Three long, slow, painful years had passed, and not much in Caelum's life had changed. Infact, it had gotten even worse. His father was abusing him even more, the students at school continued to bully him, beat him up daily - and it seemed as though if the teachers caught one group, there would always be others to take their place. Caelum had at least in those few years managed to get better at defending himself, yet the young fox would lose most fights because of his weakness - caused by the constant physical abuse and malnutrition by his father.

One plus had came from all of this - one light against the darkness... Celica... The small grey lapin who he had first made friends with, the first to not judge him, to not abuse him... The first to respect him... Celica - in the past few months in paticular had helped this fox, he had looked out for him and stood up for him against the smaller bullies, but the larger ones he backed down from out of complete fear. Celica had no knowledge of the abuse Caelum suffered at home - and the fox was determined to keep it that way.

The rabbit and his family had met Caelum's father, and he - in their eyes at least - looked like a father who was struggling to cope...struggling to care for both himself and his son - and appeared to still be fighting constant grief at the loss of his mate... Only one of those things were true - the adult fox was still sometimes fighting with grief at the memory when he lost Amare, but gained his 'son'...more precisely - his punch bag. Celica's family was such a caring and loving one, a mom AND a dad who both thought the world of their son, and Caelum desired the feeling to be loved, to be adored and wanted by parents so much. They had offered to help look after Caelum, seeing how good friends he and their son had became - and his dad was surprisingly rejoiced to hear the offer, and so was Caelum.

Tonight was a half cloudy half clear sky, the sun's rays breaking through the cracks in the white mists of the blue ocean up above, and Caelum was making his way down towards Celica's house - who surprisingly didn't live too far away. The streets were kind of empty, the odd anthro here or there, and all in all the street was queit and calm. Caelum's father had been made aware that his 'son' was to be spending a few nights round Celica's - and he was oddly relieved about it - but Caelum had his suspicions about his fathers happiness regarding his absence. 'Drugs and alcohol' being the primary ones. Caelum darted his eyes around him, he had little of value on him - other than his phone his dad had got him last year for his birthday for a reason beyond Caelum's knowledge. He noticed a group approaching, their faces all concealed by dark blue hoodies, and the group of four appeared rather intimidating, and Caelum's fear was well placed. As soon as the group made contact with him, they dragged him round into the alley way, saying nothing and instead just beating him up for no reason what-so-ever, without even taking his phone.

Caelum got to his feet after they left, and noticed that his injuries and bruises were well hidden by his fur. Shaking it off - or trying to - he continued making his way towards Celica's house, and no later than 10 minutes was he been let in with a warm welcome from the rabbit family."Hey Caelum!" Celica called as he made his way downstairs. "Beginning to think you bailed out on me - you're late. Everything ok?"

"Yea, everythings fine." Caelum responded, though speaking put slight strains on his physical form due to its weakness. Celica appeared to overlook that indicator though, and appeared to have believed him. The small lapin gave a friendly smile, which Caelum struggled to return. The two friends soon made their way upstairs, and began talking and sharing jokes and laughs. Celica heard his mother beckon him downstairs, and the rabbit and fox both went down to find dinner on the table, a veggie salad and a pred meal for the two. The group sat in a comfortable quietness, Caelum sometimes offering a compliment and a 'thank you' to both the rabbit parents.

Once the family had finished, Caelum and Celica both waited patiently before they were dismissed, and Caelum offered to help clean up."Oh no it's all right Caelum, you go on ahead upstairs" Celica's mother dismissed the fox.

"Hey Caelum, you go on up stairs, I'll see you in a sec" Celica told the fox as he began to pour himself and Caelum a drink. The fox quickly made his way back up stairs, glancing around nervously before quickly peeking at the object he had pulled out of his pocket, a small knife that was definitely sharp enough to cut through the skin without much trouble. The blade itself was stained with blood, fresh and old. The fox had been cutting for the best of a year now, and beneath his fur his skin was crawling with the cuts and their faint scars they had left behind. Making his way back into the room, he closed the door behind him, taking the knife out of his pocket and holding it in his paws, just staring at it. It was...weird to him - hurting himself, seemed to help him, make him feel better... It just, had that effect on him - something he never understood.

Celica was making his way up the stairs of the house, a drink in each of his paws - one for Caelum and himself. Opening the door, the lapin gasped in shock when he noticed the spots of blood everywhere, and the lapin instantly placed the drinks to the side before making his way infront of Caelum, looking the fox dead in the eyes.

Caelum looked back at Celica, his eyes full of pain, loneliness, of not truly belonging anywhere.. The foxes gaze silently pleaded Celica to tell no-one, and the rabbit reluctantly agreed... He wanted to tell his parents, or maybe even Caelum's dad - but he couldn't bring himself to betray his closest friend like that.

"Caelum? How...how long you been doing this?" Celica asked, his voice portraying obvious concern.

"Almost a year," Was the response he recieved, in a tone of dullness and hurt.

The small lapins eyes widened at the news, his best friend had been hurting himself for nearly a year, and he never noticed it.

"Why though?"

"I don't know... It just makes me feel better." Caelum's response was littered with obvious confusion at his own answer - he never understood it himself...but he continued to do it. It was something to vent his emotions, his anger, sadness, and even depression - they were all transferred into the actions of slicing the blade against his own flesh, and letting the blood calmly, slowly, almost gracefully drip out of the wound. "I guess I just want to be noticed, and loved" Caelum whispered the last part ever-so-quietly - yet the rabbits keen hearing picked it up.

"You are loved - you have so many friends who adore you..."

"Who?" Caelum interrupted, without meaning to.

"Well, there's me, Jack, Lauren, Chelsea, James..."

"But thats just you, I want to be noticed and loved by a family, by my dad." Caelum unintentionally disclosed, regretting it instantly when he realised the words that had left his mouth. "You didn't hear that."

"Yes I did buddy, I'm sorry Caelum, but I just don't think I can keep this a secret. You should tell someone, tell your dad..."

"No, I don't wanna tell my dad... His part of the reason I cut" Caelum whispered out the last part of this statement, hoping that his friends acute hearing would not pick it up.

"Ok, I get that, kind of. You can still tell my mom or my dad, they love you, you know that right?" Celica offered. "You can't keep it secret Caelum, you need to tell an adult."

Caelum looked towards Celica, his eyes were wide with uncertainty and fear, and the glowing orbs were silently asking whether Celica would be beside him. The rabbit assured his vulpine friend with a nod, and even placed his hand reassuringly upon Caelum's own. A few seconds passed before Caelum pulled his hand away with a slight blush evident in his features, and he decided to take Celica's advice and talk to his parents, ignoring the fear of what could happen as a consequence of this - yet it was something he was willing to risk if it meant freeing him of his demons that corrupted and controlled his life - breaking his soul and spirit and leaving him a broken and destroyed fox - fearing every coming second and feeling as though death was his only chance of freedom.

AN: I know it's been a while since you guys and girls seen an update here, and I'm really sorry. I've been busy with my exams. As well as this, I was having alot of trouble in my personal life with the people I thought I could trust (but I was obviously wrong about most of them) and it has taken an effect on my creativity, and my will to carry on with anything. I won't bore you or depress you with the details, but I will let you guys know this - the next few chapters are going to take longer to be done, purely because there will be parts in them that are related to myself, or a very close friend of mine whom I will not disclouse the name of. So yea, just a request, please be more a little more patient (I know that might sound insane considering how patient you already are) because the next few chapters are gonna be more personal to me and that friend of mine.