Author's note: Hello, everyone. Finally, the second chapter, hope you'll like it. Thanks for your reviews and for reading the story. Answering your question, bubzchoc, don't worry the whole gang will be here, how- it will be explained in the next chap, when- I guess, Chad will appear in the fourth or maybe fifth chapter, the rest will be not far behind- probably in the sixth. Now about you, Elly16, look who's speaking. If I'm not mistaken last time you updated your story was 7 months ago? About starting new stories, I guess it would be better to first reach at least 20th chapter in Real life, but still I have some ideas for new stories, so it's not my last one. Anyway, it's time for me to shut up and to give you opportunity to read already.

Chapter 2

A dead end can never be a one way street; you can always turn around and take another road.

Bo Bennett

Cameron was pacing around the room tears streaming down her face. She hated this, all this. Why is life so frigging unfair? She tried not to listen to her brother's moans in the hall but she couldn't help it. That was so terrible, she felt so helpless. Cameron wished it would just stop. Every day since the abuse started she hoped it would end. She wished she would just wake up the next morning and realize it was just a stupid nightmare. But she stopped believing that pretty soon. This hope made everything even worse. When she would wake up and see a new bruise on Troy or his swollen lip or a black eye or she would have something like that herself, it's always been a blow to her. A snap from reality.

Suddenly Cameron heard something crashing. It made her flinch. What was happening there? She wanted so badly to help Troy. He shouldn't have gone through this alone. She must be there with him. But what could she do? Each time she tried to interfere before made things worse. She wasn't really much of a help in a fight. After all she was just a sixteen-year-old girl. Besides, even Troy couldn't put up a fight against their dad, and Cameron was way weaker than her brother.

Her blood became cold when she heard Troy screaming. He was in so much pain. Cameron couldn't stand it any longer. She couldn't hide while her brother, HER brother was getting beaten. Troy shouldn't have asked her about that, may be he would be mad with her later, cause she promised she wouldn't try anything stupid like this, but … But damn if he had the right to protect her, she had the equal right to protect him. And she wouldn't let his overprotective side kill him.

Cameron quietly opened the door and looked at the scene in front of her. What she saw left her completely petrified. Their father, the man who raised them, who promised to protect them, to be there for them, was now strangling his own son. Troy tried to resist but with no success. Even without their twin bond Cameron could see how much pain he was in at the moment. For a second she just stood completely frozen, she couldn't believe it. She knew their dad wasn't the person they loved once, she was perfectly aware how badly he can hurt them, but KILL one of them? That was too much.

But then Cameron saw Troy's body come limp. No way was she going to lose her brother. She wouldn't let that happen. She carefully approached her father from behind and having taken a vase from the floor she hit her dad with it. Jack, as well as Troy, fell on the floor unconscious. Cameron immediately leaned to her brother. She was so relieved his chest was coming up and down- he was still alive.

"Troy, Troy, wake up." She called for him, gently shaking his shoulder. "Troy, I need you, please." She said through sobbing. To her relief she saw Troy opening his eyes, and heard his moan. "Troy, thank God."

"Cam?" His voice was so weak; it broke her heart to see him like that.

"Troy, you ok?" What a stupid question, of course, he wasn't. "Troy, we need to get out of here. Troy, please." She was getting desperate. But then she heard another moan, this one coming from her father, meaning he would soon regain consciousness and it was certainly no good for her or for her brother. However, Troy seemed to realize that too, as he tried to stand up. But he was too weak and if it wasn't for her help, he would have fallen back on the ground. Cameron put her arm around Troy's waist so that it would be easier for him to lean on her. And though she did it as gently as possible he still winced in pain. Of course, being Troy he tried to hide it from his sister, but, nevertheless, she saw it. New tears formed in her eyes. But Cameron knew now wasn't the time to break down- as their father already managed to sit, but he was obviously still trying to understand what happened. Jack raised his head and for a second his eyes met with Cameron's. And that moment she understood- he would kill them. He would do that if they don't manage to get away. Luckily for them they were already near the door to their room and their father was still suffering from his head wound.

As soon as they reached the room, Cameron helped Troy to sit on the bed and quickly ran to lock the door. She made just in time as their father already got up. Several seconds later the door started shaking from Jack's fists colliding with it.

"Open the damn door, NOW! Open it or you would regret it!"

Cameron flinched at the voice. She looked at Troy who was still very pale. He was clutching his side, at the moment he was evidently in no condition to make any decision. Cameron could see he used all his strength to just stay awake and consciousness. It was her turn to take care of him. Once again she looked at the door that was still shaking from Jack's hitting it, it wouldn't stand long. She was to make decision now. Maybe someone would say it's stupid. If you hate someone that much why just not leave the person? But in fact it's not that simple. He was their father, and though last three years were pure hell, there still were some good memories. They used to be happy. Long time ago. Besides where would they go? They don't have any other relatives; they've got no place to stay in. But at the moment it was still better than to stay here. It was time to leave the place.

"Troy" Cameron leaned closer to her brother. "Troy, we must go. Can you stand up and help me pack our things?"

"Yes, of course. I'm a tough guy, remember?" Troy managed to smile, though it was really difficult.

Cameron found two backpacks in the closet and threw one of them to her brother.

"Here you are, tough guy."

And they started packing, if throwing some things in the backpack can be called that. The door was already on the edge of breaking, and any second it could just fall into pieces. However, it became a perfect reason to pack faster. And in less than two minutes both rucksacks were already full.

"Ready?" Troy asked in rasping voice, while he was opening the window.

"Almost" Cameron quickly took her teddy bear from the bed and came up to her brother.

"You took you toy?" He asked while throwing the backpacks on the street.

"You took your basketball?" She asked copying his tone.

Then Troy carefully sat on the windowsill, put his legs outside and jumped on the ground. His bruised ribcage definitely didn't like all these actions and it decided to protest by sending another wave of excruciating pain through his body. Cameron immediately became concerned when she noticed the agonized look on her brother's face, but she didn't say anything. For the last time she glanced around the room. After all she would never return here again. And in spite of everything, she would still miss this place.

"Cam!" Troy hissed returning her to reality.

Cameron without any more hesitation climbed out of the window. Just the second after her feet touched the ground, the door finally smashed and a very furious Jack ran in. He quickly spotted Troy and Cameron behind the window and ran there. However, they decided not to wait for a happy family reunion and, having grabbed the backpacks, the ball and the toy, they ran as fast as they could, trying not to pay attention to their dad's screaming. They just ran, ran leaving behind everything they knew, ran to something unknown, ran hoping for something better.

Well, that's it for today, hope you liked it. As usual, tell me what you think, your reviews really make my day.