Raven - Chapter 1, "Father Has Gone Mad"

My father's yelling woke me up again. Even though he had been doing this every night for two weeks now, I immediately got out of bed, my heart pounding, and ran downstairs. His yelling stopped as I got to the bottom of the stairs. I waited, standing on the last step. I heard mumbling now, coming from his bedroom. I stepped down off the last step, making a small creaking noise below my feet, and I heard my father's mumbling stop, and then footsteps. He stopped in front of his door, breathing heavily, and my heart raced. There were a few seconds of silence, until his hoarse voice made me jump, "Child, what do you want?!"
"I heard you yelling again, father. Are you alright?" My father mumbled again, walking away from the door. "Go away. Go, Raven!" he walked back to the door again, and locked it. "Off to bed!!" I turned around and ran up the stairs again, stopping halfway. I heard him return to his mumbling and yelling, unable to understand one word. "Goodnight, I love you!" I yelled down to him, hoping he wouldn't be angry. He continued to mumble. Tears fell from my eyes. I knew by now that my father had gone mad. Every night he yelled and mumbled to himself, and every day I had to be cautious of what I said around him. Everything offended him. When I looked him in the eye for too long, or said something that he found offensive, he would lock me in my room. It was different for my twin brother, Jacob. My father locked me in my room when he beat him. And I would sit on my bed and cry until it was over. Jacob and I went through the same thing with our mother, who always told us it was her fault in the first place. Every time they fought, I heard my mother ask why she was never good enough for my father. And he would begin yelling. We hid in our rooms when it became violent, afraid that we would only make things worse by interfering. Only once did Jacob dare to stand up for our mother, but he quickly learned that my father was not afraid to try to kill his own son.
I quickly ran into my room and locked the door, and threw myself onto my large pink bed. I cried into my pillow, wiping my tears on the smooth pink satin. I cried for what felt like hours, until I was too weak to cry anymore. My pillow was cold and wet, so I threw it to the floor. My brother opened the door suddenly, making me jump again. "I'm sorry." He whispered, closing the door behind him without making noise at all, just like his footsteps. "Are you okay?" he asked, sitting at the end of my bed. "I'm scared, Jacob. I don't know what to do," I whispered, new tears come to my eyes. "father has gone mad." He layed next to me, pulling a tear-soaked strand of hair back from my eyes. "I'm scared too, Raven," a tear fell from my eye, and he wiped it away with his sleeve. "that's why we need to leave here. As soon as possible."
"Run away? Jacob, we can't run away. We have nowhere to go!" He hushed me. "Father is completely mad. We must get away from him as soon as possible. We'll find somewhere to go, but for now all we should be worried about is getting away from here." I sat up. "Jacob, we can't leave my father like this!" "Oh, Raven, if you knew what he has done, you wouldn't want to be anywhere near him." I hated when he told me this. He never told me what it was my father had done, but I didn't want to believe he had done anything that would make me not love him. "What did he do that is so bad, Jacob?" He didn't answer. His eyes began filling with tears. "You will know very soon, Raven. But I can't tell you now. Please, come with me. We will leave in the early morning, before the sun comes up."
I cried. I secretly knew my brother was right about father, but something made me want to stay. I nodded, holding back more tears, and buried my face into my pillow and fell asleep.