My brother and father never seem to want to get along. It's as though if either one of them find something they enjoy, the other is right there to negatively criticize them about it. Mom's always out on business and we all rarely get to see her. That also means she's never around to keep order around the house with their fighting. Kenny, my brother, and my Dad had a huge argument at dinner and Len threatened to runaway like he always does. That's the 7th time this month that he made that threat. Dad knew he won't go anywhere. Where could a 15 year old boy go? He can't go in the woods; he didn't have any survival experience to last a few hours in the wild. We got into bed, bunk beds, after dinner during a cool April evening. Kenny needed to decompress from what happened.

"Alison..." he started "I can't take it anymore... Dad doesn't love me at all. All he does is shower you in love and all his hate goes to me. His hate probably goes to you too..."

"Ken! No!" I shouted as I embraced him with a hug "I do love you. You're my brother. I'm sure Dad loves you too. You guys just have different interests. I don't want to hear anymore nonsense of me not loving you. Okay?"

"Sure..." he said as he got up from my bunk and hopped up to his. "Good night, Alison."

"'Night, Ken." I only heard Len shuffle around in his bed a little before I dozed off. A large thump woke me up during the night. At first, I thought someone was robbing our house, so I quickly his under the covers, fearing for my life.

"Alison? Did I scare you?" Kenny said as he moved the covers away from my face "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." I looked past him and saw a small piece of wrapped cloth around a stick large enough to carry it. "I'm doing it. I'm running away."

"Kenny... if-if you do I'll.. I'll..." I stuttered to think of something to say "I'll tell Mom!"

"Go ahead. You all won't be able to find me in the woods. I'll be all alone... away from this life."

"Th-then I'm going with you!" I blurted out. I covered my mouth because I couldn't even believe my own words. He quickly looked over at me when I said it. "I mean it, Ken. I'm not letting you go out there on your own."

"No, Alison. You're not coming with me. I won't let you. This is MY decision. I want to leave this place.. Clear my head. Goodbye, Alison." He picked up the knapsack and slowly walked down the stairs, not to wake up Dad. I laid down at the top of the stairs and watched him leave through the backdoor. He waved at me and I slowly waved back. I couldn't let him go. I really couldn't. I stood up after a few minutes and ran after him.

"Ken!" I yelled after I ran through the door to follow him "Ken!" He turned around before he got to the end of the road, leading to the forest that we lived near. Bears have even been reported around that forest, but I was oblivious at the time that I completely forgot about it. I latched onto his waist and said "I'm not letting you go. If Dad bothers you that much, then he does the same for me. I don't believe that he hates you. He would've abandoned you and would've never told me I even had a brother." We stood on the curb right before the entrance to the forest. "Ken? You're still going through with it?"

"He's gotta learn to respect me. He won't know what he as until it's gone." Kenny started to take his first steps into the woods, moving above the grass and fallen sticks. He looked behind him and held his hand out for me to grab. "Don't worry. I'll protect you no matter what." I blushed and held his hand as I followed him. "I've never been in here since we were only 7. Some people who've been deeper in here said there's a lake in the middle, so I guess we can try our luck and get there and set up some sort of camp. The first bed that I can make, you can have, Alison." We walked for what felt like ages until we came to what Kenny was searching for: The lake that he has heard about. It wasn't a large lake like Lake Eire or Lake Michigan, but it was moderately sized. Kenny let go of my hand and put his little knapsack down. He got these really large leaves from a nearby tree. The kinda of leaves that could hold large amounts of water. He unraveled the knapsack and, to my surprise, it didn't have food in it. It had a ball of twine, the knife that I Mom got him when he was 14, and a big role of duck tape. It took him no time at all to fashion together a roof out of the sticks and leaves to keep us dry if it rained along with one makeshift bed for me. I sat down on the edge of the water and Kenny followed me after he was finished.

"That moon is beautiful." I said, looking up at the full moon that was peaked in the sky. It's white light glimmered off of the still water as we sat. "I'd almost say it's a perfect night to do this... Hey Ken?"

"Yeah?" he responded.

"What're we going to do for food?"

"You let me worry about that, Alison. Just go to bed. I'm not going to bed tonight. I've got too much to do." He got up while helping me get up. "Just lay down. I'll take care of everything."

"You're sure?"

"Positive. Just sleep." I laid down in the bed of leaves, which was surprisingly more comfortable than my bed at home, and thought to myself.

"Ken really knows what he's doing. Did he plan this all along?" I thought "Great... Now I just feel like a burden to him... I got to do something to help him! But... what can I do..."