"Gabby! Gabby! Gaaabby!"

My eyes fly open.

My first instinct is to panic, to shoot up and hide somewhere. My first thought is, they're here. They found me. They're here to destroy me further.

But my eyes settle on an angelic little smiling face and I need a few minutes to calm my breathing and heartbeat down.

I look around the room, feeling disoriented and just ... lost. I go through my messy hair with my hands and give a little smile to Amelia, who's currently sitting on top of me, having a huge grin on her face.

I peek out of the window tell me I probably overslept. It's already light outside, too light to be early in the morning since the sun is too high for that. "How did you come in here?" I ask Amelia.

Amelia bonces on top of me, jumping up and down on my stomach, causing me to stop breathing. I still her by putting my hands on her hips. "Through your door, silly."

My body freezes and my hands subconsciously squeeze her little body tighter. Did I forget to lock my door? I was pretty sure that I locked it.

I never forget to lock my door.

Sure, I was tired and even (surprisingly) sleepy, but that couldn't have slipped my mind. Did it?

I try to think about what happened after I came here. It was dark and quiet in the house, so I had to walk on my tiptoes, careful not to make any sound. I'm not sure if I turned the lock in the door when I came in or not.

If I did or didn't, it can't happen again.

"You sleep long!" Amelia complains and puts.

I let out a real, carefree chuckle at her statement. "Sorry, princess. Let me get dressed now and I'll make it up to you. Sounds okay?" I tickle her sides and she lets out a loud squeal, followed by a fit of high-pitched giggles and her doubling over.

"Ga-bby!" she shrieks out in between giggles.

I finally release her and let her catch her breath. "'Kay," she says and climbs down from me and from the bed.

She pads out of the room but leaves the door open. I don't bother closing it either, I just grab my clothes and go into the bathroom and get ready for the day.

I'm out in just a few minutes. When I come down in the kitchen, Rosanna is there, singing to herself. "Good morning," I greet her.

Rosanna jumps up a bit from surprise and puts her hand on her heart. "Oh, Dear!" she says, turning around. "Don't sneak up on me like that again," she warns me, jigging her finger playfully.

I laugh and give her my best innocent look. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Rosanna shakes her head and smiles, too. "Good morning. You're late today."

"Yeah, I overslept. I hope Rosalyn and Alfred aren't too mad about that, I forgot to set my alarm." And that's not a lie. I forgot to do a lot of things before I went to bed last night, apparently.

"They're not, they understood it. Mrs Rosalyn said we should let you sleep since you must've been tired."

I walk to the fridge and grab a yoghurt. When I sit down, Rosanna stares at my yoghurt as if it'd answer her silent questions. She then sighs and grabs a piece of bread and hands it to me. I smile shyly. "Thanks."

Rosanna waves her hand. "We can't have you be hungry, now can we?"

Something in Rosanna's voice squeezes my chest so tightly I have to pause and only stare at her. She sounds so ... motherly. Like she's truly concerned about me and my well being. And that is being a foreign thing for me because no one has been concerned about me for years. Even before anything happened, people weren't exactly concerned about me.

They didn't have to be, I guess. I was a good girl without any problems in people's eyes. I was what they called 'perfect'.

"Gabby!" Amelia runs into the kitchen, holding a baby in her arms with his bottle and dummy.

I just took a bite of my bread and I have to swallow it before I can answer her, making my voice enthusiastic. "Hello, hello. Who did you bring with you?" I say, referring to the baby in her arms that she's cradling like a caring mother.

"This is Toby," Amelia beams up at me. She sits down on the floor and rests the baby on her legs and then puts the bottle to his lips. "He's hungry."

"Mmm," I mumble around the spoon of yoghurt in my mouth.

When I finish eating, Rosanna cleans up after me before I have the chance to and I give her an appreciative smile. "Thank you." Then I look down at Amelia. "Who wants to go out for a walk?"

Amelia quickly lifts her head up and struggles to stand. "Me! Me!" she yells while she runs out of the kitchen in excitement.

I chuckle. "Want to join us?" I ask Rosanna.

