I sat and watched the t.v. channels flip by at an amazing speed. I knew I shouldn't have given the remote to Kyle.

"I know a secret." I said with a smile. He turned towards me after leaving it on one channel. Finally.

"Yes, and that is?" I hesitated, making him anxious.

"I heard... that people are more likely to find a show that they want to watch, by flipping through the channels... slloowwlly." His blonde eye brows went downward covering half of his light brown eyes, and he grabbed a pillow and threw it at me. I blocked just in time. Faith walked in and sat down in the chair next to the couch. She gave me a sideways glace and said, "Wow, the thing actually talks." That really pissed me off. I got up from the couch and stood over her, pointed my finger in her face, and was hoping that she was getting angry.

"Listen here, slut. You either shut the hell up, or I'll do it for you." Faith just stared directly in my eyes, not even changing her nasty expression. I was about to go on but Daniel stepped in.

"Victoria, why don't you go outside and get some fresh air." He started to push me towards the front door before I could protest, so instead I didn't take my eyes off of her, and she did the same.

When I reached the door and opened it, the sun was high in the sky facing the house. I squinted my eyes, until I finally adjusted to the light. Ahh, fresh air. I breathed in a deep breath, and let it out with a loud sigh. It was nice to be outside finally. I never really got the chance to go outside in the past three days I've been here. Kelly let me sleep in, which I didn't get up till noon, then she assigned chores, made me try on dresses, which I don't know why, made me read these two books for summer reading for school, and a whole lot more. I closed the front door, and walked down the steps towards the pretty garden and fountain that was off to the side of the house. Kelly told me that she loved to work in her garden. And it sure showed it. Everything was neatly cut back, and the fountain was marble white. Not a single weed was sprouting in her garden that consisted of, white, and red yellow mixed roses, and a light blue and purple hydrangeas. It's absolutely beautiful. I laid down next to the garden, looking up towards the sky. I have always loved looking at the sky, especially when the sun is setting, or rising. But right now, clouds were scattered, only being able to see few glimpses of the baby blue sky. I closed my eyes, picturing the last day I spent with my mother.

It was the day I was turning 7. My birthday. I thought. I sat there on the couch waiting for my mom to get home from work. It was 4:30 when she did, but that day she promised me she would be home early. She didn't look at me when I got up to greet her with a big hug, which I was expecting her to greet me with a 'Happy birthday'. But all she did was pass me and went straight to her bedroom. As I followed her, she sat down on her bed with her face in her hands, not even glancing at me. I sat down next to her and started to comb through her hair with my fingers trying to calm her down, but she got up and headed to her closet to pack things up.

I was so confused on why she was packing up, also at the same time I was panicking.

"Should I pack my stuff too, mommy? Are we going on a trip together for my birthday?"

I wasn't expected for her to say what she did.

"No, I–I have to leave you. Your uncle will be by to pick you up later." I was lost for words. I didn't know what to say or do. But I was getting frustrated because she still didn't turn around to look at me. Few minutes passed by, of just her sobbing, and packing her clothes from the closet, and me dumb-struck from what she told me. But then she got up and headed for the door, with me following right behind her. She walked down the steps towards a silver, tinted window car, and put her stuff in the trunk. Before she sat down in the passenger seat, she mouthed the words 'I love you, always.' with a small tear coming down her right cheek. I watched the silver car drive away with my mother inside, and knowing that she will never be back. The very drugs she started using several years ago, has finally taken away the things she loved the most. The rest of the day I just sat there on the sidewalk up against the wall, with the teddy bear my mother made me in my lap, till the bright white moon filled the streets with light. It was then I decided that my uncle would never come to pick me up, so I went back to the apartment. Alone.

My dream was interrupted with the voices of Kyle, and Daniel heading in my direction. I got up rubbing, and clearing the few tears that escaped my eyes.

"Hey Victoria. Enjoying the sun?" Daniel said with a nice, friendly smile. Daniel has been the nicest out of all the siblings.

I shook my head 'yes', and got up, brushing all the dirt and grass off of my jeans, and green shirt.

"Well me and Kyle are headin... umm, into town. So we'll see you later." Daniel waved bye and went to catch up with Kyle, which he was in the car, ready to go.

As they left, I walked to the edge of the woods wanting to go in, but Kelly and Chris made it clear that I wasn't allowed. Which they failed to tell me why but I was in the adventurous mood today. So before I knew it, I was deep in the woods with the big house disappearing from my view. It became pretty dark from the trees covering up the bright sun, which was nice. The trees were tall, and had thick trunks. The woods were pretty clear also, no bushes or vines, just tall trees, leaves, and occasionally roots sprouting out of the ground. I also had to dodge some spider webs that were forming from tree to tree, which didn't bother me, I think spiders are cool. When I finally walked far enough, to where the house was out of my sight; I stopped to look around for a nice cozy spot to sit in. There was an area where no sticks were at, just a big dirt pile. I sat down on the pile of dirt, which was some what wet, and also cold, but my legs started to hurt, so I had to deal with it. When I finally relaxed I started to notice my surroundings a little bit more. There was an opening at the highest part of the trees where leaves should be. It looked like someone just chopped down a couple of the branches to make a perfect "O". There wasn't any sun, which probably would have been amazingly beautiful coming through that part of the trees, but the longer I looked, the more noticed I became of the dark clouds forming in the sky. The wind whipped around me fast, making my hair fly, slapping me in my face. In the wind, there was the dark, chilly feeling, telling me that a storm was forming, or on it's way. Personally, I love storms, but I don't like it when I'm out side when there could be lightning, so I stood up quickly and began brushing off the wet dirt from my jeans. As I started to walk off, I heard dark growls from behind me.

Oh boy, Daniel defiantly wasn't kidding about the bears. My mind wouldn't allow my body to turn around. Clearly my mind wasn't ready to find out what was growling behind me.

Run Victoria! Run.. Something told me in my head.

Authors note: Thanks for reading so far. I'll be posting the next chapter up pretty soon.

Please review.

Thanks.