The Safe House

2 - The Door

THIS STORY IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REWRITTEN. IF YOU GET CONFUSED GO WITH THE FLOW HAHA YOULL PROBS GET IT LATER MAYBE MAYBE NOT. OR YOU CAN JUST WAIT UNTIL FULLY REWRITTEN!


"GET UP, LAZY!" Mum's screeching woke me up this morning. It is probably going to be my new alarm clock. I must have fallen asleep while I was thinking of the door, because I was in nearly the same position. Knee's on the edge, legs hanging off, arms above my head. Though this time, my arms had moved and they were wrapped around me. "Hurry up, Ivy! You have school today!" School? Nobody told me about school! What is this non-sense? But I guess that i would have had to start school soon anyway. I just didn't realize they had already enrolled Lachlan and me.

Grunting, I push myself of the bed and shuffle to the stairs. Stepping up, my legs felt like they were being forced to the ground by some magnetic force. Mum, Dad and Lachlan were sitting around the circular breakfast table table eating, obviously,  breakfast. I sit down in the empty seat across from Lachlan and in between Mum and Dad. "Get some breakfast, sweetie." Mum says. Trying to be nice, I'm guessing. 

"Don't call me sweetie." I spat at her.

"Don't speak to your mother like that. She loves you and that's why she calls you lovely nicknames like sweetie." Loves me? Please.

"I didn't know love was in your vocabulary." I mutter.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing." I smile an evil grin rising from the table and heading towards the kitchen. The kitchen was square and had a bench in the middle of the room. It looked like we had been living here for a while, instead of just moving in. The fruit bowl was full, so I grabbed a banana and headed back to the table. 

"Is that all you're going to eat? No wonder you're as thin as a stick." Lachlan says, a mischievous look in his eyes. I squint at him and start to peel it.

"I'm not hungry. I lost my appetite from the word love coming out of your mouth." I say, eyeballing Dad. Anger flared up inside him, but he decided to stifle it. "Why? Isn't it what a family does? Love each other?" 

"Well, yeah. Just not this family."

"And why is that?"

"Because a real family wouldn't beat me up!"

"Ivy, you're heading down a path to pain." I laugh.

"Path to pain? Are you serious?" I look at them like they are all peasants and I'm the leader. "Actually, you're you. Of course you would say that." Why am I not on the floor, already starting to bruise, screaming from the pain? Something's up. Right now, Dad looks like a bomb. He is holding in all his anger and he will explode when he stops ticking and the time is up. "I'm going to go have a shower." I say, my voice unsure. I rise and walk to the bathroom, glancing over my shoulder with a look of puzzlement at the table, then leave the room all together.

The bathroom, like the kitchen, is already set up with toothbrushes on the bench, towels hanging up on the racks, soap, shampoo and conditioner, face wash all in the shower. The floor is covered in small, brown squares, with a pattern, lined with white concrete. The bench, with the sink, is a shiny white with two cupboards and a small draw above each door. The faucet is silver, rust spots in random places. The walls are the same as the floor, except white with the same clean shine as the cupboard. The shower head and neck are the same as the faucet, silver with rust. The house seems old, but new. If the silver was redone and it was cleaned up in some places, it would look as if no one had ever lived here. 

I put a bath towel on the floor in front of the shower, undress and step into the small square shower. Glass as a door and a wall, the others are just the walls. Turning the shower on, cold water hits my bare skin, making me shiver, before it starts to heat up. I sigh with pleasure as I stand in the hot water. It's the nicest thing that has touched me for a while.