1 Chapter 1

"Get up." Nathan looked at me in disgust, "we're moving."

Just like that, we were in a car on our way to Iowa. I don't know much about Iowa, I mean there's corn and... yeah that's about it. Moving from a big city in Wisconsin to a little town in Iowa, what a change. I mean I really wouldn't know, I've only ever lived in big cities, where there's hundreds of people in school and nobody really knew my name. That's the way Mark liked it.

"We're here, Kaylie don't touch anything." I keep my mouth shut and get out of the car, silently standing there while they go in the house to inspect it. It's a modern, one story house, I'm assuming there's a basement. Mark wouldn't buy a house without a chamber of secrets. Get my Harry Potter reference? The outside is painted a soft yellow, a rock filled garden lay along the cement front porch. A tree stood in the front yard, a tire hanging from a rope connected to it.

The yell for me to come inside, and I slowly go, if one thing's for certain, I always try to prolong the time before punishments. The inside is very nice, our furniture got here first so it's all here. The walls are painted a deep reddish brown color, which matches our brown leather sofa set nicely. The living room is where you walk in, and its connected to the kitchen, a half wall separating the two. The kitchen is white and black marble countertops with dark wooden floors. All the floors in this house are wood, that's a good thing. Mark beckoned me down to the basement I knew we would have, and pointed to a room. I think it was meant more to be a linen closet or pantry. My old mattress lay on the floor, as well at my two boxes of things I've collected, mainly clothes.

The walls were white, I had a light and a door, there was one shelf on the right wall and the rest of the room was empty. The floor what a black and white diamond-shaped tile. I open my boxes and fold my clothes, setting them on the shelf in a nice order. I then take out the only piece of jewelry I have, my moms necklace. I used to wear it, but I noticed that punishments were worse if I wore it so I just hid it away.

Nathan, my brother, called me upstairs. Nathan was a tall guy, mom was tall, that's where he got it from. He's 6' even and muscly to the point where it was gross. He has a sharp nose, dark brown hair, grey eyes, he looks just like Mark, my father. Mark is a short man, probably 5'6" and chubby, drinking beer and eating fried food for 3 years will do that to you. I'm 17, I'll be 18 in a month and I can't wait to get away. However, Mark takes all the savings I've made from various jobs I've had, so I have nowhere to go, I don't care if I wind up on the streets, it's better than this.

Nathan roughly grabs me by my hair and whispers in my hair "Why'd it take you so long?" When I don't answer he roughly shoves me to the ground.

"I asked you a question!" He yells in my face, I haven't spoken for 3 years, why does he assume I'll start now?

I get up and am instantly hit back down, the punch stings on my cheek, I cringe. I start school tomorrow, now I'll have new bruises to cover. They hate when I use to talk and they hate when I don't.

"Stay down until you're allowed up bitch." Mark spat in my face, his spit hitting me in the face. Purely disgusted I wipe it off. Him watching, spats directly in my face, and it hits me in the forehead. This man is a pig.

"Now get up and go to the store, here's a list. Remember the rules." The boys walk away, leaving me to do as I was told. I sigh, getting up I take some cash from dads wallet and slip on some old sneakers before walking out the door. Grocery runs are my favorite. It's so nice outside, it's April and usually it rains but today it was 70ºF out and the sun was shining brightly. Iowa is kind of beautiful. I've been to many places, but you can't see rolling hills and the clouds in the sky when you're surrounded by buildings and smog.

My cheek throbs but I eventually find a small grocery store, it's only a few blocks away so the walk shouldn't be terrible. I go in and keep my head down, my long blonde hair creating a shield from my battered face. I grab a basket and take a glance at the list before wandering around collecting the items. Eggs, milk, bread, bananas, apples, granola bars, cereal, just regular things like that. I'm only allowed to eat apples and granola bars because they're the cheapest. I rarely eat anyways, it usually just comes up when I get punished anyway.

Once I've collected everything on the list I turn around to get to the registers and run into someone. What the hell, who stands that close to someone they don't know? I rub my nose gently and look up and the person I ran into with a hot look on my face. Who does this guy think he is?

Oh.

Nope I get it, this man looks like a whole ass meal. I mean.. nope I said what I said. His brown hair, sloped nose, green eyes, pink full lips. Ugh, make a girl drool. I noticed that his lips were moving, he looked angry. He raised his hand and I immediately flinched, closing my eyes tightly and moving my head out of the way. When nothing happened I opened my eyes to see him staring at me confused. His thumb gently brushed over the area where Mark hit me. I knew he was confused about the bruise, but I would never see this guy again, right?