(Emily's Point of View)

Flashback...

"Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!" I screamed in horror as my mother is thrown to the ground harshly, her back hitting the ground violently as if she was no better than a mere dolls that I had up in my room. My brother automatically went to care for her, kneeling on the ground and taking her into his small arms. He looked down at her with worry laced in his eyes, a softness only ever shown with me or mother. He then turned to our so called father, his eyes turning cold as ice, his soft smile forced into a snarl.

My gaze automatically followed the line of my brother's, I looked towards my father with confusion. Why... Why was he hurting his family like this? What kind of father, a man told to love you, would do this to his family. My face turned towards the woman he held so closely in his arms, like that woman was his true love.

I fell to the ground, my legs gave out from underneath me. I just didn't understand, I was only four years old and I couldn't possibly comprehend what was happening. My eyes darted between the two looking for some explanation, my sight landing on their joint hands over the red-headed woman's stomach. She had the same red hair my mother had, but her eyes they scared me.

They were nothing like my mother's calm silver eyes, no they... they were a ravaging storm. A deep, dark blue-gray almost black. She looked towards me and her face twisted, into a sickening grin. I felt my breathe leap into my throat shocking me to the bone.

"Daddy, what are you doing to mummy!" I tried to scream, but it came out as more of a whimper. His eyes finally fell on me, looking at me like an ant stuck in the rain. The woman was the first to speak, sounding like a snake ready to strike at her prey.

"Don't worry dear, I'll be your new mother now. Just as it always was meant to be." She held out her hand to me, like I would ever choose her over my beloved mother. How dare she, how dare she ever think I would take such a vile monster to be my mother, over the one person I loved the most.

"It's time for this witch to leave us now, don't you think Ameilia? We can finally be a family, all five of us." He smiled at me, a silent promise in his heart. One I was not aware of at the time, I shook my head. Tears falling down from my face and into my lap.

"Father!" My Brother's voice boomed, sounded like an adult himself. His eyes thinned and his fists clenched. My mother put a hand to his chest, trying to calm her strong little boy. However, nothing was going to stop my brother from speaking his mind, "This is going a bit far, don't you think?" His voice dripped with hatred and spit, like a raging bull daring anyone to get in his way.

"No it's not!" My Father's voice boomed back, Michael shrinked back a bit from surprise. His voice daring the bull to rear its head out again so he may deal out the finishing blow.

"Your mother is useless to me now, I no longer need her to bare my children. This person is not your mother," Father paused, kissing the other woman on the temple before continuing, "She is your mother, and she will be blessing us with a sibling for the two of you soon enough." I froze in place, as did my brother.

I ran to my brother, dodging the woman reaching out for me with a wicked smile. She was enjoying this, watching our family being burned away. Michael leaned Mummy into my lap, my hand stroking her hair as her hand went to my face. She tried to sit up but she groaned in pain. I pulled my hand away from her head and panic flooded my tiny body. What was this? Blood? No that... that can't be!

"Mum?" I looked from my hand to her, her eyes was looking at my hand covered in... I can't even say it. She turned her eyes towards me and smiled, her hand cupping my cheek. I leaned into it, loving the warmth that was radiating off of it.

"You are not my mother, and if either of you make her leave then you will not be my father either!" Michael growled out in anger, he rose up walking towards my father with bad intentions.

"You know nothing boy!" I guess he got to close to my father, pressed too many buttons... far too many. My father's hand reached out and struck Michael's cheek, both of their eyes widened. My Mum started to get up ignoring the immense pain she felt. She had gone into full Momma Bear mode. But before she could do anything to our father a hand stopped her, I watched her being tugged away by some man I had never seen before.

"Mummy!" I cried out, scrambling onto my shaking legs running towards her. Only to be caught by that wicked red haired woman with the dark eyes. "Don't Mummy, Don't leave me here!" I screamed out as she struggled against the men pulling her out of the door.

"Leave my sister alone!" My brother tackled the lady breaking me free, I automatically ran towards my mother who was being shoved into a run down car. I ran towards them going as fast as my little legs could carry me, which wasn't very fast might I add. The two men jumped into the front seats, started the engine and just as I reached the car they both sped away.

My Brother sped past me, both of us running after the car desperately trying to get back our mother. At one point I tripped on a rock, my brother stopped running coming back to where I was. I was balling, my knees were skinned and the car was long gone along with our mother.

Michael picked me up into his arms and we made our way towards the house, Father and that woman were both waiting for us on the porch. Smirking in delight, she reached out to touch me and I screamed, "You'll Never Be My Mother!"

End of Flashback...

"Mum!" I woke up with a scream, jerking forward in the bed and sitting up straight. My eyes were blinded by a light coming on, I looked to my left where the light came from to see someone I had never wanted to know about my past. The only person I had ever told was my dog, who was currently sleeping at Nate's feet.