Rosanna shakes her head. "I have some work to do, but you two go ahead. It'll be nice to have this house to myself for a bit."

I shrug. "Alright. See you later," I call out and go search for Amelia.

•••

I'm laying on the rooftop, staring up at the starless sky, letting a soft breeze cool my skin. The silence soothes me and makes me calm. And the moon shining down on me is the only thing keeping me company.

It's just after dinner. I put Amelia to bed minutes ago. It was just me and Amelia at the dinner tonight and it passed quickly. Amelia didn't seem bothered by the fact and it was sad to watch that she had to get used to this. She's honestly such a good child, she never cries and never complains. When you tell her 'no', she doesn't question you and stops doing what she shouldn't have immediately. She's not stubborn. She's just a bunch of happiness.

I raise my arms up and rest them up above my head, resting them on the cold roof tile and close my eyes, breathing in the fresh air.

It's the moments like this that I don't have second thoughts about coming here. This is the thing I didn't have at home. I was never this at peace, never this calm. It's a nice change.

The sound of a window opening gets my body tense because I already know what's going to come. Or rather, who's going to come. I don't move. I lay there, plastered on the rooftop, feeling nothing but sweet numbness and not having a single care in the world.

That asshole won't destroy it.

"For fuck's sake, do you have to appear everywhere I go to?" I hear Alexander's grumbled voice behind me.

I don't look at him, I don't even acknowledge him at first. I just keep staring up at the pitch-black sky.

"It seems you're appearing where I am. I was here first." I finally decide on saying after a few quiet moments between us. I don't wait for his answer. "By the way, it's funny how you think you can bring me down with a few mean words and some threats when I've had it much worse before."

There's a silence on his part now. I don't move, don't even care what he does or if he just ignores me. My peace can't be disturbed right now. A part of me hopes he goes back inside and leaves me alone. But, of course, it'd hurt him to do that.

"Are you fucking drunk?"

A chuckle bubbles out of me all of a sudden, although this situation is anything but funny. "Why? Because I'm telling you how pathetic you actually are? I could give you some tips on how to make people really fear you, though."

He's silent for a few minutes again. I rest my hands on my stomach now and bend my legs.

"Well, I'd ask you what you mean with that, but that would mean I cared, which I don't. So ..." he trails off, not finishing, but he still doesn't move to go inside and leave me alone.

I sit up and look down at the street now, staring at the lights shining down on the road as my chest suddenly tightens. "I'm not that bad, Alexander." I don't know why I say what I say. My voice is shaking and it comes out small and quiet and I actually hope he didn't hear. It was a moment of vulnerability for me, I guess.

"No?" Alexander murmurs and I hear him moving closer. My body involuntary tightens up in fear, my muscles get tense and my sense perks up, trying to read what his next move will be. Showing him my back makes me an easy target.

I shake my head, fighting the tears back. I'm not going to cry, not in front of him, anyway. He doesn't deserve to see me at my weakest.

Alexander sits down beside me but leaves enough space between us. He stares straight ahead, as do I. I don't even glance at him.

"The thing with you is that you don't have an ounce of bad in you. You're too good, that's your thing," he says and I sense him looking at the side of my face, his eyes boring into my skin, making it burn.

I don't give in to temptation return the gaze. "And that's why you hate me. Makes sense," I say sarcastically.

I sense him move and I flinch, a natural reaction I get when he's near. I'm jumpy and my skin prickles at just the mere presence of him. I still fear him. He's unpredictable. But I'm not afraid to speak back to him anymore. I may be playing with fire here, but what is it getting burned once more knowing I stood up for myself rather than just let myself drown?

"Your words, not mine," Alexander shoots back.

I sit up straighter and look at him in surprise. "Okay. What is your reason, then?"

Alexander slowly moves his head and looks at me. I hold my breath. The man might be bad and all mean, but it doesn't erase the fact that he's good looking. And if I forget about his personality, I'm totally digging him. Like, crushing on his looks. Too bad his personality destroys almost every good thing on him.

"For fuck's sake, if I'm sitting out here with you, doesn't mean you can chat with me."

