Hidden faces: On the run.

Who are we running from, you may ask? Well, cps, the police and worst of all; my mother. Since she apparently went rehab and got sober, she's allowed to take care of us. But the thing is- she can't. She never could in the first place, so why bother with us now? My 7 year old sister committed suicide and wrote a letter saying mum was at fault; however, mum burnt the letter with her cigarette before the police came to investigate. I told the ultimate truth when questioned however mum said to the police officers 'Kay's clearly wasn't taking his meds (stop being stupid and immature in such a serious and sad situation for Christ's sake).' Jason. My 1 year old brother died whilst choking on a food that my mother knew he could not eat as his teeth were barely developed. She sat there and watched him choke. Me at the time was picking my siblings from nursery when I got told the news by our neighbour nosey Nora; 'Oi poppet, they said Jason's choked to death or sumn.' The police called it shock. I call it murder. She called 999. After 20 minutes, Jay died. 20. Minutes. And they didn't find it suspicious. As I stood there, my heart heavy with grief and rage, I knew we couldn't stay any longer. Not with her. Not in this house of horrors disguised as a "perfectly loving home" She would invite her junkie friends over to get high in the kitchen right in front of my sister Stella (who is 2 years old??). All my life, I've had to shield them from the terror that my mother calls "love." I never once had a good day, but then again, according to my mother, I should stop being ungrateful because she's always having a bad day, then a bad week and maybe a bad year altogether. Recently, her boyfriend Kai Cosmo has been thinking he's the big man of the house and eating ALL OF OUR FOOD, I barely have enough money to get the bus to school, let alone feed 6 mouths. Mum doesn't believe in working she says "were putting our life on the line for the government for what." Yet she get benefits from them ... I've been having to mow the neighbours' lawn for a fiver, clean windows for a tenner, and be a paper boy for a fiver. This money can barely get us through the week, let alone a month. Finally after I had finished getting the kids dressed for school (and making their very poor lunch) I mustred up the courage to kindly ask mum to "get a job and start acting like a mother because i wont always be here to take care of her kids." however instead of a "yes of course I will my darling son" her boyfriend punched me in the face and called me a ungrateful t**t. She then responded to me ,holding my bleeding face in my hands in tears on the floor, by saying, "Those kids are your siblings shut the f**k up and deal with it you little shit." and then proceeded to kick me. I quickly scrambled to my feet and got the kids out of the house and dropped them at school, I on the other hand was not going to school, deep within the recesses of my mind, a plan began to form—a plan to escape the hell hole we were forced to call home. I had taken that mum and her boyfriend would go drinking so they'd come back home hammered, so hammered that they wouldn't notice 4 children slip out the front door.The walls of our so called home seemed to close in around us, suffocating us with their oppressive presence. Each creak of the floorboards, each harsh word from our mother, served as a constant reminder of the hellish reality we were trapped in.. Time passed and it was almost the end of a school day I quickly raced to the kids school and let them in on the plan. Their eyes beamed with excitement this thrilled me to know how much they trusted me. Upon reaching home, I gathered what little resources we had—a few meager belongings, some spare change hidden away in a forgotten corner. It wasn't much, but it would have to suffice. I had also took it upon myself to get food, drinks, medicine, blankets and all the nessisitys. Next I carefully mapped out our route, memorizing every twist and turn, every hidden alleyway and shadowed corner. We would need to move swiftly and silently if we were to evade detection from locals.I enlisted Stella's help, explaining to her in hushed tones the gravity of our situation and the importance of keeping our plan a secret. Despite her young age, she listened intently, her eyes wide with fear and determination and courage. Finally, the night of our escape arrived. With our heavy breath, we waited until our mother and Kai had fallen into a drunken stance before making our move. Silently, we slipped out of the house, the cool night air a welcome reprieve from the stifling atmosphere within. We moved quickly, our hearts pounding in our chests as we navigated the darkened streets. Every sound seemed magnified, every shadow a potential threat. But we pressed on, fueled by the hope of a better life beyond the confines of our troubled home leaving behind the ghosts of our past and the shadows of our pain As we reached the outskirts of town, a sense of freedom washed over us—a feeling of liberation unlike anything we had ever known. We had escaped the hell hole that had held us captive for so long, and now, the world lay before us, ripe with possibility and promise. With a renewed sense of purpose, we set out into the unknown, determined to forge a new path for ourselves—a path free from the darkness of our past, and illuminated by the light of our own resilience and strength. Running, always running, from a past that had been longing to consume us whole. But as long as we had each other, we would find a way to survive, to thrive, and to build a future far away from the darkness that haunted our every step.