- Flashback -

A warm dry summer morning in January. Australia in the midst of a week long heat wave. Your busy scrubbing the windows of your large mansion as your family enjoyed their time in the large pool in the backyard. 

Sweat drenched your clothes and you hadn't had a glass of water since early morning. Lunch time was quickly approaching. The sky was clear blue, not a cloud in sight. You wanted to enjoy the hot weather just like your family, but you weren't privileged enough for such an activity.  

"Come on girls! Let's go have ice cream!" Your mother smiled and laughed happily at your sisters.

"Yay!" They cheered as they quickly wrapped themselves in their towels.

"Hey wait for me!" Your father quickly swam to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out of the pool. 

"Quick, lets eat it all!" You mother quickly ran inside, poking her tongue at your father. Your sisters quickly ran to the back door laughing happily as your drenched father ran after them. You watched them silently as you stood by the large window with a small cloth in your hand. 

You father ran past you and glanced over at you. He didn't even take the time to ask you how you were, whether you wanted to come in, if you were thirsty.. Nothing. He quickly ran inside, leaving you to finish your work. You sighed and continued on with your work.

"What was I expecting..?" You muttered to yourself.

Your 16th birthday was coming up. You were hoping that, just for one day of the year, they would treat you as their own daughter and loved you like a true sister. But you didn't want to get your hopes up.. That day, you were still waiting for it. After all these years. Still waiting.

Later that night you are gently tapping a damp cloth on your burnt skin. Six hours out in the hot sun with no sun screen wasn't a bright idea. But you had no choice.. You were ordered to do so.

"Lizzy! Get up here now!" Your mother hollered from the top of the staircase. 

"Coming!" You called back. You put the cloth and bucket down on the concrete floor and made your way up stairs. 

*What did I do wrong this time..?* 

You slowly walked into the lounge where your family sat together. Your sisters gave you dirty looks so you turned to your parents. 

"Sit down." Your dad pointed to the separate chair, just for you. You were never allowed to sit together with them, your father bought an old wooden chair just for your use. It was uncomfortable and sometimes, for punishment, you sat on it for hours. 

Your family sat on the couch together and you looked at them nervously. Hoping this wasn't another punishment session they were giving you. 

"We will be going on a camping trip over this long weekend." Your mother announced. 

"All of us?" Your sister questioned, glancing over at you. 

"Yes. All of us." Your sisters sighed from your mothers answer and they both turned to glare at you. Probably already blaming you for how bad and boring this camping trip was going to be. As for you, you weren't sure how to feel. Whether this was your turn to become apart of the family, or just some sort of new punishment to give you. Either way, something bad was going to come from this trip. You knew it. 

The weekend arrived and your family was busy putting everything into the large 4W drive. You started to get excited about this trip, tomorrow was your birthday, and as sad as you were about being unable to spend it with your friends, and Kris who you secretly had a crush on. You began to think that this trip was special, just for you. 

"Alright! Let's go!" You father hollered from the front door. You quickly ran to your bedroom door, you took a quick look around, checking you didn't forget anything. Once you were sure you had everything you closed your door and ran up the stairs. 

After a twenty minute drive you reached the camping ground. There was a large river nearby that apparently is great for swimming in. You and your father put up the tent together in silence as your mother and sisters walked looked around for a bit. Your father nudged you with his elbow harshly and you turned to see what he wanted. He nodded his chin up, staring at something on the ground. You followed his gaze and noticed what it was, it was a metal pole for the tent. You bent down and handed it to him. He didn't even look at you and got back to work. No thank you. No smile. Nothing.

Dinner time was arriving and you were busy cooking the meat, preparing the salad, all the while trying to shoo the flies and bugs away. Your family were playing cards together, they glanced over at you a few times, probably just checking if dinner was ready yet. 

"So much for a fun trip.." 

You served the food to them and began to eat yourself when your mothers eyes met yours. You stared at her back, confused by what it was she wanted.

*Did she want more food..?* You wondered silently.

"Lizzy." She spoke firmly.

"Yes..?" You asked cautiously.

"What do you think your doing?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Eating..?" You looked down at your plate of food before looking back up at her confused.

"What's the rule?" You sighed when you realized what she was talking about.

"Don't eat until the family has." You replied quietly, ashamed you had forgotten such a rule.

"That's right. So put that food away and clean something." She turned back around and began to enjoy the meal you spent a good hour preparing and cooking. 

You did as told and put your food down on the small portable table and headed over towards the BBQ. You cleaned it spotless and dealt with the food scraps and neatly piled the dishes. Your family finished eating and placed their dishes in front of you. 

"Go clean them." Your father ordered.

"Where..?" You looked around a bit.

"Over at the sinks by the toilets you idiot." Your father scoffed and walked away. 

