I am not a fugitive

I just wanted to be free

From the secrets and the ghosts

That have been chasing after me

Puck is brought out of his thoughts by his little sister, she is knocking softly on his door. He wipes the tears from his face thankful for the darkness to hide his bloodshot eyes.

He opens the door and a small figure comes into his room. She clings to him, wrapping tiny arms around his waist as far as they would reach. "Puck, can I sleep with you?" she asks in a tiny voice he knows too well. She has had a nightmare, a bad one from the sound of her voice.

"Sure, climb in" he sweeps his hand towards his bed. She takes off nearly leaping into his bed and getting into her "spot". It has been her spot since their father left a few years ago. She was only four when he left, but the nightmares had started when she was three. She would hear the fighting between their parents. Hell the whole neighborhood could he thought to himself.

He kisses her forehead and tells her goodnight. She snuggles into his side and he wraps his arms around his little sister. Before she drifts off to sleep, she asks him to promise her something and he says sure, "you will always be here for me". It is a simple request, but one of the hardest he has ever agreed to, but she is all he has too.

Squeezing her tight, "I promise Beck, I am not ever going to leave you alone". The tears form in his beautiful hazel eyes. He cant stop the painful thoughts that are running through his mind, "I cant do it, I cant leave her without someone to look out for her".

He finally drifts off to sleep and only has one nightmare; and somehow he doesn't wake Becky when he jerks awake terrified of the demons that haunt his dreams.

The alarm goes off next to the bed and it is Monday morning, his first day back at school since going away. "Going away", that was his mothers way of dealing with his stay at Juvie around her friends and the general public. She acted like it was a fucking vacation for him, like nothing changed, like he didn't change.

He shuts off the alarm and wakes up Becky, telling her it is time to get up and get ready for school. She asks for five more minutes, just a little more sleep. He smiles as he nudges her again. She slowly gets out of his bed and wanders down the hall to her own room. He knows he will have to go in there in a few minutes and wake her again.

Puck slowly walks to the closet and finds a pair of jeans and a tee shirt to wear for the day. He grabs his clothes and heads to the shower, stopping along the way to tell Becky that her five minutes are really up this time. He closes the door behind him and drops his clothes on the vanity. He looks at his reflection in the mirror and doesn't even recognize himself.

His eyes are rimmed in red and dark, hallow circles lay beneath them. The bruise on his cheek, the cut on his upper lip are still visible. He pulls his shirt over his head and hisses, the movement sends white hot pain through his ribs and abdomen. He starts the shower without even looking at bruises that are scattered all over his upper body. He doesn't have to see them to know they are there.

The last "lesson" from James had been brutal, he said it would teach him who was really a badass mother and who wasn't one. And he wasn't a badass mother.

The hot water feels good to his pain filled body and the privacy of being alone in the shower is unnerving to Puck. He leaves the shower curtain pulled back so that he can see if anyone is there waiting for him.

A locked door just isn't enough to feel safe for Puck. Its hard for him to even close his eyes while washing his Mohawk. He leans against the shower wall trying to fight the memories that are threatening to come to the surface, the scream that he holds inside.

He remembers the promise that he made to Becky last night and knows that he has to go, to survive this nightmare his life has become. He turns the water off, steps out to dry off and quickly dresses.

Becky is waiting for him, dressed with book bag over her shoulder. She gives him a broad smile and says, "I am so glad you're home Noah". She takes his hand and pulls him to the backdoor.