Melanie flinched when she heard the loud shatter of glass. With a quiet whimper, she hugged her knees to her chest, trying to make herself as small as possible.

The noise of shouting reached her ears and she shivered, squeezing her eyes shut. Despite trying to shut them in, the tears poured out.

Oh well, she always had been a crybaby.

The young girl winced and rocked herself back and forth when she heard the unmistakable noise of a fist colliding with skin. Shrinking even more into herself, she began humming to herself. A soft sob escaped her and she hummed louder, trying to block out the screams of pain that definitely came from her mother.

This was how it always was. During the day, her parents would act like everything was fine and they were a perfect family. But they weren't. It was quite the opposite actually. Melanie's father was a cheater and her mother was an alcoholic. One day, her father had been drunk and brought a girl half his age home. Melanie's mom freaked out and the couple got into a large argument. The fight increased in intensity with every passing minute and ended with Melanie's mother being slapped. She didn't fight back, she just allowed him to beat her senseless until he had finally forced her into unconsciousness. After that, he still wasn't satisfied and so he headed upstairs towards his children.

Yes, children. As in more than one. Not too long ago, Melanie had an older brother. He used to protect her and always tried his best to take most of their fathers rage so she wouldn't have to suffer. It got to be too much for the young boy after some time. He'd only been fourteen years old. He had no idea how to handle such a situation. And so one day, he was just gone. Melanie never found out what had happened to him. All she knew was that he was gone and he wasn't coming back.

Unfortunately, he hadn't thought to take Melanie with him, wherever it is that he went. And so she was stuck with her ghost of a mother and abusive father. And because her brother wasn't there to protect her and the possibility of her mother doing it was laughable, Melanie began to suffer the drunken wrath of her father.

None of her neighbors seemed to have ever heard the screams or loud cries of pain. Either that or they simply didn't care.

Melanie was yanked out of her thoughts and sent crashing back down into reality when she heard the thundering steps coming towards her.

Her brown eyes widened and she shuffled further backwards into the corner. She held herself tightly and tried to quiet her sobs. Crying only ever made it worse.

She whimpered quietly and squinted her eyes closed when he finally barged into her room, standing in the doorway with crazed eyes and a bottle in his hands.

She didn't say anything, she knew better. He glared at her and scoffed in disgust, making her want to crawl into a hole and never come out.

"You're still here? It's hard to believe you're my kid with how unbelievably stupid you are. Your brother had enough common sense to leave." He spat at her, coming closer.

She didn't respond. He narrowed his eyes and stormed over to her. She yelped in pain when he grabbed her hair and forced her off of the ground. Tears stung harshly at her eyes as she stared at her father in fear. Her lower lip quivered and she tried to hold back her tears.

"Speak when you're spoken to!" He shouted at her, shaking her in his hold. The stinging in her skull ended abruptly but was soon replaced when he threw her to the ground. She rolled before coming to a stop and cried out in pain.

Not even daring to try to get up, she lay there, trembling and feeling her heart rate speed up when his footsteps came towards her.

"Get the fuck back up! Stop being weak!" He slurred, kicking her in the side. Melanie screamed and rose to her knees, holding her stomach and keeling over in pain.

He paid no mind to her suffering and yanked her hair back harshly. Her breathing was uneven and she was hiccuping with how violent the temptation to cry was.

"Pathetic!" He insulted, throwing her to the other side of the room.

When she stayed silent, his eyes flamed in anger. "What did I tell you?! Answer me when I talk to you!"

Melanie whimpered and looked up to meet his gaze. Her lips began moving but no words came out. She was too overcome with fear to even attempt to speak.

He sneered at her and stomped on her wrist, a loud cry ripping from her lungs upon impact. It was nearly impossible not to hear the crack of fragile bones and he was about to repeat his actions when the two heard something that made them both freeze.

"Open up, it's the police!" A voice called. A knock at the door sounded and Melanie's father lowered his foot meanwhile Melanie cradled her surely broken wrist gently, whimpering when her fingers accidentally applied too much pressure.

