Two people, one room.

One little boy, one girl.

"Don't get all defensive on me, all I'm saying is you have to choose." the girl huffed, crossing her arms.

"B-but... how is that possible? C-can't we just... s..s..s-witch?" the boy stuttered.

"Apparently not. They're both too hotheaded to agree to that, the idiots."

"Y-you can't judge!"  the boy suddenly exclaimed. "You don't know them! Y-you leave! You left! You're n-never around, you d-don't really know th-them. I don't c-care if your older you don't know them!"

"I know them well enough!"

"No you d-don't! Your n-not the one who had to g-grow up l-listening to the fights! Y-you're not the one who got n-nightmares every night b-because of the t-things you heard." tears sprung from the little boy's eyes and he wiped them away with his sleeve, but they just kept coming.

"T.. they always figured it out..." he whined softly, "W-why can't they f-figure it out n-now?"

"Hey, hey. Okay I'm sorry, I'm sorry." the girl wrapped her arms around her younger brother, closing her eyes. "You're right, I'm sorry. I don't know them as well as you do, but either way they're gonna make you choose... and you have to be ready for that."

The boy sniffed and pulled away from his older sister.

She sighed and gently wiped away his tears.

"Everything will be okay." she whispered. "I'll stay. I'll be here. Whatever you choose I'll choose too."

--

"He has to choose!" boomed a voice. Male.

"Well I know he'll choose me over you! Who'd want to be with you? You never do anything!" a voice screeched back- female.

"I do everything! Your the one that stays spoiled!"

"I work! I'm a star! What do you do?"

"Run a company!"

"Oh yeah, sure. Uh-huh. A company that's moving away from here!"

It was, as one of the lawyers would soon come to speak of it, a nightmare.

'They put their kids through hell,' the lawyer would say. He'd come to say that whenever he went to the house he could hear the shouting before he even got to the driveway. It was unstable, and it was terrible. But everytime he'd open the door there would be that little kid, that little boy. Despite his parent's fights and screaming he'd still manage a smile. Everytime he'd have a snack or something prepared for the lawyer. Sometimes cookies, sometimes other sweets. 

This one time, the lawyer recalled, the boy had a bowl of blueberries. The poor boy apologized, saying he didn't have much of anything else, and explained that he didn't even have that many blueberries left. But the kid, and the lawyer quoted, said he 'hoped it would do.'

Everytime the lawyer took whatever snack the kid had. He'd kneel down to the kid's height and ruffle his hair, returning his generosity with a smile. Everytime he would say, "Thank you, you've already done more then you need to."

The boy would smile back and say "Thank you, and welcome to our home sir."

Then he would lead the lawyer to wherever his parents were. Once all adults were seated the boy would scurry off and leave them to their adult conversation.

Sometimes the boy's sister would be there to greet him, and she always held him close. She always would watch him, stay by him when she was around.

The lawyer always ends the story with 'That poor boy and girl. I only hope their stories ended well.'

Everytime he told the story there was always one person who would ask, 'Who did they choose to go with?'

He'd look over at them and look them dead in the eye, waiting a few seconds before speaking.

'Whoever stayed.'

--

"What happened to your face!?" the older sister ran over to her younger brother, examining his face.

"S-someone hit me..." the boy whispered softly. He had a large purple and blue bruise around his eye. It hurt, it hurt a lot. And he didn't like it.

"Why would someone want to hit you!?"

"W-weak... s-something about being f-fake..." he looked at his older sister, tears springing from his eyes again. "W-why am I l-like this?" he whined.

"Well first of all, you are not weak. Remember that. You are strong." she said in a hushed tone, cupping his face. "You're my younger brother. You fight, you live, you thrive. So you have a few quirks, everybody does. They give you crap you stand up, you refuse to stoop to their level, and you walk away. Walking away from someone like that does not equal being a chicken, or a wuss. It means your strong enough to see the error in their ways. You are as strong as the storm that rolls through the night. Remember who you are. You are not a fake. You are real, and you are here."

The boy's bottom lip quivered and he hugged his older sister, screwing his eyes shut as tears fell from them freely.

"T-teach m-me..." he sobbed into her shirt.

"Teach you what?" she asked softly.

"N-not to s-st-tutter... To be s-strong..."

"You can teach yourself. I believe in you that much." she whispered, running her fingers through his hair.

A few moments passed and the two pulled away from each other.

"I'm going to go get you an ice pack." she murmured. "Go sit in the living room, relax. I'll be there in a second."

He nodded before heading to the living room.

The girl let out a deep sigh, watching her younger brother go. She didn't care if she had to grow up faster to look after him, he couldn't leave him to their mother.

