Emily was in the kitchen, Ian standing over her. Every part of her was singular with pain, and he was coming at her again. It was just a slip of the blade, a quick turn and an unintentional meeting of flesh and steel, and now she was going to pay for it with blow after merciless blow.

Andy tried pretending to be asleep, but his mother's latest boyfriend was never fooled. He felt the last of his humanity draining away as the covers were pulled back, a cigarette extinguished on the small of his back before he was no longer alone in his bed.

Tristan stood in his sisters' bedroom, covered in mud from head to foot, the taste of earth still in his mouth. The realization was beginning to sink in that his mother lay dying in the chair next to the bed, surrounded by the pungent scent of opium. His sisters began to scream at the sight of him.

Markus felt his skull shatter as a steel toe met he crown. He choked on broken teeth as the boys shouted, "You like that, faggot?"

James stood by his sister's bedside, her hair thin and gray. He watched the life leave her body, saw it leave her eyes. Then he knew death, it was not a thing but an absence, a piece of him was forever gone. He crumpled his sister into him and sobbed.