So many years,
Flashes. Flashes of screams, pain, jealousy, hurt, envy. Horror. Regret. And fear.
So many dark memories.
Curled up in a ball, sobbing, cold touching every inch of her body.
Screaming as his father hit him, unable to fight back because he was drugged. He wouldn't remember, anyways.
Pain. Pain and jealousy. Why didn't they love her as much?
So many fears
We've now put to ease.
She didn't want anyone to recognize her. Milk chocolate brown turned to light blue. Make up was put on every morning to make sure she looked just that little bit different. No one would recognize her from the case.
He had fled the scene. He couldn't deal with it. He fled, blood covering his hands and face, tears cutting through the blood, sweat, and tears on his face.
  Friends. She only needed friends. Friends would make the hurt go away.
Pain makes you do things
You never knew you could do.
  Haunted eyes and hollowed cheeks. Ribs too visible. Hospitals. She needed one. She wasn't given one. Left to starve herself and die of thirst. What did she do wrong? Why'd they all hate her?
    Glittering hair covered in flecks of red. Red. RedredREDRED.
   A blank gaze from deep blue eyes. Two, three thin cuts on the top of her thigh.
Is this all real?
Or just déjà-vu...?
   Blue hair whirled as she spun, panting. Too dark. Too cold. Too much skin exposed. All she was wearing was long sleeves and pants she needed a jacket, blankets, nonononononononononono.
Blood. Too much blood. More blood. Too much. Not enough. He hated it, hated the sight of red. Hated the sight of blood. Hated it hated it HATED IT.
Again? Why again? Why? What did she do wrong?? WHAT DID SHE DO WRONG?!
   
But now the party's over...
Now the guests are gone...
Star Firefly lay in bed, dark blue eyes clouded and her breath was shallow and fast. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. Not again. Not again. Never again. She wouldn't... she wouldn't let anyone do that again.
Dawn Hawkings sat in his shelter, staring at his pale yet tanned hands. He wouldn't.. he wouldn't hurt anyone again. No. Not anymore. Not without it being self defense.
Emily Heartstring sat, curled up in her tiny closet attached to her tiny room. She sobbed. Why did they hate her? They always ended up hating her. She always does something wrong and she doesn't know what. No one will ever tell her.
It's already past our bedtime...
It's already almost dawn...
  Dark purple eyes closed, exhaustion covering him. It was too early, too late, too much pain, too much everything.
Just like balloons,
We soar on our own!
   Star laughed, joking around and holding his hand. She was free. No one knew her from before. She was safe.
   Dawn smiled at someone, drawing, and was trying to get the look right. Shading and colors and everything and lines- it was freeing. It distracted him from the blood on his hands.
   Emily laughed and smiled, poking his nose and giggling. She called him a dork and danced around, occasionally leaning into him and snuggling for comfort.
Finally free
From the pain of our home!
Dawn's eyes darted around. Blood on the walls, dried and caked. A few bones littered the ground. Familiar, slightly rusted tools on a cart. A huge, locked cabinet full of drugs. His dad specializes in tranquilizers.
Emily hid in her room. Her parents were fighting again. Her sister wouldn't talk to her. Everyone hated her, everyone hated her- she didn't even get a proper room-
And just like balloons,
That no one will hold...
  Star loved her parents and her parents loved her. But school was a different story. She only had &@$*\*¥~! And a few other friends. No one else. No one-
   No friends. No one knew him truly. He had too many personalities to learn them all.
Everyone would end up leaving her. No one stayed her friend. She was an awful person, she came to believe, but she wasn't. She wasn't.
Free from the truth,
That no one will know...
Star smiled happily at that thought. No one would ever have to know what she went through. They don't have to know she knows the feeling of unfamiliar hands and the cursed, bitter cold biting into too much exposed skin.
Dawn's eyes rested on the ground. The blood on his hands occasionally flickered in front of his eyes but no one could see. No one would ever see what he could do and has done.
No one had to know how she was at home. Cold, tired, stressed, fearful. Hatred filling her body most of all. Things Emily tried not to express.

No one will know...
No one had to know, they all though. But they knew it would come out one day, somewhere, in the back of their minds.
Just little children,
Not at all strange.
  Chocolate brown hair flowed in waves as she laughed and hung out with her friends. Dark blue eyes gleamed with happiness. Before it happened.
   Glittering platinum covered his head, a happy smile on the small boy's face. Before that started.
    A short bob, a dirty blond color. Laughter and happiness radiated from her. Before she was given up on.
Until the lights went out,
And everything changed.
Star was scared. Where was Mom and Dad? The thirteen-year-old wondered. She was cold. She couldn't see much, either. It was too cold.
Dawn panicked. He hated the dark. It normally meant bad things. Bad things meant pain and he couldn't remember what made the pain.
Emily was scared. Scared. Her parents were ignoring her. Did she do something?

