Decided By Fate (Preview)

Act 1, Chapter 3

The night had ended with nothing else of significance happening. I stayed a little longer after Chloe had been put to bed but was quickly motivated to return to my room. The sight of my guardians had gone from being calm to them practically trying to eat each other. Old habits die hard, I guess. I thought then politely excused myself and gave them a look, suggesting I knew how this would progress. For a second, the two of them seemed embarrassed since they had forgotten about me until I reminded them of my presence.

On my way back to my honorarily named room, I walked through the hallowed halls alone. Tyco had passed out in the living room and was lying on his back as each one of his breaths made a whistling noise as it escaped from his lips. He was so far gone that it left me feeling alone, and as I closed the door, something was triggered in me. The door closed and clicked into position as I slid down it on the other side. Once my butt hit the ground, I buried my head in my arms. Faking my happiness for so long drained me, and it somehow sparked a sudden panic attack.

For the last couple of years, I learned how to muffle my cries to the extent that they were almost inaudible. Yet, doing so made the convulsions that came with crying even more aggressive. It was painful as each breath stuttered until I collapsed on the ground from exhaustion and had to drag myself over to the bed. The mattress was my only safe haven, knowing I could cry myself to the point of exhaustion and simply fall asleep. Only, as I had found out earlier, old habits die hard.

From my room, I could hear Hank and Cherry moving in an awkward manner down the hallway, almost sounding as if they were drunk. The only intoxicating thing they had been exposed to was their lust for one another. The occasional thump would hit the wall, and then the walking would continue until I heard the last door in the hallway close. I could then hear Tyco's collar rattle around his neck until he seemingly lied down on the floor between all three rooms. For me, I was relieved that they didn't hear my crying. I wasn't sure if it was my mother's impaired mental state that never had me be discovered when I cried, or maybe I was able to muffle it better than I thought.

However, there was one thing that I didn't account for. The older two were clearly quite happy with each other, much more than a mere makeout session indicated. A familiar sound started coming from the other side of the walls. A sound that, instead of noises of pain that I became acquainted with from my mother and her multiple partners, was now replaced with sounds of passion. It was more than I would've liked to know about my new guardians as the seductive moaning echoed through the wall. It was nearly enough to scar me as it was clear that when the house was built, there were budget cuts when it came to soundproofing.

The sound of my step-parents going at it like teenagers on prom night made me cringe. The very act of sex scared me after everything I had witnessed and heard when my mother was in that position. While I lay there in the other room thinking about how I used to pray that my mom's boyfriend wouldn't come for me next. Another panic attack was starting to ensue when, quietly, in the room's darkness, the door began to open. My body quickly rolled over out of instinct to see the cause. A part of me expected to see Tyco, who could have some sort of training to open doors. That wasn't the case, though. Instead, I was greeted by Chloe, who stood in the hallway and had clearly been woken by the racket.

Dressed in a tiny onesie, she was like a kid in a TV show. One hand rubbed her eyes while the other clung onto a teddy bear dragging across the ground. She didn't wait for my response as the tired little girl started walking toward the bed. Without hesitation, she climbed up, and it seemed she was in some sort of trance. The initial climb was nothing to her this time around as she curled up on the opposite side of me. I watched the girl settle into the fetal position with her teddy bear held close in between all of her limbs.