IN THIS SKIN -- CHICAGO FIRE

An Introduction

 "What do you mean you failed again?!" Kelly shouted at his adopted daughter. The girl, who was sat on the kitchen counter, laughed at him.
"Why do you care? You're not my dad." She responded. Let me indulge you into her world a little bit, before I carry on.

The girls name is Marley Severide, formerly Hopefells, and she is turning seventeen on the eighteenth of December. She was born into a loving family of three; her mother Louisa and her father Jonah were both aged 22 when they had her, and they had a son named Noah whom they had conceived aged 17. They named her Marley after Jonah's sister who passed away. Up until Marley was 9, they treated her wonderfully, like any regular family would, but on the day of Marley's 9th birthday, everything changed.

Louisa took Marley and Noah to go to the amusement park, and coming home Louisa crashed into a brick wall. Louisa was killed instantly, but Noah was put into a coma only to later pass away in his sleep. Marley was the only survivor. Because of this accident, Jonah began to drink- a lot. He would go to work and then the pub, then he'd go home and get more booze from the fridge before going to bed. It became a ritual. A ritual that Marley had no place in. He left a nine year old alone for days upon days to fend for herself. She had been pulled out of school and told she was going to be homeschooled, but that never happened. It couldn't have happened anyway- her father had no idea how to educate a girl who was dyslexic with adhd.

At first it wasn't too bad- although she was being ignored her father was still producing enough money to provide for her- it was just a case of her being ignored. Then it got gradually worse; she would be locked in her bedroom for days without food and water. But her father never laid a finger on her. That was until she turned 12. She finally built up the courage to ask if she could go to school. Jonah wasn't happy with this and hit her.

Around a month after the first incident, the odd hitting turned to frequent beatings and she couldn't find a way to cope with it other than resorting to self harm. She started cutting and couldn't stop; infact, it's one of her many habits that her new family don't know about.

Another one of her habits was bulimia. She would purge daily, after years of her father telling her she was fat and worthless, she began to believe it.

Anyway, I think that's enough information for now- on with the story.