The Life Game

Prologue

A/N: Howdy!! It's ur boy :D Pls enjoy and leave funny comments where you can :p I love reading them <3

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All parents give their children rules to follow; simple things like don't write on the walls, don't stay out past eight, don't do drugs. Maeve also has three simple rules to follow.

Number one: No teachers, no friends, no police.

Number two: No crying. (No noises of any kind really).

Number three: No breaking these rules until you're 18 (or dead. Whichever comes first).

Father calls it a game that they play, but to Maeve, it is just how he's always lived. He didn't always want to play, and sometimes didn't want to live either. It had been easier when he wasn't alone, when there were voices other than Father in the house and in his head.

But things aren't easy anymore. The others had left, and Maeve became more docile, more controlled. He compared his situation to a messed up fairytale, Pinocchio but from boy to puppet.

As long as he didn't think too hard about it (thinking never brought anything but trouble), Maeve supposed that it really was a game. And he was going to win.

Eighteenth birthdays are always one for celebration, in every culture. To Maeve, it was more than that. It was freedom. It was waking up and not wishing to be right back to sleep. As long as he made it to 18, he would be okay. (He didn't think about the possibility of never making it, the consequences would be dire.)

He was so close too. Less than a year to the finish line, and he had messed it all up. He had followed the rules, done whatever Father said (never touched the knife hiding under his bed; he didn't know who he would have used it against- himself or dear Dad).

There weren't many people in the house over the years. Just a dedicated cleaning crew that came in once a week to do the dusting around the rarely used space and restock the fridge. They knew where to go and where not to in the house, so of course Maeve didn't expect to get interrupted while changing in his room.

A gasp and slam of wood on wood was lost to him over the beating of his heart and quickening of breaths. He didn't move for a long moment. Father would kill him for this. He was so close- soclosesoclosesoclose...

(Was it fear or relief running through his system?)

After an eternity spent in a few minutes, Maeve calmly pulled a shirt over his head, sat on the edge of the bed, and prepared for his life to change. He heard the police cars before seeing the lights from his window.

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The police thought he was stupid. None of them said it while he sat quietly during the incident report, but he knew from the way they would sigh and share looks over his head. He was good at reading body language, if nothing else.

Anyway, they thought he was stupid. Pitiful even. But Maeve wasn't stupid. He knew what abuse is- knew since he looked up reasons to explain what happened to him. It wasn't normal. He knew from the crisis hotline that popped up online when he tried to put words to the way he was feeling. It was a crime. He knew from the time when he first (and last) talked to someone about what happened at home.

But, he also knew he never saw that person after spilling his secrets. He knew he couldn't survive in the system- not again. He knew he had a roof over his head, had food on the table, had- well that's all really. But it's a lot more than he had before being adopted.

So, he shut up. He didn't break the no police rule. He didn't break any rules really since he was supposed to be silent anyway.

He got a public lawyer from the state for cases involving minors, and his case wasn't published in the news for the same reason. He didn't even testify.

Father got two years in prison. That was the most he could be sentenced with for negligence and abuse, which was established due to the witness testimony of the maid. No child got the scars he had without any recorded hospital visits.

Maeve didn't say anything when the sentence was read in the courtroom. After all, he could tell from the smirk Father sent across the room, the game was still on.

(Will it ever end?)