Chapter 1: Helpless

The darkness surrounded her, suffocating her. She didn't even make it to her bed, collapsing, her back up against the door. She pulled her knees up to her chest as a shuddering gasp was emitted. Her entire body trembled as she stared straight ahead.

Linda thickly swallowed. Her life had been one constant whirlwind for about a month now, and nothing seemed to be getting better. No one seemed to be getting any better. It was frustrating. All she wanted to do was scream, shout, throw a huge fit, but she could. Deep down she harboured this fear that if she fell apart now, she would never be able to put herself back together, and there was too much going on for her to be broken.

Her entire family needed her. That's why she did what she did, because it was needed. That didn't mean she was proud of herself. Never before had she ever felt so grimy, so disgusting. Everything about her felt tainted.

"Linda?" Bob called from the other side of the door.

She went to speak, but the words got caught in her throat. There was nothing but silence as she sat there with her mouth wide open as if she were expecting the words to simply come when they were ready.

Bob sighed, wishing that she would come out and join them. He was well aware of everything that had happened. He couldn't be mad at her. If anything he was mad at himself. All he wanted was for her to understand that, to see nothing would change between them.

"I love you," he assured her, resting his forehead against the door.

"I love you too," she responded, her voice cracking.

oooooo

Tina lay in the dark room, her glasses on the nightstand and cell phone right beside them. She couldn't sleep all that well, so she simply just stared. There was some comfort to be found though, at least she wasn't all alone. The arm wrapped around her made her feel safe.

Feeling secure at the age of fourteen while your family was slowly falling apart was a rare thing, and she made sure to cherish it. There was something unnerving about the fact that she figured neither of her parents even knew that she was gone. They would have called by now if they noticed anything wrong. It wasn't that she wanted to get busted, to have them come over here and drag her home, but she wanted them to notice when she was gone.

"Are you awake?" She inquired.

"I am now," Zeke hoarsely replied.

Tina rolled over onto her other side to be able to face him. A smile came across her face as soon as she saw him. It was nice knowing that there was at least one person that cared about where she was tonight.

"In a fight, do you think a black widow or a python would win?"

He was about to snap at her for waking him up to even ask such a question. The only thing that kept him from doing so was because he knew what was going on at home. And part of him understood where the question was coming from.

"The python. It's big enough to fight off the poison," he told her with confidence.

"You really think so?" She questioned.

"I know so. Now go back to sleep," he ordered.

oooooo

Louise waked down the street, her black jacket with her hood up to cover the fact that wasn't wearing her pink bunny ears. Someone else had them right now, someone who needed them more than she did.

Arguably, she was the one who had changed the most throughout all of this. She was mellowed, more somber. But then again, so was everyone else. That's what stress did after the initial anger. It sucked the life out of you, leaving you somewhat hopeless.

Snow began to lightly fall as she passed under the street lights. Her hands were stuffed in her pockets as she kept her eyes down to the ground. She was cold, but she didn't care right now. She might not ever care again if things stayed the way they were. And it wasn't as if anyone else really cared.

She stopped before the restaurant. They still managed to keep that up and running during most of the day. Peering into the windows, you wouldn't even know that there was anything wrong. It was amazing really.

No one outside of the family actually knew. Even Gayle didn't. Teddy and Mort probably had their ideas. They had to be somewhat suspicious. And she found it hard to believe that Teddy didn't ask any questions. Or maybe he had and her parents just didn't say anything. Maybe he did know and just somehow managed to not let anyone else know.

Deciding that it didn't matter, she continued to the second door and headed up the staircase. Most times she would sneak back the way that she snuck out, but tonight she just didn't care. It wasn't even all that late, it was only about ten at night.

As she rounded the corner, she saw her mom walking out of the bathroom, freshly showered.

"Where were you?" Linda asked, slightly upset. She was more angry at herself for not even noticing that her own daughter had left the house than she was at Louise for being out past curfew.

"I was just out, okay?" Louise replied without even stopping.

"That's not an answer young lady!" She argued as she followed her. As she got to the doorway though, she noticed that the child wasn't wearing her bunny ears and her expression softened. "You're not wearing your ears," she mentioned with concern.

"They weren't stolen again, were they?"

"I just don't need them anymore," she told her, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

As she was about to ask her what was going on, Linda spotted Gene's keyboard and megaphone underneath the bed. It made her heart sink.

"He'll be back home soon," Linda gently stated.

Louise just looked up to her. It was hard to find any real hope in the woman's eyes. Last month she was bound and determined, but now it looked as though that fight was gone. It was about a week ago that all that strength and optimism had left, and that was when Louise was scared. That's when she saw how serious all of this was, and that's when she stopped caring.

"Are you sure?" She flatly asked. It wasn't argue, she just wanted to hear someone say that they knew everything would okay. She wanted to hear the words out loud and validated by someone else.

She wanted to give her daughter a positive answer, but she couldn't. Just like earlier, the words physically would not pass through her throat. It were as though she just wasn't capable of lying to herself anymore.

"I don't know," she choked out, defeated.

Louise just stared at her, not knowing what to say or do. There was a chill that surged through her body followed by a numbness. Gene might not come home. She wasn't even sure how to handle that concept.

"I'm heading to work, Lin!" Bob announced from down the hall.

It took her a second to react, but she finally turned her head towards the hall, her eyes still glued on her daughter. "Be careful, alright!" She responded.

"Don't worry! I'll be fine!" He assured her.

"I love you!" Linda made sure to let him know.

"I love you too!"

Once she heard the door close, she turned her full attention back to Louise who looked like she was trying her hardest to not cry. It pained her see her daughter like this, to not be able to do anything to help her, or any of her children.

"I'm sorry sweetie," she said as she went and sat down beside her. She tightly embraced her, resting her chin on her head. It was supposed to try and comfort Louise, but she herself needed this greatly.

Louise was about to tell her that she needed her space or that this was disgusting and it wouldn't help anything. Instead, she went ahead and returned the hug. It wasn't helping her all that much, but her mom did need it. And anything was better than being left completely alone.