A low groan escaped Alex's throat once she woke up the next morning. Last night's memories were a blur for her. All she knew was that she was thankful that at a certain point during the night, her uncle decided to stop beating her. The pain she felt on her body was enough to tell her it was a bad beating.

She has wanted to run and talk to authorities so many times before, and today was not an exception. But she also could not help but worry about what could had happened if she does. As much as she hated her uncle's doings, he was still her only family.

She is fully conscious of the pain she has suffered all these years. And she knows well enough that there should be justice for what she has been through.

But how could she be so cruel in turning her only family in for his sins? Especially when he doesn't remember what he did once he is sober. Or at least, it doesn’t seem like he remembers.

With a heavy sigh, she managed to get herself up from the bed. After two hours inside the bathroom just covering up all the new scars and bruises, she finished preparing for school and headed down the stairs with caution.

Everything was silent. There was no sign of her uncle and to be truly honest, it worried her, more than it should. She went to grab her backpack, but a certain movement coming from the living room made her stop her tracks. She wasn't alone in the house. And her worries turned into fear.

"Uncle Joe...?"

She carefully stepped towards the living room, her instincts telling her to retract and make a run for it. Yet somewhere in the back of her mind, something told her to continue.

She should have followed her instincts instead. Because the second she stepped into the living room, she was abruptly pulled by her hair and pinned against the living room's table. After a moment of breath loss, she got up to her feet with hands clutching the side of the table and her eyes widened when she saw her still drunk uncle laughing straight at her.

"So pathetic. An ugly, pathetic ! You have... no right to be here yet I treat you so nicely, but so damn nice, that I even let you stay."

She felt a slap across her bruised cheek.

"You are nothing to this world!" He screamed and shoved her once more against the table before stumbling away to the kitchen.

She barely cried anymore, being so used to what she lives through. So, when her uncle came back with another bottle of beer on his hand and smashed it against the wall next to her, it wasn’t surprising that she maintained calm. But she didn’t notice small pieces of glass piercing on her left arm and another scratch the side of her forehead and cheek.  

Her uncle disappeared from her sight and once she heard his bedroom door close with a harsh smash, she let out a breath. She made a run towards the entrance, just wanting to get the hell out of that house, and shook her head to let the broken glasses fall to the ground from her hair.

Once again, the thought of going to authorities crossed her mind. But she knew that once she does that, she would have to kiss goodbye to the only home she knows, the one her parents left for her to continue her own life.

She cannot say a word about this.

Once she finished brushing the pieces of glass off her hair, she took notice of the glass pierced on her left arm. It wasn’t a deep wound, but she knows that it needs to be treated before it gets infected.  She mentally cursed and took a cloth from her backpack to wrap it around the arm.

Going to the hospital is not an option, so she remembered that there’s a neighbor a few doors down who’s a nurse. She managed to come up with an excuse inside of her mind to mention when she would knock on her door.

But her day just continued without luck on her side.

As soon as she opened the entrance door of her own house and stepped outside, she did not notice two figures standing by the with wide eyes. As soon as she started to walk down the few stairs from the porch, she looked up and gasped in shock, only to trip on the steps and fall to the ground with a loud thud.

Can this day get any worse?

"Byun Baekhyun, you better have a good reason for me to wake up this early."

Kai growled at his friend as they both approached the city bus stop exactly at 6:30 am. After an early discussion with the male, he accepted Baekhyun's offer into waking up earlier than expected since Baekhyun offered him exclusive breakfast. "Please explain to me why so early?"

"I just need to do something, and I didn’t want to go alone." Baekhyun half explained, earning a glare from his friend for he knew it was all made up.

"Baek, don't make me get it out of you."

"Okay fine, fine." Baekhyun faced his friend and bit his bottom lip nervously. "Yesterday, Xiumin and I agreed on following Alex. But he got grounded over something so stupid and we couldn’t go. So, he gave me her address and insisted on going before school with my father, but he hasn’t come back from work and I really wanted to do this. "

Kai's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me right now?! No, just hell no. We are not going to her house."

"Kai, plea-"

"No, just noooo. Two letters, no."

"Kai, we need to know her bette-"

"You! YOU need to know her better." Kai said in an obvious tone. "I am not going to get in trouble here."

"I'll buy you breakfast for the entire week."

After a moment of silent thinking, Kai shook his head. "No, just no. I am not going to get on that bus."

"Dude, you still have to anyways. This is the bus that takes us to school."

