Lie Until You Laugh

1- Prologue

This story is part of a series! All stories spin-offs of each other and do not need to be read in order but may have some spoilers in the stories that come before them. Here's the order:

1- Lie Until You Laugh- Sienna Mast (Complete)

2- Laugh Until You Cry- Stella Wayne (Complete)

3- Cry Until You Bleed- Ana Shaw (Complete)

4- Bleed Until You Heal- Jo Mast (Currently Updating)

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Prologue

I have to get away. I have to.

An hour ago, I thought that I had to stay to protect my mother and my little sister, who is now screaming under her bed. I have to protect her and I have to protect my mom, but staying here isn't how I'm going to protect them and I realize that now.

There's so much crying in the house right now and I can't stand it. I feel like if I'm here, doing absolutely nothing, for another minute, I'll combust from all of the crying. My sister is crying in her room, my mother is crying downstairs, and I can feel a few tears fall down my red cheeks as well. We're all crying. There's yelling too, and a lot of slapping sounds and thumping. Each time I hear a thud or slap, I cringe and another tear falls out of my deep brown eyes again.

I throw clothes into a bag, as much as I can stuff into the small duffle bag that I found in the back of my closet. Some jeans, t-shirts, underwear, and then a pair of shoes. I manage to fit in my toothbrush and some deodorant too before grabbing my keys and my emergency money along with a birthday card I'd received from my uncle a few months ago.

I don't have much time.

I run down the hallway to into Josephine's room and close the door behind me. I can hear her sniffles from under the bed so I get on my knees and duck down to see her shaking in the corner where nobody can reach her. Where he can't reach her.

"Joey," I whisper. "Come on out really quick."

She crawls out just far enough to peak her head out.

My head falls down to kiss away one of her tears and I wipe the rest away with the thumb of my right hand, shaking terribly. "Joey, be strong, okay?"

"Is it over?" She sniffles.

I shake my head. "Not yet, just wait it out. I'm going to go out for a little while, but I'll be back, okay?"

She nods. "Okay."

I pull a small phone out of my pocket and put it under her mattress. "If anything goes wrong, I want you to call me, okay? You just push the two and then the green button and I'll answer no matter what."

"Are you leaving for a long time?" She wonders.

I shrug. "I don't know, Joey, but just don't forget about that phone."

She nods. "Okay. You're bleeding, Nenna."

I touch my head where I can feel a burning slice on my hairline and I can feel the warm river tracing my cheek until it pools on my shirt under my chin. I kiss her forehead. "Don't worry about it. I love you, Joe."

"I love you too, Nenna," She squeaks as I disappear out the door.

I know that I'm risking a lot by doing what I'm about to do, but I don't have a choice anymore. He will find out that I'm gone and he'll take it out on them, and I'm afraid of that, but I can't sit back and watch this go on anymore, so I'm going to find help.