Never had Sofia thought in her thirteen years of life that she would have to witness a day as this, in her own home.

The familiar ambiance of her home had ceased to exist since a while now. But right at the moment, it seemed downright foreign.

The school bag slid down her shoulder heedlessly. The pungent smell of alcohol almost suffocated her. Standing there at the threshold, stupefied, she watched as her father loomed over her mother on the floor.

He had a fist raised with fury glistening in his eyes, and her mother's wide eyes stared back in fear, trying to cower behind a shield which there was none.

Voice failed to come out of Sofia's mouth as she tried to scream, call out for help, cry—anything.

The fist swung down, hard and fast.

She heard her mother's pained cry and soon realized she'd been screaming as well.

--

Sofia woke up to the sound of her own groans of misery.

Gasping, she tried reclaiming steady breathing. And as the haziness of sleep and anguish of the nightmare dissipated, the clammy feeling of perspiration on her forehead began to make her skin crawl.

Kicking the sheets off her body, she turned to her side and faced the wide-open window of her bedroom.

It was still dark outside.

She refrained from seeing the time on her phone.

For some weird reason, the knowledge of time made the task of falling asleep just a bit more impossible for her.

What an irritating disposition.

Sighing, she couldn't help but think back to the ever-familiar nightmare.

It was initially memory of one of the worst days of her life and would stay an ever haunting ghost till she breathed her last. She recalled how since that day the change in her began. She had thought she was being strong that way, but the sad truth was it was exactly the opposite. Surely, she had been acting from great pain but that fact didn't make anything she did a single bit right. It was way too late when she finally realized her wrongs, but by then, her stupidity had cost her so greatly.

She had to shake her head to clear her mind off the terrible memories.

The next hour passed in twisting and turning, but sleep didn't come again. And so, with a frustrated grunt, she got out of bed.

Lazily, she padded towards the window and held the grills absentmindedly. Dawn broke through the sky, the colors vivid and captivating her heart. It was a sight no one can ever get used to.

The city came alive slowly. According to her, Asthel looked the most beautiful during this time.

After a few more minutes of just standing there, she finally grabbed her towel that like always hung on the curtain rail all night.

Just outside her bedroom and to the right was the common bathroom of the house. As she walked towards it, she heard the steady coughing of her grandfather from his bedroom downstairs.

It was too toilsome for the old man to climb the stairs these days, which made him exchange his room with Sofia's a few years ago. His health was only deteriorating, no matter what. Stepping foot into his early sixties was the reason. And that Sofia couldn't do much to prevent this, was what made the whole thing scary for her.

She put the towel in the bathroom before hurrying down the stairs and going to her grandfather's room. As she pushed the door ajar, the silhouette of his sitting form on the bed came to her notice.

"Grampa, are you alright?" She flipped the light switch on the wall beside the door, and rushed towards the man who was still coughing, so much that he could not even speak.

She poured water into a glass from the bottle on the bedside table and helped him drink. All the while, her hand soothingly rubbed his back.

Only when he calmed down, did she let herself breathe in relief.

"I'll make an appointment with the doctor," she said.

Grampa was panting as an aftermath of the coughing fit, but still, he smiled and held her wrist, tugging her to sit beside him on the bed. "I already went for the routine check-up this month," he protested weakly.

That earned him an affectionate glare.

"I'll be making the appointment," she repeated firmly.

She knew the reason for his protests. It was the free healthcare he had yet to get a few years later.

In a cozy corner at the very end of Essex Street, her small diner was her only way to earn a living. It could barely make ends meet. Most of the money from the somewhat profit earned went for the lease and bills of the diner, there were also the expenses of the Hayden household which she was the only provider of.

Even Sofia's two school-going cousins Skyler and Sam depended on her.

Skyler and Sam's divorcee mother was more interested in being MIA than staying in the picture and raising her children. It was no secret that random lovers and drugs happened to the impossible woman. Her return from time to time would raise obvious chaos in their home.

In his own ways, Grampa tried to ease the sackful of stress that always remained so heavy on Sofia's shoulders. The dear old man was her only source of strength.

Her thoughts trailed off seeing grampa's droopy eyes and slumping shoulders.

Sighing, she helped the man lie back down on the bed and put the light comforter over his body.

Turning off the lights, she gave one last look at her favorite old man sleeping, as the first, serene rays of a new morning sipped through the billowing curtains and fell upon him.

She walked out of his room then, closing the door cautiously behind her.

After having a quick but relaxing bath, she put on a pair of well-worn-out ankle pants with a long sleeve t-shirt. Make-up was a luxury she only used when she was not being lazy about the matter, and on most mornings she was highly lazy about it. This morning was no exception.

She made breakfast in the kitchen—some porridge for grampa, and simple toast and coffee for herself and her cousins who were going to wake up any second now. Keeping the bowl of porridge on their kitchen table with a note, she turned to go upstairs to collect her purse. It was time she went to work.

She always liked to be the first one to arrive for work, there was something satisfying with the act of flipping the open sign herself.

She had to halt halfway up the staircase though, as the third member of the Hayden household—the ever half-crazy Skyler was suddenly sliding down the banister.

Sofia scowled at her cousin as she slid past her like lightning, whistling indecently the whole time.

Whirling around, Sofia was just about to deliver a thorough scolding, reminding Skyler of the dangers of doing such stunts, but then, another body passed her. There, now the picture was complete with the youngest member of the house. Sam, or Samuel.

While Skyler was almost at the end of high school life, Samuel was in the fifth grade.

"Sam!" Sofia cried. "You guys are so going to get your asses broken one day by the way you come down the stairs. Behave like humans for once, not Orangutans!"

Both yelled back in unison, "Sorry, Sof!" They were already at the kitchen table by the time, scuffling with the breakfast.

Sofia shook her head in resignation. But then she smiled as well, and why the hell would she not?

It was this family of hers, after all, which gave her a reason to live and meaning to her life. There had been a time of darkness once, and these wonderful people—despite each one being a bit rough around the edges— were the ones who ultimately dragged her out of it and like a pro.

It's been ten years. She thought, getting out of the house, mentally calculating in awe—the long time that had passed. And her heart clenched in the misery that she had grown too familiar with in these years.

For the darkness had cost her greatly, while losing herself in it in the past she had lost someone precious as well.

It was her Max, that one true friend no one else could replace.

And she'd been waiting and waiting and waiting for him to return, but that wish of her heart felt like an impossible fantasy now.

She wondered if she would ever again be able to see and make things right with Max Wilder.