"Finally your awake you've been screaming don't leave me all night." His voice was laced with concern and worry, his eyes had dark circles and bags underneath them. His right hand had been laced with mine, his left was helping me sit up against the pillows. I automatically felt guilty, we had work tomorrow and here I was keeping him up till...

I looked over at the clock, It was a quarter past three am. I had practically kept him up all morning and for what, some stupid little nightmare... a horrible memory. It had been a week since I moved in here and started working. Yet this was the first nightmare I had since I began living here. I went to apologize immediately, apparently he expected as much as he already had removed his hand from mine and placed a finger to my lips.

"Don't apologize, you couldn't help it," He pauses with his eyes meet and a smile lightly adorning his face making my heart flutter.

"We're friends at the very least right? I don't mind at all." His dark brown locks were messed around every other way, and had definitely seen better days then right now. He was wearing glasses, something that I didn't even know existed in his wardrobe, and his eyes were twinkling with kindness. Something flooded through me, remembrance. I recognized those eyes, but why was I only now recalling this after just living through that awful memory yet again.

"Fenice... Em, do you wanna talk about it?" His voice was so warm and kind, it lured me in like a siren's song. I almost gave in... almost. I shook my head softly, coming to the conclusion that I didn't want to be a burden to him more so than I already had been. Even if he said it was fine, that he didn't mind staying up and watching over me. I couldn't shake this feeling of guilt, and I refused to continue to keep him up.

I stood up, as he begrudgingly allowed me to leave the room. He followed me through the condo like a lost puppy. I began to make some coffee, he kept his distance not wanting to push me... which I appreciated.

"You know your going to have to tell me at some point... Right?" I looked towards him, his crystal cobalt eyes drawing me in, they held a promise in them. One that I couldn't ignore no matter how hard I tried. I nodded slightly, a frown adorning my face. He smiled with a small laugh, which annoyed me slightly.

"So, after the coffee?" He asked with hope laced in his voice, "I really just want to be there for you Emily."

He very rarely ever used my real name, and when he did it made me melt inside. I tried to not let it affect me, I tried not to care. But the way my name fell off his tongue, I couldn't help but tell him everything he asked for.

"I don't even know where to begin, I don't even know the whole story..." Which was true, I was too young to know my father's real reason for taking my mother away. I had no idea who those men were or where they took her.

"That's alright, I don't need the whole story... I just want to know yours." We both were sitting on the jet black couch that was positioned near the window overlooking the city. His hand found mine and laced ours together, warmth bloomed from his hand and into mine. Calming me down enough to where I could speak.

"In my younger years I was always very close to my mother and my brother, however my father was always brooding off in the distance." He nodded along as I went, as I explained my entire life story with him.

I began to cry when I told him how I had found the blood behind her head, how I didn't even known if she was safe or not. He wrapped me up into his arms, calming my entire body enough were eventually I finally fell into a peaceful sleep, I had cried out all of my emotions after so long. The last time I had cried *Yawn* this hard was in college I think.

Actually, Nathaniel reminds me of someone from back then... Who, Who was it? I couldn't keep up with my train of thought, it slowly faded away with the rest of the world. My last piece of reality, was a light pressure on my forehead and a smile on my lips. Dreaming of my life before everything was taken away from me.

Flashback...

"Mummy!" I sprinted towards her over the bright green grass that was underneath my barefoot feet. The blue sky flew by me, as I sprang into her arms. She caught me and spun me around, going faster and faster all the while we just both laughed.

My father watched in the background with a sour expression, he was on our porch not particularly enjoying the nice weather we were having that day. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but Mum just told me to leave him be.

"Mummy! Hahaha weeee!" I screamed in joy as she continued to twirl me around the backyard, I had no worries in her arms. Where I believed I would always be able to go when I was sad, run straight into her arms and then I would be safe.

Michael ran towards us, completely ignoring our father's look of disgust yet again. We all decided that we could play my favorite game in the history of games... Hide and Seek! I latched onto Michael's back, he was only nine going on ten, but he was strong enough to carry me. We ran into the small forest that was in our backyard, looking for the best tree to hide in.

Eventually we picked one, so Michael began to haul me up the tree with me still attached to his back. Slowly going higher until we reached a sturdy branch to sit on. I couldn't stop giggling so we were found fairly quickly, much to Mich's annoyance.

End of flashback...

One thought went through my mind as my dream ended,

I Love my Mum,

and I will Find her.

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"The capacity for friendship is God's way of apologizing for our families."

-Jay McInerney

Hello My lovely readers, I have just edited this chapter for your viewing pleasure. For those that are coming back to it I hope that you'll agree that it is much better than the original chapter. Those that are only reading it for the first time, I hope you enjoyed it and that you will enjoy the rest of the book as I edit and update new chapters.