Alone and afraid,
For oh so long.
Star was crying, sobbing her heart out. It hurt. She hurt so bad. Why? Why her? Wasn't this only supposed to happen to beautiful girls? What happened? She covered her bare top with skinny arms and crossed her legs, trying to avoid as much exposure as she could. She was shivering. Freezing. She felt like she was going to die of hypothermia and this awful, awful, pain. Blood was there too. Why her? She wondered.
Dawn shivered. He had flailed around and hit something soft with a knife. He was scared. There wasn't anyone there... right?
Emily glanced around. She was confused. Why was all her stuff here? Why was she kicked out of the room with her sister?
Wondering what did we do wrong?
Star was crying still. The thirteen-year-old was scarred and traumatized and she would never trust the same again. Did she deserve this? What did she do wrong? Why her?
Dawn stared in horror. His dark purple eyes were wide as he shook. Warm liquid was splattered all over his body.
Emily shook with silent sobs. What did I do wrong? She asked the air. Why do they hate me? Why me? What did I do? The small ten year old cried in her tiny room with her tiny closet.
'Cause now the party's over.
And everyone is red.
Star wasn't registering anything. All she could see was that dark, blood red of, well, her blood, and the pale flesh. Oh god how she loathed that slightly pink-tinged color. Oh how she cursed it.
  Dawn stared with horror at his mother's limp body, blood pouring out of her throat and arms. He felt the warm blood searing his skin.
   Emily shook. She had puked acid and blood. She hadn't eaten in... in... too long. Too long. Her skin was taught, she could barely move, everything hurt.

I feel sick to my stomach.
   Star stood up, pain streaking through her body, and promptly collapsed. She quivered, clutching her stomach in pain, the cold floor chilling her and the cold seeping into her bones.
    Dawn spun around, away from the corpse, and retched. He puked and puked, then it all went black.
    Emily threw up again, more acid and blood burning her mouth and throat. She hurt and she hated the hurt and she just wanted it to stop-
Or am I sick in the head?
   Dark blue eyes closed and she passed out, stress spinning nightmares of the event. Burning hot hands covering her skin, bruises and bites littering her previously unmarked skin as she screamed and kicked, crying and begging for him to stop-
  Dawn woke up, battered, bruises, and bloody, and all he could see, wherever he turned and when he closed his eyes, was the bleeding body of his mother. His only comfort. His savior. And he killed her.
   Emily still refused to eat. She no longer showed up for school and her friends came over to check on her. Her sister opened the door and walked away, having already seen what condition her sister was in. She didn't care. Emily's friends, however, called 911. She was rushed down and into an ambulance, hooked up to IVs and a heart monitor. None of her family followed her.
Just like balloons,
We soar on our own!
She was alone. She hurt and she was scared and where were her parents-
Dawn escaped with only the clothes on his bag and a small backpack full of everything he cared about and some money. He ran. He ran as far as he could. He got on the train, taking a nap, then ran again. He had to escape.
She woke up to white ceilings and a soft, constant beeping. Tubes were connected to her arm and her neck. There was a mask on her face. She was confused.
Finally free
From the pain of our home!
Dawn sobbed, curled up in an abandoned cabin. It was in decent condition and he cried and cried for who knows how long- he was free.
Emily looked around. One of her friends had fetched the doctor when she had woken up, and Emily
wanted to talk. She didn't see any of her family besides her grandma who lived across the country and the only one who cared about her.
   Star sobbed into her parents' arms, crying and pleading for them to never let her go back. Never, never, never again. She had been missing for a week.
And just like balloons,
That no one will hold.
  Dawn walked into his fifth job of the past three month. He always flitted around, only keeping each job for a week to three weeks. Then he left, resigned, disappeared of the radar and moved again.
   Emily's eyes blinked blearily open. The mask was gone and she felt better. Physically, anyways.
Free from the truth,
That no one will know.
   Star, 15 years old, walked into her new school. It had been two years, but she had moved across the country. She had cut all ties. She was free. No one ever had to know. No one. No one had to know the pain of what she went through just two years ago.
   Dawn's eyes darted nervously around the new school. He had transferred in and didn't know anyone. So he didn't talk unless someone talked to him and had dyed his hair a dark purple.
   Emily was scared. She was in high school now, the same area, the same place just bigger. She slipped into the ranks of the popular kids and acted happy and bubbly while a void festered inside her.
All of the pain,
Far in the past.
Star hates the cold, always would. But she had put the horrible, horrible occurrence behind her. She refused to think about it. To report it.
Dawn saw the blood. It was only a nosebleed but it brought memories of the slice of his blade through flesh. He shook his head and shoved it behind him, refusing to think about it.
   Emily smiled, normal now. She looked normal and healthy and she was. But it plagued her, itching at her brain.
Yet echoes of screams,
Forever will last.
   Star felt the cold on her bikini-clad skin. She froze up, flashing back to the cold, the warmth, the pain, the blood.
   Dawn's mind flashed as he was beaten down, drugged once more, by his father who had managed to track him down. He wouldn't remember it anyways, he thought wryly to himself as he ragdolled, unable to do anything else.
Emily saw some of the looks some of her 'friends' gave her. She recognized the barely masked hatred and she remembered. Remembered the time that everyone but three people abandoned her, bullied her, pushed her down. And she almost died as a result.
Just like balloons,
We soar on our own!
They shook off the thoughts.
Finally free
From the pain of our home!
Star had left her old school. Her old neighborhood. She was finally happier.
Dawn had escaped again. It had taken a month but he escaped and, against all instincts, returned to the same school.
Emily caught the eye of some of her friends and saw the genuine happiness in their eyes. Happy to be with her, to be her friend. And she smiled back.
And just like balloons,
That no one will hold.
Star sealed her mouth shut whenever someone talked about rape.
Dawn stayed silent in talks of murder and abuse.
Emily shut her mouth when talks of starvation and depression rang throughout the school.
Free from the truth,
That no one knows.
Star sighed in relief when no one notices how she winced when certain topics were brought up.
Dawn was glad his friends didn't ask about his father. They didn't bring up when he was dragged out of school by the arm and simply went and disappeared for a month, only to return different. In many aspects.
   Emily didn't talk about her depression, anxiety, lack of mental health. She only smiled and laughed until it was real. Until she really had friends. Until she was happy.
No one knows...
A sigh of relief. Happiness, at last. They had escaped.