Prologue

(A/N: The story really starts in chapter one. The prologue just establishes the main character and explains her circumstances. If you are not interested feel free to skip it and go to the first chapter. Though as the author I recommend reading it. Also the prologue is very dark. You have been warned.)

Like many people Evelyn Pruitt's life had started out great.

She had been born into a good family that loved and provided for her.

Certainly, they were not rich by any means, but they always had enough to enjoy the comforts of their home and do the occasional fun activity.

It was a charmed life and enough for anyone to wish for. Until it all came crashing down around her.

Unfortunately, sometimes in life all it takes is one very bad day for a fun and happy life, to turn into one of pain and suffering.

Evelyn could still remember the day very clearly, as her mother stopped at the bank on her way back from picking up her and her older brother Mason from school.

It was only supposed to be a quick trip inside for Elise to pick up the money to pay the performer that would be showing up for Evelyn's upcoming ninth birthday party.

Yet this short trip soon turned into a full-on armed bank robbery.

There were three gunman who were keeping the people held down, while another was having the teller fill up some bags with money.

Elise, Mason, and Evelyn cowered like the rest, but luck was not on their side.

The police soon stormed the building disregarding the hostages, and a fire fight broke out.

Bullets began being sprayed everywhere, and one of them hit Evelyn's mom in the side of her stomach.

Blood began pouring out of her wound and mouth as the bullet had done heavy damage to Elsie's internals.

Evelyn and Mason watched as their mom bled all over them having been shielding them in her arms.

Soon the bullets stopped, and officers and EMTS rushed around to the injured for damage control.

Being ripped away from their mother, Evelyn and Mason cried out, but there was nothing they could do.

Hours quickly passed by as Evelyn and Mason were held at the hospital, not knowing what had become of their mother.

Though when their dad finally arrived after driving all the way from the other side of the city, a glimmer of hope appeared on their faces.

Their father was a reliable man who had always done all he could for them.

"Evie, Mason, you have both been so brave. I already talked to the hospital staff, and they said that mom is still in the operating room. Let us go wait until she is well enough to see us."

Mitchel, Evelyn and Mason's father, then signed the necessary paperwork to take them, and headed to the closest waiting room to where Elise was being treated.

However, when the doctor and a police officer came out, it was clear from their faces that everything had not gone well.

The doctor told them that Elise had lost too much blood and that they had done everything they could to save her.

Hearing this Evelyn and Mason once again began crying, while Mitchel had a grim look on his face.

This was the last day of Evelyn's normal and happy life.

Time almost seemed to have no meaning for the next few days, as Evelyn's life had been thrown upside down.

She received plenty of condolences, but nothing filled the hole of losing her mother.

Even the funeral that happened three weeks after did not help to bring any closure.

She had worn a black dress and stood next to her brother while her father gave a speech about Elise.

Many people started crying, including their mother's parents who they had not seen for two years. It was an incredibly sad occasion, and when Evelyn saw them start to cover the casket her mother was in, she nearly ran forward. Wanting to get them to stop since she wanted her mother to come back.

Up until this moment she had clung onto some thread of hope that her mother might come back to life.

It had apparently happened before, and she prayed with all her heart that her mother would come back.

However, that was not how the world worked, and when her mother was fully buried the last shred of hope she had was gone.

After that everyone in attendance moved onto a reception. But the event was incredibly dour as Elsie had been a bright light in the lives of everyone she knew. Causing her death to hurt just that much more.

Sadly, while this part of her life was terribly painful, it was far from the end, or the worst.

Weeks passed, and Evelyn eventually had to return to school, even though she had fallen into a deep depression.

Just going through the day weighed down on her, and her close group of friends quickly dwindled to just a couple.

Yet, her lacking social life was the least of her worries, as her family life deteriorated.

Her father had tried his best to get through the loss of his wife, but one month after the funeral he began to take solace in the bottle.

There would not be a day he would not come home late or drunk from his job as a university professor.

Alcohol had become his crutch to forgot and numb the loss of his beloved wife, even if it was at the detriment of his children.

It made the pain go away, so he would rather be drunk than deal with his problems.

Eventually, Evelyn and Masson could not take it anymore, realizing that this was unhealthy for their father.

They begged for him to stop the drinking. To go back to the loving father, he had been before.

To their dismay, their pleading fell on deaf ears, and it was the last straw that broke Mitchel.

All of the negative feelings he had been bottling up both literally and figuratively came out, and he backhanded Evelyn right across the face.

The hit had so much force behind it that Evelyn fell right onto the floor, screaming and crying from the pain.

Mason tried to move to help her, but he received Mitchel's rage next, and was quickly thrown to the floor, before being kicked a couple of times in the stomach.

He then picked up Evelyn and proceeded to spank her a dozen times as hard as he could before dropping her back on the ground.

This was the first beating their father gave them, and it would certainly not be the last.

After having felt powerless since the loss of his wife, hitting his kids made him feel strong, and with the alcohol impairing his judgment, he felt no guilt.

"Now we are going to get things straight. I am in charge around here and I will not take any of your bullcrap. I bust my ass to make sure you have food to eat, so you do what I say when I say. I get enough whining from the students at the university. I do not need any when I get home."

Their once happy father had now truly broken, replaced with one that enjoyed getting drunk and abusing his kids.

Evelyn let out a loud sob as she started balling from the pain and emotional trauma. And her father seeing this got up, and said, "What did you not learn your lesson, did you need another round of 'discipline'."

Hearing this, Mason quickly got up and went over to his sister's side and dragged her to his room, where the two cried themselves to sleep.

The next morning when they both awoke, they were incredibly afraid to leave the sanctuary of Mason's room. But when it was time to go to school, they crept out of their room hoping that their father was still asleep.

Unfortunately, their father was sitting in the living room waiting for them. He had his head cupped in his hands, and when he heard them, he looked up with apologetic eyes.

He then walked over to them and said he had lost his temper yesterday, that he was sorry, and it would never happen again.

Both Evelyn and Mason tried to comfort their dad. Trying to tell him that they forgave him, and that things had been difficult for all of them.

After that the two of them left for school, hoping that the nightmare they had seen yesterday would not happened again.

However, when their father arrived home that day, he was livid and heavily drunk. He ran right up to Evelyn and yanked her out of the chair she was sitting in and started yelling at her.

"You little witch, are you trying to get me in trouble? What did you tell them? I got a call from your school while I was in the middle of my lecture asking me who had hit you. I managed to convince them that you got hurt in bicycling accident, but they said that if it happened again, they were going to call social services. Do you want me to lose my job? How do you think you are going to eat if I lose my job, huh? What more do I have to lose before you are satisfied?"

Mitchel then moved to slap Evelyn in the face again but had enough lucidity to rethink this. He had no intention of losing his job, and another noticeable injury could cause him trouble.

This did not mean he had no intention of "disciplining" Evelyn, just that he needed to be smarter about it.

He flipped her over and took off his belt and began lashing it at her wildly with the metal end.

He aimed for the area from her lower back to her upper thigh where the injuries would go unnoticed.

Mason hearing the pained cries of his sister came out of his room, only to see his father wildly hitting Evelyn with his belt.

Mason ran at him to stop the assault on his sister, but Mitchel simply pushed him down and said, "Do you need some discipline as well?"

He then proceeded to step on Mason's left thigh preventing him from escaping, as he delivered lash after lash with his belt.