She walked into the kitchen, opening the freezer.

"Hey!" her mother slurred. "Why are you goin' in there?"

The girl clenched her jaw and slowly turned to her mom. "What you suddenly want a play by play of my life?"

"So what if I do? Don't I have a right to know what my daughter is doing with her life?"

"Like you can talk about what you're doing with your life." the daughter spat, gesturing to her mother's multiple empty bottles of alcohol. They were scattered across the table and even on the floor.

"I am your mother, you will speak to me with respect!"

"If you're my mother start acting like it!" she spat.

"Fine! Chores: Clean up the bottles!"

"That's your mess! Not mi-"

"And close that stupid freezer before it loses all it's cold!"

The daughter's eye twitched slightly and she grabbed the ice pack out of the freezer without another word. All she wanted more was to grab the ice tray and smash it over her mother's head. Or better yet grab one of her many bottles and throw it at her.

But that'd just mean the risk of her brother losing more innocence. He was traumatized enough as it was. Her and her mother already argued enough for him to hear it. He took their mother's yelling, but she would always refuse, causing a fight to break out. She wouldn't let it become anything physical. She refused to stoop to that level. She'd make sure her brother stayed as safe as possible. She wanted to make sure she could chase away every last monster inside of him.

She closed the freezer door, "Goodnight, mother." she muttered.

"Goodnight." her mother grumbled. Even though it was 4 in the afternoon, she doubt her mother really noticed. She spent a majority of her days drinking and reliving her glory days on TV. The only reason they still lived in the place they did was because their father payed for it. Still it was a dump.

Someday, someday she'd get a better place for her and her brother, without their mom.

She walked past her mom, glancing down at her briefly, a cold look plastered onto her face. Her mother, of course, didn't seem to notice.

The daughter left the kitchen, leaving her mother to drown in her own pit of crap.

She headed into the living room and sat beside her brother, her smile returning.

Her brother looked at her and smiled back.

"Here." his sister whispered, gently placing the ice pack in his hand. "Should keep the swelling down."

"Thank you..." he murmured quietly. "I-I feel bad... you're always l... looking after me..." he slowly placed the ice pack to his eye, flinching at the coldness.

She gently placed a hand over his, silently telling him to keep it on.

"Don't feel bad." she murmured. "I like looking after you. Your my little brother, I don't mind."

"I-I feel like I should... should do something for you..."

"I'm okay." she whispered.

--

As they grew that little brother of hers slipped through her fingers. The real change was when he stumbled upon a scene no kid like him should stumble upon.

She could still remember his screams, his wailing. Despite what she thought of their mom he still loved her, only because he didn't know everything, only because she made sure that he didn't know everything. Though she still couldn't protect him from the pain at school, but oh how she wished she could. She was three years older then him, but hadn't actually started school until two years late. Still, that's one year ahead of him. Not close enough. He'd come home with bruises, and soon he learned how to hide them. He didn't want to trouble her, but she'd always find out. If she always found out about something he was hiding, it was only a short amount of time until he found out about something she was hiding.

He had found their mother laying on the couch, the TV on in front of her. At first he had just thought she was sleeping, but no, that wasn't the case. When he got closer he saw, as he described, 'a weird bubbly source foaming from her mouth.'

He lightly shook their mom, but she did nothing. Her eyes were blank, dull.

He cried out the words 'Mom' over and over again, sobbing. Everytime he said mom his stuttering would hit, coming back worse every word.

When his sister came down he was a sputtering, stuttering, sobbing mess on the floor by the couch.

Her eyes widened and she ran over to her brother, sliding down onto the floor next to him and wrapping her arms around him, hiding his head from the scene. He cried into her shirt, staining it with tears.

Her hand crawled over tot he phone on the table, taking in shaky breaths as she stared at her mother's blank eyes.

Slowly she dialed the three numbers on the phone she wished she'd never have to dial. Her hands were shaking violently, but she convinced herself it was just because of her brother's sobbing. She couldn't have really cared about her mother that much... could she?

"Hello this is 911, what is your emergency?"

"Mom... couch.... alcohol... foam." she choked, swallowing.

"Where are you?"

She gave them their address and they promised to be there as soon as possible. But she stayed on the line with the lady from 911. The lady did her best to sooth her, sooth them.

When the ambulance arrived a nice man helped the two children off of the ground.

He'd soon describe it to his friends as 'a traumatic scene for everyone.'

He could only guess how long their mother had been like that, but he knew the kids knew, and they knew he knew, they knew she was gone, and she wasn't coming back.

