Curtains Close; Take a bow. I think we fooled all of them now.

Hanley's POV

I had forgotten about the shouting and the crying between mommy and daddy. They hadn't been angry or sad for a long time. Ever since Sienna came, they have been very happy and have changed. But something snapped.

Mommy was crazy. She slammed herself from the sofa and fled from the room, causing Sienna to topple over the edge of the arm rest and fall to the carpet. She let out a tiny sob, and both uncle Anthony and I looked at each other in confusion.

I got up to help Sienna back onto her feet. "Come here." I whispered, taking her hand and delicately pulling her towards me. "What did you do?"

She wiped her nose and sniffed a little. "I don't know." She threw her arms around me for comfort. I stroked her hair. "There were these lines on Mommy's wrists..."

Uncle Anthony let out a deep gasp and got up quickly, rushing out of the room and leaving us both alone. Daddy had also left, but he must have gone straight after Mommy.

I could hear mommy getting angry, and daddy shouting. And then we heard something smash and a few loud thuds.

"What was that!?" Sienna cried out, frightened of her mothers sudden turn.

"Nothing. We need to stay away from mommy and daddy for a little while..." I assured her, locking my fingers in between hers. "We should find somewhere to hide. I want to keep you safe..."

Mommy had hit me before. Once. By accident. She was angry at daddy and was cursing his name. She didn't see me standing there and threw a fist backwards which ended up hitting my in the cheek. I didn't mind it though. Because they seemed to be more worried that I was okay than whatever they were arguing about.

I helped Sienna up the stairs, one at a time, in a slight rush to make sure mommy didn't find us. We went to my bedroom and I told Sienna to lay down on the floor. I helped to slide her under my bed, and crawled in beside her.

"Be quiet Sienna. If you don't get in their way, they won't hurt you."

A tear fell from her eye. She had never properly heard them argue before. It was upsetting, because I thought that they had left the arguments behind when Sienna was born. Clearly not.

"Hanley." Sienna whispered, her voice quivering. "Surely if we stay here, they might be angry that we were hiding, if they found us under here..."

She was right. They both could be angry that we were hiding from them. They might take it out on Sienna. And I couldn't stand up for Sienna against them. Because daddy would let mommy scream and then Anthony would shout at mommy for screaming. Nobody ever said a word to daddy though. It was always mommy's fault...

"Why don't we go for a walk?" Sienna gestured towards the window.

"A walk? On our own? No." I tried to reason with her.

"But we will be safe." Sienna whispered.

She was true. If we went for a walk and came back later, everything might have settled down between mommy and daddy. And we wouldn't be in their way.

Notes

Uh oh...