A safer place

chapter one

Max slammed the door to her room behind herself after she heard her mother and step father leaving the house.
She didn't want to stay home with her step brother but she had no choice if she didn't want Billy to get beaten up again.

Though he was a total asshole to her all the time, the girl knew that even he didn't deserve to be hurt by his dad for something she did, but it happened rather often.
Max had come home from the arcade once, seeing Neil standing over her brother with his belt, and Billy sobbing on the ground in pain.

She didn't do anything then, she was too afraid to be hurt as well, and just quickly went into her room, covering her ears to ignore the cries that had come from Billy who Neil had basically thrown into his room once he was done with his son.

She had later learned Neil had been mad at Billy for not picking her up from the arcade, even though she had insisted on going home by herself. But the asshole didn't want to hear it, just seeing an opportunity to hurt Billy.

Now, Max was sitting on her desk, doing homework so she would have a free rest of the weekend.
Their parents would be out of town for the weekend, leaving her with Billy.
She didn't care, since he would probably not stay home, going on dates with some girls who just wanted a piece of him without seeing his abusive nature.

Max's head shot up when she heard something fall from the room next door, and a small whine following.
She raised an eyebrow at the noise, but decided to ignore it.
There were more important things right now than if Billy dropped something.

But the whining didn't stop, and that was rather unusual for her brother.
In fact, Max didn't even know he could sound vulnerable at other occasions than when his dad was unhappy with something.

So Max got up, now curious what was going on, and sneaked over to Billy's room.
Since they were alone at home she didn't need to be quiet, but it was something you just kind of learned to do around Neil Hargrove.

She softly knocked on the door, but got no response.
Max waited for about another minute before turning the doorknob around slowly, so Billy would have plenty of time to tell her to piss off.
But when he still didn't say a word, the girl pushed open the door.

Her mouth fell open in shock at what she was seeing.
There sat Billy Hargrove, a dark red pacifier between his lips and pushing a small toy car around.
His eyes shot up when he noticed the movement in the doorframe and he quickly ripped the pacifier out of his mouth.

„Get out!" he yelled, and Max was quick to do so, slamming the door closed and running back into her room.
She didn't get what she had just seen, but she was sure Billy would murder her now, or if she ever dared to tell anyone.

The redhead went back to her homework in hopes to just ignore what had happened.
Billy hadn't come after her, so she just hoped he was too embarrassed to do anything that involved hurting her.

Max's eyes wandered over to the clock on her wall, reading 6.54pm. She had been done with her homework for about an hour, and had been doodling over an empty page in her notebook.
Now the girl got up, deciding to warm up some of the food her mother had left them in the refrigerator.

When Max entered the kitchen, she froze.
Billys door had opened and closed and now he was coming over to the kitchen as well.
She quickly grabbed the food she wanted to heat up, and raised her head only when she felt Billy stand on the other side of the room.

His eyes hushed around, trying to find any emotion on her face, but she wouldn't let him.
This was a battle they regularly played, and Max always won.
No one was allowed to know how she felt, especially not her brother.