The boy, the man recalled, stayed by his sister. He refused to let go of her, and she refused to let go of him. They stayed stuck together like glue, but they asked one quite peculiar request. More, the boy did. He asked if they could do everything in their power to make sure the situation does not blow up into a big social media event. So they did just that, and hardly anyone found out. 

Their father was soon informed of what happened, and he raced over as fast as possible. When he arrived he, as the man put it, 'brought his family into a giant bear hug, and didn't let go.'

Papers were filed, arguments were solved, and the father bought a house in that area, but a better house. 

--

The brother became worse, and with him, his sister.

As time passed they began to fight, until eventually the brother shouted something that hit his sister hard.

"I DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE! I DON'T NEED YOU TO BE HERE, AND I DON'T WANT YOU! I... I HATE YOU!"

His sister stared at him for a few moment. She knew they were getting bad, but never this bad...

"Fine." she said. "I'll leave you alone." 

"Good!"

With that she walked away, slowly walking up to her room. Each step she took it felt like death. The past months had been hell on the both of them. They didn't get along, not in the slightest. He had managed to rid himself of his stutter, but she feared he hadn't done it positively. He seemed to be filled with so much rage recently, and she couldn't figure out why. He had finally started to get better. He had gone over two years, completely fine. Smiling, happy, positive little ray of sunshine that she knew. But that had all changed. A dark storm was rolling in, and this time she couldn't protect her brother.

She walked into her room and shut the door, running over to her desk. She grabbed her headphones and put on her music, cranking it up.

Silent tears fell down her face as she stared at her computer monitor. She lost herself in the music, and she shut out the world.

But little did she know outside her door stood her brother, one hand up as if to knock on her door.

He was sorry, he wanted to tell her he was sorry. But he couldn't seem to work up the courage to knock, and he doubted if he could barely knock he could barely speak.

He half expected her to fling the door open and say it was all okay, but that didn't happen. He waited there, ten minutes he waited. Half an hour, he waited. Nothing.

Eventually he gave up hope and slowly walked off to his room, hugging himself. Each step was like lightning going through his body. Unpleasant, shocking, and wrong.

But little did he know was the moment he went into his room his sister opened the door slightly and poked her head out, looking for her brother, looking for him to say it was all okay, but that didn't happen.

Their two doors closed at the same time, and with the closing of those doors broke a bond that once got them through everything.

-

The brother put on his earbuds and curled up on his bed. Still he continued to hug himself. He screwed his eyes shut, letting the music take him away.

Scenes raced through his mind, insults about him, how he can't fight his own battles. How his father always stepped in. He was only safe because of his father, because his father had become the principal. Everyone hated him, that's what he heard. That's what they said, just before they'd knock him into a wall.

Darkness creeped over the poor boy, taking him over bit by bit. A tune of evil slipped into his ears and infected his brain, casting a shadow over his whole existence.

A snake hissed in his ear, a beast of terror whispered in his mind. If they believed he got away with everything because his father was the principal then he'd show them what that could really mean.

He turned the tables, he spoke with the tongue of a serpent, convincing his father what he was doing was the right way. Soon it was like the son and the father were in collusion. He did what he pleased, he got his revenge. 

Gone was the words of his sister all those years ago. Gone were those bruises of that weak little boy who would cry every time he hurt a bee. 

The snake infected his brain, erasing the memory of stooping down to his torturers levels. He wanted pay back, and the snake gave him the perfect weapon.

But from the side watched his sister. She watched her brother fall, and soon she came to ignore it.

She saw the error in her brother's way, but that did not make her pure. She herself fell, but to a different kind of darkness. She ignored what her brother did. If he wanted to do that, so be it. She couldn't stop him.

Her grades fell, and she got held back freshmen year. Finally she was in the same grade as her brother, something she had wanted as a kid.

But by this time it was late, it was gone. That section in her heart she kept solely for her brother had become rotten and dark, covered in vines that were seemingly impossible to rip through.

The care was gone, and that section grew cold and untouched. She watched her brother grow worse and worse, but those vines still did not budge, and eventually a layer of ice cold stone was layered on top of the vines.

They were as distant as the stars from the earth, and it seemed there was no point of return, for they had forgotten who they were.

The lawyer, the nice man, the lady, they all knew different portions of this families' story, and they pitied them. They wished they could help, but they could not, for they could see, the family had forgotten who they were.

The families names?

The father's name was Zeus.

The mother's name was Beryl Grace.

The sister's name was Thalia Grace.

And the brother's name was Jason Grace.

Song: So Far Gone by Thousand Foot Krutch [Nightcore Vers]