She winced when she accidentally squeezed her wrist in fear when her father turned to her suddenly. He rolled his eyes at her inability to tolerate the pain and shushed her.

"Shut the fuck up! And go hide!" He ordered as he stormed out of the room and down the stairs.

Melanie nodded even though he was gone and slowly rose to her feet. Her knees were wobbly and she felt dizzy but she persisted on, desperately trying not to fall over. She kept her injured wrist held close to her body while she used her other arm to grip the wall as support. After twisting the knob with some difficulty, she collapsed inside of the closet, panting heavily and finally allowing the tears to flow freely.

Melanie kept herself as quiet as possible and listened to the sound of the door opening and her father trying to sweet talk the officers.

She retreated into her shell and allowed herself to slip away from the real world and into her fantasy life. A life where her mom and dad still loved each other. A life where she didn't live in constant fear of them. A life where her brother was still here. Any life but this one.

She looked up when she heard yelling from downstairs then looked down again. This had happened before. The police had come to her house before. They believed all of her fathers lies and left without any questions. No one was ever going to save her and take her away from this hellhole she called home.

Melanie's head snapped up again when she heard footsteps and her fathers worried voice. Those footsteps were coming towards her.

She huddled further into the closet and pulled the few clothes inside over herself. The door opened and she held her breath, reciting to herself that it wasn't real. No one was here to help her. She was going to stay trapped here forever.

"Police! Is anyone in here?" A female voice called.

"I keep telling you, everything is fine. Whatever the neighbors told you, they're lying." Her father protested, his voice slurring a bit.

"Sir, move aside. We received a call from someone in the area that they heard loud screams and things being broken. It's my job to investigate and I'm not leaving until I do just that." The female voice replied sternly.

She heard light footsteps then, going around the room before suddenly, the closet door was opened.

A woman, probably about 30 or so, peeked around before her eyes settled on the small pair of light brown eyes hidden beneath the pile of clothes filled with tears.

The woman's face showed concern as she lowered her gun, saying something into the radio she had on her shoulder. Now that the door was open and Melanie could see, there was another cop in the room, holding her fathers arms behind his back. He looked worried for her as well as the woman knelt down in front of her and moved the pile of clothes away.

"Carson, call the ambulance now!" She shouted though her voice was frantic instead of angry. She turned back to Melanie and offered a small smile.

Melanie shrunk back in fear, not trusting this woman no matter how friendly she looked.

"Hi, sweetie. My name is Andrea. I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" She spoke softly.

Melanie shook her head and kept her eyes firmly trained on the woman's hands.

The woman deflated and she sighed. "I know this is scary, but I promise you're gonna be alright."

Melanie didn't say anything, but the woman kept trying. "What's your name, sweetheart?" She asked.

"Why?" Melanie responded in a quiet voice. The woman barely even heard her.

"I'm on your side, you can trust me." She promised and Melanie scanned her up and down for a moment. It took her a few seconds to decide that it couldn't possibly get any worse and she had nothing to lose.

"M-Melanie." She whispered and the woman smiled.

"Hi, Melanie. How would you like to sleep somewhere safe tonight?"

Melanie's eyes widened in shock at the idea. She couldn't remember the last time she went to sleep feeling safe.

She still felt skeptical but nodded anyways. Because she was starting to feel a little bit of hope.

That was until a thought occurred to her. "What about my parents?" She asked, fear starting to creep back up on her.

The lady scowled at the mention of her parents though she tried to retain her smile so as not to frighten Melanie. "They won't be able to hurt you anymore."

And for the first time in a long time, Melanie smiled. Genuinely.

I know I haven't updated Jump Rope or Suicide Squad Band Edition but this was an idea I had for a one shot that ended up becoming too long so I decided to make it into a short story.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope to update all of my stories soon! Hopefully tomorrow I will update all three and if any of you have checked out one of my old abandoned story Princess of the Moon, it'll probably get updated too.

Either way, bye guys! Luv ya!