I raise my eyebrows. Truthfully, I expected an answer to my question, an honest answer, but that's Alexander I'm talking about, so why am I surprised?

"So, no reason then. Figures," I mumble. I should've known being a jerk comes naturally for him. "Or you just don't want to give me a reason because you want to have an excuse to keep hating me?" I challenge him.

"Jesus," Alexander angles his head back, looking up at the sky as if it'll answer him. It's pretty ironic when he says Jesus's name from his filthy mouth. "I don't need a reason to hate you, Little one. You're annoying the fuck out of me, let that be your reason. Now fix that first."

I have to refrain from throwing my hands up in desperation. "How can I be annoying you when I basically do nothing that concerns you?"

I see Alexander's lips move up at the corners, even in the dark. "You do a lot of things that concern me."

My mouth falls open. "What's your problem?"

Alexander's surprised by my question, too because he just blankly stares at me and doesn't answer me.

"Honestly, what's your problem?" I repeat, this time louder so he can hear how impatient and annoyed I'm getting.

He shakes his head and then turns back so he's facing away from me again, looking straight ahead. He doesn't seem like he's going to answer me, so I turn around, too, and stare at the black night and dark street, illuminated by the street lights.

Alexander takes out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and puts one between his lips, then lits it. As soon as he inhales and exhales, the smoke fills the air around us, the disgusting smell teasing my nose and my stomach.

I put my hand on the left side of my nose so the smoke doesn't come to my nose and I turn my head to the right a bit.

I hear Alexander chuckle. "I should've known it. Little perfect princess too good for a little smell of smoke?"

I glare at him and when I open my mouth to say something, he exhales the smoke right towards my face. My eyes tear up and I face away from him, coughing twice to get rid of the taste and the tingling in my throat.

"Wow. And then you dare to say to me that I'm the one annoying you? Look who's annoying who now!"

Alexander leans his head back, looking relaxed as he slowly exhales the smoke out of his mouth, watching it disappear in the night air. "You have a lot of things to learn, little one."

"Could you stop calling me that?" I snap in irritation.

A smile falls on Alexander's lips – that teasing smile that makes me want to punch him in the face because I know he knows that he's irritating me at this moment. Very much. "Why?" he asks lazily.

"Because I don't like it and I have a name?" I reply sarcastically, staring straight at him with furrowed eyebrows and with pure disbelief.

Alexander slowly lets his head fall on the side so he can look at me. "Yet you refuse to call me Sin."

My mouth opens. Is he seriously so dumb that he doesn't get it? "That's not your name," I point out. I'm not calling him that.

"So?" Alexander retorts back. "I asked you to call me nothing but Sin. And you refused. So, here's me, refusing your request now."

"You act like a five-year-old. Even Amelia is more mature than you."

Alexander sharply turns his body towards me. Even in the dark, I can see how his eyes flash dangerously, preparing for the storm. "Don't talk about her with me," he says darkly and lowly. It literally makes my body freeze at his cold tone.

I want to say something back – I don't know what yet – but he beats me to it when he puts the cigarette out, smashing it on the roof tile angrily. He stands up without another word and walks back into his room, climbing through his window and disappearing from my view.

Well, I'll be damned.

I'm on the verge of calling after him something like, "Nice chat we got there," but I don't want to play with my luck tonight anymore so I stay quiet.

After a few minutes of sitting out there by myself, mulling over what just happened, a laugh comes out from my mouth. And then another. I laugh like a maniac, laughing at myself, because who else can have so much luck in their life? Trying to escape mean people, running straight under the roof of another.

I start laughing even harder when I hear Alexander's motorcycle, loud in the quiet night, driving away from this mansion.

For a moment there, I envy him. I want to go away, too. Not with him particularly, but from him. Far, far away from him, so I won't have to deal with him anymore and won't have to bother myself with him.

So I won't be able to annoy him anymore, as he said.

God, is this truly the life you want me to live?

If so, you're playing a cruel game with me. And I don't know how much longer I'll be able to continue playing it before I lose.