A DEMON AT ELM TREE HOUSE

by BizarrePineapple15

Chapter 1: Me

Let's get one thing straight: I didn't exactly mean to attack that stupid monkey of a foster dad as violently as I did. He so provoked me. And, I mean, I've lived in care for nearly all my life. I'm bound to get a bit frustrated. What did he expect? Did he think I'd just be fine when he said he was going to stop fostering me, for personal reasons? He didn't even tell me anything about it until the day before he was planning to put me back in care. The skanky old idiot.

I'm Demon Traylen... care kid. God I hate those words. They just make me feel so... so angry. Well actually... you can go up to about forty careworkers who'll say I feel angry towards everything. It's really not my fault. Anger issues, that's what the doctors all say. I have black hair, which sort of hangs down my face in strands. I can't really describe it. Everybody says it's very long and makes me look a bit like Michael Jackson, which is a bit freaky. I'm eleven, nearly twelve.

I was born... somewhere, I don't know if I'm honest. I'm sure it was in England, I just don't know where. My dad died when I was two, so I lived with my mum for a bit, but she turned out to be a bit of a psychopath, so... well, anyway. By the time they took her away to a psychopath ward at the hospital I'd just turned three, and I was carted off to a stinking care home. Believe it or not, that care home was to be the first of thirty-three I've had the misfortune of living in.

In eight years I got through care home and care home. I only lasted two days in one care home, when I was eight. It wasn't my fault. The... obese... careworker Angelo fell down the stairs. He was not pushed. At all.

In another care home, there was only me, and two other kids who didn't talk much. One time, I was in Burnywood for about three months. I was nine, and it was – so cool, cause everybody was frightened of me. Burnywood is supposed to be the legend of care homes, and it's really dodgy. But Burnywood's been burnt down now. Fortunately, I wasn't involved in the fire.

So, for eight years, I was going from care home to care home, scaring all the residents and being kicked out for attacking people. But then, when I was eleven, a miracle happened. A young couple actually wanted to foster me. Yep, I could not believe it. And neither could any of the other kids I was living with. They didn't like me anyway. There was one called Mal. He was my worst enemy. The Hendersons were a relatively nice foster family. They were quiet patient with me; obviously they knew about my anger problems, so they tagged along with what I was doing and didn't say much about it.

Anyway, yeah, I was fostered by the Hendersons for five months. To tell you the truth, it was quite enjoyable sometimes. When I first arrived with them, I was a tad nervous, but that was probably because it was my first foster family I've ever had. I soon got used to the polite ways of Mr and Mrs Henderson. And they didn't have children, so there was no sharing or anything. But then, five months after I got fostered, me and Mr. Henderson had a slight argument. And... I punched him. Quite violently. But he provoked me, he totally provoked me.

So, I got sent off to Elm Tree House. It was the only care home in the area willing to take me. Am I really so bad that every care home in the area, except one, doesn't want to take me in? Cool. I've got a reputation, I thought.

This... is my story. The ups and downs of living in Elm Tree House. I'll be writing about nearly everything – all the squabbles and fights, all the awkward moments, all the secrets about the kids that I've somehow managed to accumulate. I'll talk about the times I tried to run away, my ongoing fight against my arch-enemy Johnny Taylor, my slight crush on one of the residents and my friendship with Elektra (which went slightly awry at one point). Not a detail of anybody's lives will go unnoticed.

You might be thinking... why am I writing about my experiences at Elm Tree House? Well, partly because I've been at 'the Dumping Ground', as it's known as, for longer than I've spent at any other care home. And also... because I just know that... Elm Tree is special.

Next chapter

HELLO, ELM TREE HOUSE