"Stop it! Stop it Dad!" The little maroon haired boy yelled. He felt rage towards his father, who was currently smacking his mother, forcing her to fall to the ground.

"Get out Riven!" His mother yelled at him. He couldn't leave her there though, he had to protect her against him.

"Listen to your mother boy, this is none of your business" his father screamed at him. The woman shrieked as another blow was given to her head this time.

"Now listen hear you whore. You are not going to ever speak to that man again you hear? You're MINE!" The man yelled and he threw her on the couch. He began to rip open her shirt.

"Dad! You're hurting her stop!" The boy screamed again.

"I told you to GET OUT!" The man yelled. He cam over to the boy, grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him out of the room. A sharp pain arose in the boy's shoulder as his father was literally dragging him out of the room into his bedroom.

"Now you are going to stay in here until I am finished." His father said as he locked the door. Riven didn't want to let him hurt his mom, but there was nothing he could do. He tried running against the door five times until he started feeling dizzy. He tried picking the lock but couldn't get it. And finally he gave up and fell to the ground. He had to endure the cries from the other side of his door as he could only imagine what his father was doing to his mother.

He didn't want to know, but he could take a good guess. This scene happened at least once a week when his mother would buy the few items of food that they had money for and his father assumed she was out sleeping with the grocery boy.

She never really did though, she was just trying to provide for their family, unlike his father who wasted all of the money she earned at a part time job at the library on drugs and alcohol. He was always drunk, and more this afternoon than he usually is.

All Riven could do was wait in his room until his father unlocked the door. He sat and looked around his room for any other way out, but he was too tired to concentrate and just wanted to sleep.

The next thing he knew he was laying on the wooden floor of his room and darkness surrounded him. He slowly sat up and realized that it was already late at night. When he got up and tried to open the door, it was still locked. The wind caused him to suddenly get cold, and then he realized he probably could have escaped through the window the entire time.

Somehow, Riven managed to get himself out of the small window and luckily their apartment was on the first floor so there wasn't a far drop to the ground from his window. He rushed around to the buildings entrance and went back into his apartment which was left open and silent, meaning that his father was not at home.

Still, he silently walked into the living room in case he was there. He checked the kitchen and his parents room but no one was there. He thought he wash home alone until he heard the moaning coming from the couch in the living room. Suddenly the lump turned over and it was his mother, but she looked completely beaten up.

Her face was swollen and she was bleeding from the corner of her mouth and her eyebrow. The eye below that eyebrow was swollen shut and as Riven looked closely, her arms had bruises all over them.

"Riven, sweetie" she managed to say in a weak voice. He went over to her and knew that somehow this time was different, that his father had gone way too far.

"You….you…you…need to g-g-get o-o-ut of he-he-re and away from h-h-im."

"But how? I can't leave you here!" he said as tears welled up in his eyes.

"I c-c-can h-h-andle myself. If you stay around him he will do this to y-y-ou"

"But Mom-"

"No b-b-uts, just p-p-romise me th-that you will survive." She said as she tried to move her had to his cheek to wipe away the tear that was falling down it.

He took her hand and held it at his face. She stared at him for a moment and began to smile. But then her face relaxed and her eyes closed. The tension in her hand ceased and Riven realized that she was no longer conscious.

"Nooooo!" Riven was screaming into his pillow. He had to take a moment to gather his surroundings, but soon realized he was in his bed and it was not seven years ago. Still, he was shaken by the realness of the dream and felt sad, even though he had accepted his mother's murder a long time ago as a result of his evil father's cruelty and drinking.

Sadly, he could not say that he was that much better of a person. He got up and couldn't remember what had happened the last night until he ran into Daniel, who reminded him of their getaway and celebration afterwards which involved heavy amounts of booze and cocaine.

"Shit, man I gotta stop doing that. I can't remember a fucking thing" Riven said as he rubbed his neck. No matter how much he drank or did drugs though, he vowed to never become as bad as his father was. And deep down he blamed his father for his addictions anyways since he made him start them when he couldn't get away from him like his mother asked him too.

After eating a bowl of stale cereal and watching some news, he heard a couple of knocks on the door.

"Open up! Police!"

"SHIT! Grab the stuff and run!" Riven said as loudly as he could without being too obvious. But it was too late, the police had already knocked down the door to find Riven holding pounds of cocaine and trying to open the latch to the back door.