Frank hit my back more and more. It hurt so much. I started crying like I had never cried before. Then he hit the back of my neck. This was the worst punishment yet. I heard a scream and took a look up to see Nick running from the room in fear. Then, I felt something wet all over my back. Was it sweat, or blood?

I put my head on the floor and my hands over my neck. The belt hit the hands and my back even harder. The feeling of wetness was flowing to my face. It was on my forehead then my eyebrows. I saw a tiny red drop fall from my eyelash. It was blood.

"You bitch child! I won't be able to pay for this place without that whore!" Frank screamed at me as he hit harder. "Now she's dead! I'm gonna kill you now!"

And that's when it hit me. My real family did care about me. James and Keith were just probably trying to save mom. But mom was dead. She had a heart attack… Because of me scaring her… She couldn't come back. But I could. Right then and there. So I did. I took a glance up and saw the belt. I reached up as it was coming down and grabbed it right there. I stood up with it still in my hands. I tore it out of his and slapped him with the belt. Right on the face. He stumbled back then gave me an evil grin. He ran forward at me with a punch ready. I didn't have enough time to dodge it. He hit me right in the nose. Blood was all over my face now. I whipped the belt at him and hit him in the arm. He came back with a kick that I barely dodged.

At this time, I was panting and sweating even more. The wounds on my back weren't letting out as much blood as before, but I figured that I wouldn't stay conscious much longer. I was losing energy fast… too fast. I backed out of the way of the next punch and toppled onto the couch, filling it with smears of blood.

Suddenly, Frank was pulled up into the air and smashed down, breaking the floor. James and Keith were on top of him. James had more anger than a rhino on a stampede, punching Frank non-stop, screaming "Don't touch my sister again!" Keith was holding Frank's hands so he couldn't get free. I looked at James. His eyes were full of tears and his fists full of blood. Then I looked at Keith. His face was wet from some kind of crying, but he still didn't have a single emotion on that bland face of his.

I sat on the bathroom counter in silence while James wrapped bandages around my waist and all the way up to the top of my chest. He had already cleaned out the wounds on my back. He kept putting stingy stuff on my neck though. It made me shiver, which always messed up what he was doing with the bandages. I wanted to say sorry, but the word that came out was "Keith?"

"He's outside, making sure Frank doesn't get up. And he's comforting Nick," James sighed, "Why do you even care about where he is all the time when he doesn't even care about you?" He said, making the bandages tighter.

"Because, I care about everyone in this family. Especially you, Keith, and…" I stopped myself from saying the next word. I had just remembered what Frank had said. Mom was dead. Dead. Dead. A tear… Only one tear fell from my eye. Nothing else. I had the feeling of sadness- so much sadness- but only one tear. Did I really not care about mom?

"Hey, Jas. We have everything packed. We can leave here. We can leave and never come back. All three of us," James said, tying the ends of the bandages together.

"We could. But, where would we go?" I asked, a bit worried.

"We'd get out of this place for sure. We'd make sure that Frank never finds us. I'll take care of you two. I can take care of you two," James said with a fake smile, trying to comfort me.

"What about mom? We can't just leave-"

"Jasmine, she's gone. She really is gone."

So Frank was right. She really was dead. But… I couldn't cry. I couldn't cry. I just… couldn't.

We had said good-bye to my deceased mother. Keith had said bye to Nick. All three of us were full of sadness… Leaving home, losing our mother, leaving our friends…

James held all the bags with him being so strong. His face was strong and sturdy and he looked like he wouldn't give up. Though in his eyes, there was a small glint of sadness, but determination. He cared too much for Keith and me. Too much.

"James, where are we going?" Keith asked hurriedly. "I want to get out of this place as fast as I can. I don't want Frank coming after us. And, I thought that we were heading east, not north."

"We're going to see Melody first. I can't leave without saying bye," James said, keeping his eyes staring straight. "Then we'll head east." Keith let out an annoyed sigh. We continued to walk until we reached Melody's house on the west side of the North Side.

When we reached Melody's house, we did not want to see what we saw. There was a man- one of the guys from the worst gang in the South Side: Jay from the Brumli Boys- who was kissing Melody. He had a black buzz cut with tiger tattoos scattered around his body. He was skinny but strong and always full of anger. He would pick a fight with anyone and everyone, even the cops. He's killed at least four people, but always gets away from the cops. The gang of five rob thousands of gas stations and stores throughout the Illinois coastline, and they are wanted throughout the country. How they keep escaping, I have no idea.

Melody didn't see the three of us. Her bright blonde hair was messy and curled up- probably from Jay kind of rustling her hair around. She had her dark blue eyes closed with a satisfied smile on her face. Part of her shirt was torn down and her green bra showing. It showed that they had been making out for a long time now.

"No!" James screamed, running up onto the porch and smacking Jay in the face. "Get off my girlfriend!" There was so much anger in his face. So much anger in his voice. It scared me. But he cared about Melody so much, maybe even more than he cared about me. Melody jumped up and stared at James. Her eyes slanted as James punched Jay in the face.

"James! Stop it now!" Melody yelled at James. James glanced up at Melody like a wild beast, then back down at Jay. He punched him again in the face then stood up, wiped dirt off of his pants, and walked over to Melody. She took a few steps back.

"Melody… How could you cheat on me?" James asked angrily, but he had sadness in his voice.

"You were boring. I never actually like you. Never." Melody said, turning around, opening the door to her house, and screaming: "Daddy! There's a South Side boy at the door who is trying to hurt me! Help!"

"What?" James said, looking around worriedly. He noticed that Jay was gone. Keith and I were standing at the fence gate. I was scared and frozen… James was terrifying. Keith stood there, holding all the bags that James had handed him, and he wasn't even paying attention. Then, James turned around and grabbed our arms. "Run!"

We ran. We ran faster than I had ever run before. I took a glance back and saw an old man with a gun on Melody's porch. James pulled us through the alleyways until we reached the South Side. We were close to Lake Michigan. We were panting and sweating and we could barely move. We heard a gunshot and a siren go off. Lights reflected off buildings and the sound became louder. The police car passed the alleyway they were in and James sighed. "Good… They weren't here for us," James said. He squinted. "Wait… who's that?"

"That's… Jay!" I screamed, taking a few steps back. The Brumli Boys gang appeared out of the shadows, Jay in front. He had bruises all over his face and a gun in his hand. We all took a few steps back until we reached a wall. I looked at James and Keith with terror in my eyes.

"Hey boys! It's the Sorenson Siblings," Jay said, "An' look! Jamesy, Keit, and Jasmane is here too!"

"It's Keith, James, and Jasmine." Keith said, trying to look tougher than he actually was. Even though he was on the football team, he wasn't that strong. A boy his age- Markus- stepped up and put his face in Keith's. The two used to be friends before Markus joined the Brumli Boys.

"Hey Keit," Markus said with a huge grin, "What's up?" Keith punched him in the nose.

"Leave us alone!" He yelled. Jay laughed.

"Nah. I'm gonna keep this up until Jamesy gets what he deserves. And since you punched Undercut, Keit, I'm gonna get you too," Jay glared at me, "And I may just get the little one. I wouldn't want her to be all alone."

"Run." James whispered to us. "I'll stay behind and fight 'em off."

"But James…" I whispered back.

"Go!" James yelled. I looked at Jay and he held the gun up, aimed it at James, and pulled the trigger.

From Theo K- I hope you all like it! This chapter took me awhile to write, but it's finally done!