You sighed and looked down at the large pile of dirty dishes. You looked around for your mother, and spotted her sitting herself down in a foldout chair in front of their tent. You slowly walked over and stood in front of her. She didn't bother looking up. She sighed and spoke in an annoyed tone as she continued to stare at her book. 

"What?" She asked coldly.

"May I eat before doing the dishes?" You asked politely.

"No." She stated flatly. 

"But-." 

"I said no! Now go do the dishes!" You mother screamed, looking up at you irritably. You nodded and quickly scurried away. You had to do a total of three trips to finish all of the dishes. But finally you were done. You returned to your food and frowned. 

*Bugs were probably all over this..* 

You tried to remove that thought and took a large bite of the sausage. This was the only food you were getting, you had to eat it. You made a face but continued to eat. It was cold and the bread had gone stale quickly from the hot and dry air. 

After dinner you washed your dishes and returned to your family. Your mother told you to just go to sleep. You nodded once and glanced at your family. They glared at you and looked away. 

*Not even a goodnight..* 

You entered your tiny and hot tent that was set up quite a way from your families. You didn't like the idea of sleeping out in the wild by yourself. Your families tent was a good ten meters away and the idea that someone or something could just enter your tent during the night frightened you. 

Morning arrived and you were first up. You had quite a sleepless night last night. It was hot and sticky. Shadows and strange unfamiliar noises kept you up most of the night. Even though you had eaten last night, it wasn't enough to suppress your hunger, you hated going to bed with an empty stomach. You could already tell today wasn't going to go as well as you wished.

"Happy birthday to me.." You grumbled.

You prepared breakfast quickly, your family woke a little while later. You waited for them to eat before you ate yourself. You cleaned up as your family had their showers at the toilet block a little while away. 

"Hurry up Lizzy!" You jumped in fright by your mothers loud screeching voice. 

"We are going down to the river, your coming." Your father explained as he pulled out boogie boards from the back of the 4W drive. You nodded in understanding and rushed to your tent to collect fresh clothes. You grabbed a twenty cent coin from your bag, for the showers, and jumped out of the tent. 

You were on your way towards the toilet building when your sisters hollered from behind. You sighed and turned around to see what it was they wanted.

"No time to shower Lizzy! Where are going now!" Your sister screamed.

"Hurry up!" The other one added and they both quickly ran back to your parents. 

"I guess I can shower later then.." You quickly ran back and shoved your things back into your tent, not bothering if it was neat or not, and returned to your family. They shoved their things into your arms and forced you to carry it all. 

You arrived to the river bank and you dropped their things down carelessly. 

"Hey! Take a little more care in our things would ya!" Your father bellowed and slapped your arm.

"Sorry.." You lowered your head and rubbed your sore arm. 

Surprisingly your parents allowed you to join them in the water. You weren't allowed to join in their games of course, but you didn't mind. You swam around and floated in the water, enjoying the calm atmosphere and the occasional loud squawks from the cockatoos nearby.

You felt something slimy touch your foot and you screamed in fright. Your family turned to look at you, obviously annoyed that you had made a noise and disrupted them.

"What?" You father called out.

"Something touched me!" You called back. You quickly paddled your way back to your family, but noticed your sister wasn't there.

"Hey! Where is sissy!?" Your other sister screeched. You cringed at the nick name she called her. If they were going to use nicknames, why couldn't they think of one a little better? You scanned the water but there was no sight of her. You thought it was strange, she was a great swimmer. She was third in the state for her age.. Where was she? 

"I'll check the other side!" You called out as you swam over to the other side of the river. The current was stronger as you reached the middle of the river. You struggled, but you were still able to hold yourself above the water. 

Suddenly something grabbed onto your foot, dragging you down under the water. You gasped, but all you breathed in was water. You screamed under the water and waved your legs and arms around frantically. The hand let you go and you slowly reached the surface. 

You coughed up a lot of water and fell under a few times as you struggled to compose yourself and keep yourself a float. You closed your eyes and wiped away the water from your face. You continued to cough, but it hurt your throat, the water dried it and it felt like a thousand tiny knives were stabbing it.

The hand returned and it yanked on your foot again. You held your breath and tightly closed every opening possible. Not wanting to swallow anymore water. You kicked the hand away and swam to the surface again. You were drifting away from your family quickly. The current was quicker where you were now. You tried swimming to the bank but something heavy landed on top of you. 

You gasped in shock and swallowed more water once again. The body jumped off of you and you floated to the surface, but a hand pushed your head back in before you could take a breath. Then let you go and you reached the surface once again, this time taking one breath before being kicked in the gut and pushed under.

*Why are you doing this to me!?* 

You reached the surface and hit the body and pushed them away. You coughed up water and wiped away the water from your face frantically. You took deep breaths and slowly fluttered your eyes open. That's when you heard the laughter. You looked up and saw your sister swimming back