Angst and Death.

Dollhouse

((Warning: Emotionally abusive parent))

Hey girl, open the walls, play with your dolls
We'll be a perfect family

"Alice?! Come down!"

Alice slowly put her dolls down, running downstairs to stand beside her brother Elliot who's green eyes where averted, staring down at the floor.

"Your father and I have some news" Their mother said, a soft smile on her worn face, their father however was stony faced as usual, no trace of happiness unlike his wife who seemed to be glowing.

"What's that mother?" Alice asked and this even seemed to capture Elliot's attention, the taller looking bored and yet vaguely interested.

"You two will be getting a younger sibling soon"

Elliot stood straighter, his eyebrows raising to show surprise while Alice smiled brightly.

When you walk away, it's when we really play

You don't hear me when I say,
Mom, please wake up
Dad's with a slut

No one never listens, this wallpaper glistens
Don't let them see what goes down in the kitchen

Alice sat up in bed, holding their baby brother Pete gently on her lap, the youngest making soft cooing noises and playing with Alice's hair as Elliot stood at the door, baseball bat in hand as their mother and father screamed at each other in the kitchen.

Their father had been caught with yet another mistress, the three children could hear their father's voice growing louder then there was the slam of a door and their mother stopped yelling and started sobbing.

Elliot's grip grew tighter on his bat and Pete started to cry, Alice bouncing him gently on her knee while looking at her older brother worriedly.

Several minutes passed before their mother opened the door, her eyes red and her makeup having clearly just been touched up.

"Come down" She said softly, "Your father has gone to get food"

She smiled weakly at them before going back downstairs, Elliot putting his bat down and sitting beside his siblings.

Places, places, get in your places

Throw on your dress and put on your doll faces
Everyone thinks that we're perfect

Please don't let them look through the curtains

It was quiet.

It was very very quiet.

There was the quiet clink of forks on a plate, no one wanted to talk.

"...Elliot? Can you please pass me the bread?" Pete asked quietly and before his older brothers hand even moved their father spoke up,

"You don't need it Pete"

"Father he's hungry" Alice said, her fathers gaze turning to her,

"He doesn't need it Alice"

Pete looked down, his shaggy black hair blocking his eyes which where no doubt filling with tears, their father sighing exasperatedly.

"Pete stop crying"

"You told the boy he's overweight father for the tenth night in a row, i think he deserves to cry" Elliot snapped and their father snapped back,

"Like you know anything about empathy, he's too soft Elliot, I thought i had two sons not two daughters"

Pete quickly wiped his eyes, their mother leaning over to ask if he wanted to leave the table for a few moments to collect himself, their father butting in once again,

"He can stay"

"Jim-"

"Lilly if the boy is too stupid to take those things to heart then it's his own problem"

"I'm not stupid!" Pete protested, his voice shaky

Their father shook his head, muttering under his breath for a few moments before standing up and walking outside.

Picture, picture, smile for the picture
Pose with your brother, won't you be a good sister?
Everyone thinks that we're perfect

Alice sat with her mother, rubbing the older woman's back while Elliot stared at a fixed point on the wall.

Pete and Jim where screaming at each other once again, Jim had made a few too many biting remarks at his son who had finally snapped, screaming himself hoarse at his father who's bellowing voice echoed through the house.

"I HATE YOU I HATE YOU" Pete screamed, "IF YOU HATE ME SO MUCH WHY DID YOU HAVE ME?!"

"YOU WHERE A MISTAKE, YOU'RE SUCH A FUCK UP" Jim screamed back at his son then there was the sharp slap of a hand on skin and Pete stormed out of the house, tugging his jacket on.

Alice watched her brother from the window, Elliot going to the door, his fingertips hardly brushing the handle before their father stormed back out of the kitchen, snapping at his eldest,

"Leave him, with our luck he'll end up dead"

Elliot stared at his father, his cold green eyes staring into anger filled brown ones.

"You didn't deserve Pete as a son" Elliot said bitingly, Alice cutting their father off before he could retaliate,

"Elliot is right, Pete was kind, gentle, none of what you are! Pete was a good son to you and that's how you thank him?!"

Jim made a disgusted noise and walked back upstairs, Lilly putting her hands over her face and sobbing.

Please don't let them look through the curtains.