"I'll walk then."

"Kai, come on. Please? Just for today. I really don't want to do this alone, please?" Baekhyun pleaded once again, stopped by Kai when he was about to get on his knees.

Kai sighed in defeat. "Let's go to our funeral."

After fifteen minutes of walking, Kai spoke again. “Why did you want to go with your father anyways? Wouldn’t he think you’re a creep for following a girl around?”

Baekhyun chuckled at the comment. “Not if I say it’s for the project. But it was Xiumin’s idea. He kept insisting to take my father with me. Apparently, it’s not the best neighborhood around.”

Kai raised a brow and looked at the other. “If I die today, I’ll make sure to come back and hunt you for this.”

After a few more minutes of walking, the boys entered through a street where Xiumin mentioned an abandoned bakery would be found, and both boys were a little afraid considering the strangers that passed by close. One of the strangers eyeing them as preys. Both boys hurried their way out.

"Xiumin said the house was a light peach with brow-"

"Brown wood?" Kai interrupted as he pointed at the said house. "That one?"

After a few minutes inspecting the area from where they stood, the boys looked at each other and sighed. "Well, let's go." Baekhyun said and began to walk towards the house, only to stumble back when Kai held him.

“I thought you said she couldn’t catch you following her.” Kai hissed.

“Look, I’m trying to make her trust us. I don’t want to hide this from her. Maybe she’ll find it nice that we walk to school with her.”

“Or maybe she’ll kill you for knowing where she lives.”

“She’s won’t. Stop being so afraid of her.” Baekhyun shrugged his shoulders and they began to walk side by side towards the desolated sidewalk, and for some reason a strange aroma built up around the ambience. "It's weird that she lives in a-"

"You are nothing to this world!"

They both froze at the scream coming from the insides of the house. They looked at each other, then back at the house and jumped when they heard some sort of glass smashing against something. Their breath got caught on their throat when after a few minutes the door opened, and they saw the girl with blood rolling down her left cheek and her arm wrapped around a cloth with stained blood.

The boys were simply shocked, and no sound escaped from them whatsoever. What made them fear even more was when she looked up and noticed them, she lost balance and fell down the small steps from the porch. "Alex!"

The boys jumped through the gate and ran towards her. With careful, Kai lifted her up by the waist and she clutched her right hand into his shirt for support. "Wh-what are you b-both doing here?"

"What happened to you? Who did this?" Kai shook her, angered by the situation. “Why is there blood on your face?!”

Alex eyes widened at the fact and she quickly shook her head, taking her hand off his shirt and rubbing her cheek to clean off the blood. "No one did. I was just... it’s just a scratch-!”

"Alex!"

Baekhyun swore he heard a low "son of a " from Alex's lips when the new voice startled the three. The next few minutes were pure hell for everyone.

Alex quickly turned around to face the new figure stumbling out the house.

"Well, well, well... What do we have here?" Joe asked with a disgusting grin planted on his face. "Are you her little friends? I can't believe you would actually make friends, Alex. Do you pay them?"

Kai saw something he never expected to see on Alex's face when he heard her uncle's laughter. Baekhyun seemed to be closer to the man, and Kai watched when Alex slowly gripped his friend’s shirt and pulled him back. "Pl-please leave..." She whispered to both. But they were stubborn, so Kai just held her closer by the waist and Baekhyun kept standing in front of Alex to protect her.

Baekhyun cleared his throat and spoke. "We're going to take Alex to school now. I suggest you go back inside."

"What makes you think I would listen to a bastard like you?!" Joe pushed Baekhyun sending the lad to the ground and turned to the other two. Kai’s hold on Alex was a lot firmer and her uncle noticed.

“Are you her boyfriend? You have a boyfriend now, Alex?” He tried to grab a fistful of Alex's hair, but by reflexes, Kai let go of the girl and sent a kick on her uncle's stomach making him fall back to the ground.

Baekhyun stood up as quick as possible, took Alex’s bag and screamed at the other two. "Let's go, let's go!"

As soon as they were going to leave, Alex's uncle grabbed her ankle and send her to the ground. She let out a small scream due to the pain on her ankle.  Baekhyun kicked her uncle's hands away while Kai lifted Alex bridal style and ran out with Baekhyun from that dreadful place.

"Damn it, Kai, that hurts!"

Alex shouted as he poured oxygen water on the cuts from her left arm. After those torturous moments with her uncle, both Kai and Baekhyun slipped away from the n