything she could have possibly done wrong or forgotten to do today raced through her mind as she felt the usual jump in her pulse and flutter of fear in her stomach.

"Aubrey, where the fuck are you, I said now!" She cringed as she hauled herself off the mattress that served as her bed and made her way into the cluttered living room, knowing that the longer she took the angrier her father would get and she was hoping to end what had been a fairly good day in her book with minimal confrontation. She stepped over a few empty beer bottles that lay scattered in the hallway and walking into the living room silently, stopping just in front of an old armchair. Its inhabitant was as tall, well built man in his early 40s. In one hand, Jack Foster held a small crystal ornament that her brother Mark had bought her a week ago with some money he'd earned doing some odd jobs around town and his other hand drummed impatiently on the arm of the chair. He could have been called handsome had his features not been slightly contorted in silent rage. Upon noticing Aubrey's presence, he rose to his feet and moved slowly towards her, brandishing the object at her.

"Want to tell me what the hell this is?" he said quietly, deadly calm. Aubrey took a deep breath to calm the rapid racing of her heart and tried to think clearly. She didn't want to get Mark in trouble but she didn't know what else she could say and she knew her inability to answer was infuriating him. Indeed when his inquiry was met with only an uncertain silence his sneer grew deeper and before Aubrey could blink she had received a swift smack to her right cheek.

"Answer me when I'm talking to you" Jack growled as he stopped his advance a few inches away from her holding the small ornament aloft once more "I asked you what the hell this is." Face smarting slightly from the assault, Aubrey willed her voice to stay strong and tried to stop her body from shaking.

"I..um…it's nothing, just a little glass trinket…"

"I found it in your room. I don't remember seeing this before. Where did you get it?" The quiet menace in his voice would have probably been missed by most but it certainly wasn't lost on Aubrey. She gulped, unsure of how to answer.

"I bought it a few days ago." For a moment she felt relief at coming up with a coherent answer but it was short lived. It wasn't until the words had left her mouth that Aubrey realized her error. Silently, she prayed that it would go by unnoticed but apparently luck wasn't with her today.

"You have no money. Did you steal this you little thief? Am I going to get the fucking police knocking on my door?" He snarled, resuming his advances.

"No…no, I didn't steal any-…."

"Don't talk back to me! So now you've taken to stealing things have you? And I bet you planned on selling this like the dirty little lowlife that you are." He had backed Aubrey up against the wall and she pressed herself against it, willing it to eat her into it, absorb her, anything to get her out of here.

"I didn't steal it! I didn't do anything like that…I just…" She received another slap to her face and this time she didn't bother trying to stifle the whimper that it brought out.

"I said don't talk back to me!" he yelled, his face dangerously close to hers, his hand still poised to strike again. His other still gripped the glass object tightly, his eyes blazing with rage. "You are a filthy thief and you don't deserve this," he brought the ornament to her eyelevel before hurling it at the scuffed wood floor where it shattered with loud crash "you don't deserve anything and you never will. You will never amount to anything and people won't even stop to spit on you." He shoved her roughly and she fell to the floor, narrowly missing the sharp shards of broken crystal. A beat of silence, penetrated only by heavy breathing followed before Jack straightened and strode from the room, pausing as he was about to walk through the door.

"Clean that mess up and stay out of my sight." Were his final words before he opened the door and walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

Shaking and still breathing heavily, Aubrey tried to stand but her legs were wobbling so badly that she abruptly crumpled back to the floor in a heap. She tried to take deep breaths and calm the tremors in her body but to little avail. She finally settled for drawing her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs and burying her head in her arms, rocking slightly. She didn't know how long she sat there in silence but after minutes or hours she heard the door open quietly and she tensed immediately, fearing a second attack. Too afraid to lift her head and look, she braced for the feel of cold hands attacking her again, whimpering softly as the sound of footsteps slowly approached her. But the hands that touched her were different, gentle and comforting. Large, warm hands that gently moved up her arms to her shoulders and gently shook her, checking to see if she was conscious. She finally chanced a glance upward. Concerned, worried eyes met hers and she managed a weak smile of relief. It was only Mark, her brother and the only bit of light in the dark hellhole that was currently her life. His own look of relief was obvious when he saw her respond but it quickly melted into a frown when he saw the forming bruises that Jack's slaps had left on Aubrey's face. Gently brushing his fingers over the swollen flesh, Mark let out a worried sigh as Aubrey watched him silently.

"What'd he say this time?" Mark finally asked quietly, after making sure there was no damage done that needed immediate attention. He wished he could say that this was the first, or even on of the few, times that he'd come home to find his sister bruised and battered in the wake of another argument or accusation. The very thought of what their father had done to Aubrey on one occasion or the other sent Mark's blood to boiling. He had tried to protect her as best he could but Jack found ways to force Mark out of the house, leaving Aubrey alone with him so he could push her around without interruption. His latest threat being that if Mark didn't get a day job, he'd throw him out and Mark would much rather it be him being home sometimes then him not being able to be near Aubrey at all. Still, he knew perfectly well what his little sister had to endure while he was gone and it nearly killed him, knowing that he was powerless to do a damn thing about it. Mark couldn't risk upsetting their father, because if he did, that anger got taken out on Aubrey. Mark had learned that the hard way and the memories still wracked him with guilt.

"Aubrey?" He inquired gently, soothingly, when his question was met with silence. Her only response however was to move closer and bury her face into his shoulder, shaking her head as she did. He didn't have to see her face to know that she was crying, the shaking shoulders were a telltale sign. He sighed quietly, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. He would wait until she'd calmed down before trying to figure out what happened.

