This Hell We Call Home

PART 1: Chapter 1

We see it all the time. The homeless guy talking to himself, while covered in alcohol. The teenager standing on the corner wearing a extremely small crop top and a really short skirt with some heels. The kid strapped to the bed in a hospital with scars running along his body, his eyes staring up at the ceiling with bags under his eyes as if he hasn't slept in a while  and blank stare. Or the quiet foreign girl always wearing a black long sleeved turtle neck, and would always slip out of the room without anyone knowing. One look at these people and many people would automatically think "what a low life weirdo", "wow she's a slut", "look at that retarded kid", or "what a freak", but what do we really know about them? How did they end up in these situations, or why are they the way they are? These are some of the things that we over look almost 85% of the time. For example, your walking down the street coming from Starbucks or your driving coming from meeting, and you see this old man sitting next to a dog with a sign that says "please help us, we need to eat" I'm guessing the first thing that would come to your mind would be, "what a low life, he probably kidnapped that poor dog" or "he just wants money for drugs and alcohol" now in some cases it may be true, they would just give you a sob story, or have a cute dog with them as a lure. But this inparticular man is a different story however. This man is named Ant, now yes I know that your thinking, "what kind of a name is Ant?" But there's a story behind his name and how he got here. When Ant was born, his mother died, leaving him with his father, uncle, and his wife. Ant's father was a deadbeat alcoholic who worked at the local mechanic, his name was Richard. Ant's uncle, Kevin was a meth addict who had no job and lived on the couch, and his wife, Rachael, was practically the maid of the house and always smoked cigarettes, she was a mean woman who took her anger out on Ant, while Kevin sexually abused him, and Richard beating the living shit out of him whenever he came home from work, drunk. Ant was a premature baby who almost didn't survive the birth, and because of the that, he was smaller than usual so everyone picked on him, making fun of him, hitting him, etc. By the age of 5, Ant was sent to the hospital for a broken arm that Richard had given him, when the cops asked how he got it, he simply said "I fell while riding my bike." They believed him and they sent him home with a cast. When Ant was 12, he used to lock his door at night because of Kevin would come in and rape him, but one night, when Richard was at the bar, and Rachael was outside smoking, he could hear Kevin coming up the stairs, he immediately bolted to the door, locked it, and ran into his closet and shut it. Kevin tried to open it but couldn't so he got pissed off and banged on it yelling, "Boy, open this goddamn door!" Ant was so scared he started crying frantically. Then Ant heard the sound of him knocking down the door and entering the room, he fell silent and was hardly breathing out of fear that he might hear him. "Where are you, you lil shit?" He said as he looked underneath the bed searching for Ant, then he started to walk out of the room and when Ant leaned forward to peek and see if he was still there, he knocked over a basket that knocked open the closet door, he froze, paralyzed in fear of Kevin hearing the sound and coming back in. Ant soon found himself in front of Kevin, looking up into his cold black eyes and his pale white skin, "well well, look at we have here."