Aubrey was thankful that Mark didn't push the subject and try to get her to talk about it. It wasn't that she didn't trust Mark, hell he was probably the only person she trusted. She just couldn't bring herself to talk about it right now. The minute she heard the deep concern in his voice, the tears started. Ashamed of this obvious sign of weakness, even if it was only in front of Mark, she couldn't do anything but move closer and bury her face into his shoulder, comforted enormously by his embrace. She felt safe here, in his arms. She knew no matter how mad her father got, no matter what he thought of her, she was safe when Mark was there. And for a brief moment she could believe that everything was going to be fine….safe in Mark's arms……everything would be fine…..

"Hey, HEY!"

Aubrey's head snapped up and she immediately regretted this action as all that she got was an eyeful of extremely bright, sharp sunlight. Lifting her hand to her face, trying to block out some of the brilliant brightness, she squinted up at the person standing over her.

"What?" She said, a bit irritated at being disturbed. She'd been walking for two days now with no sleep, no food and very on edge nerves and she'd finally found what looked like a safe and out of sight alley to sit down and here was this bum trying to bother her.

"You're on my property kid, now scram!" The man was filthy and smelled just as bad as he looked. Aubrey was tempted to leave just to get away from the stench but her desire to get lost in her own thoughts (something she found herself to be doing quite frequently lately) overpowered her nostril's wishes of escape.

"Kid I'm giving you 10 seconds to get the hell outta my alley before I call the cops on you, now beat it!"

"Alright, Jesus, take your fucking alleyway." Aubrey pulled herself to her feet, much to her aching muscle's protest and made her way back onto the street.

'Fucking hobos' she cursed inwardly as she made her way slowly down the strip. It was broad daylight and packed so she figured she was fairly safe for the moment and she allowed her thoughts to wander back to where they were before the slight disruption. That had been a particularly bad fight. She only remembered bits and pieces though, she'd only been 14 when that happened. 4 long years had gone by since then. Things had only seemed to get worse after that and finally, almost 2 years later they'd had enough. Mark spent weeks planning, scraping together what little money he had and they both escaped. Fled to Sin City where they figured Jack would never be able to find them and life was cheap. For over a year they survived on bare necessities and they managed. It was a far cry from a glamorous or even comfortable lifestyle but for the time being they were safe. Then came a day where Mark had gone to work at a local, small grocery store bagging groceries leaving Aubrey to wander the streets as she often did during the day. She couldn't exactly remember the details of what happened. All she recalled was feeling like she was being followed, a sharp blow to the back of her head then blackness. When she woke up, she was in a room she didn't recognize, staring blearily into a face she'd never wanted to see again. For 6 months life went back to how it was before her and Mark ran away, only worse because there was no one there to offer her comfort and hope this time. 6 long months and she couldn't deny repeated thoughts of just ending it, ending her pain once and for all. But constant thoughts of Mark and seeing him again kept her going, kept her strong.

Mark. She needed to find him. She just had to. He needed to know that she was alright. Much like her brother had 2 years ago, she spent weeks planning and she too escaped while her father was drunk and passed out in his room with some sleazy woman he'd no doubt picked up in some bar. It had taken her the better part of 3 days to make her way back but now she was here and the only thought on her mind was reuniting with Mark. She spent the rest of the day wandering aimlessly, letting her feet take her where they wanted, all the time keeping her eyes open for any sign of Mark.

'He probably thinks I'm dead.' Aubrey thought bitterly 'that is if he's even alive himself…' Immediately she mentally slapped herself, horrified by the thought. She refused to even entertain such an absurd possibility. Mark was alive, she knew it. He had to be.

'It's been almost 6 months since you last saw him. You don't know that.' Try as she might, she couldn't seem to force the little nagging voice out of her mind.

She finally stopped and forced her mind back to the present finding herself in a slightly less flashy area on the edge of a parking lot surrounded by a small grove of trees. It was starting to get dark out and she knew she'd better find somewhere out of sight to sleep. Just because she had escaped, didn't mean she was anywhere near safe. He would have figured out she was missing by now and he would know where she was headed. As big of a jerk as he was, Aubrey knew her father was far from stupid. Stumbling through the small parking lot, she tripped over a curb and fell into a black SUV parked next to it. She tried to pull herself back to her feet but found it a rather difficult task to accomplish, what with having gone two days without sleep or food. It was hard to notice when she was moving but now that she'd slowed down, it hit her how incredibly tired and dizzy she felt. Deciding to attempt standing one more time, she grabbed hold of the car door latch for leverage and pulled. Much to her shock, she heard a click and the door swung open nearly sending her flying.

'Their fault they forgot to lock the car door…' It was against every bit of common sense and good judgment she had in her but the soft leather backseat looked extremely inviting and Aubrey found herself hauling her body into the backseat and she pulled the door shut behind her.

'I'll just sleep for a few minutes, then I'll go and no one will be the wiser' she assured herself as she curled up in the backseat and immediately felt her eyelids sagging closed. She figured this probably wasn't the best idea in the world but the prospect of sleep was far too overpowering.

'Everything will be fine…I'll find Mark and everything will be fine….' With that passing thought, Aubrey fell into a deep sleep that lasted long after darkness flooded the car as night fell. Indeed she still slept on as the faint pink tinge of dawn lined the horizon. She slept on peacefully as a young man approached the car, bidding his companion goodbye as he climbed into the car, stowing a silver field kit in the front seat next to him. When the spiky haired man spotted her in the rearview mirror as he prepared to back out, his loud yell of surprise and slight fear was what finally brought her back to consciousness.