I'm alone.

I'm completely alone, inside a world full of people. (A/N: I know I use this sentence twice in the chapter, but it fits for both characters.)

I want to scream at the top of my lungs, but I'm terrified nobody will hear me.

My heart is beating, aching, throbbing inside my chest. I can hardly pass a breath through my weak lungs. It's dark, so terribly dark. I can't hear anything besides my own ragged breathing. I'm alive, but at the same time I'm not. Will he find me? Please, dear God, Please just let me be for one night. I'm so sick of hiding in this wretched closet. I'm so sick of being scared. He's angry and I'm alone with him, of course Mom and Jake aren't home. I don't know where mom is… but Jake is at Katie's. Then I hear him. All I know is that the monster my mother married is angry tonight. So angry, I can feel the vibrations of his anger through the walls. Why did he have to take it out on me? I did nothing wrong. He's close. I can hear his thundering footsteps nearing my room. I clasp my hands over my mouth, afraid to breath. I only take about five shaky breaths before he realizes where I am. The door squeaks open, and I know he's here. I know he's found me.

"Clare! Get your ass out here!" The man I've come to hate most barks. I squeeze my eyes shut in fear, and pray he doesn't go for the closet. This isn't a fairytale, though. My prayers weren't answered. I keep my eyes shut and brace myself for what's going to come. I'm not scared of the pain; I'm used to it now. I'm scared of lying to Eli. Again.

He's seen some of the bruises scattered on my arms, but I brush it off. I say they're from P.E, I fell, I slipped in the shower, anything that pops into my head. Lies, lies, lies. I can tell Eli is on to me, I'm running out of excuses. Running out of lies to weave into my web of deceit. My heart aches terribly. I hate having to lie when I want so badly to tell the truth, but I can't break his steadily growing progress in recovering; from his bipolarism, the hoarding, Julia. He can't know. I won't make him worry about this problem, worry about me.

He would be angry I waited this long to say something, and he'd do something drastic. Eli would quickly diminish everything he's done to get better if he found out what's been happening to me. If he found out I've been lying to him. I know I won't be able to lie this time, because I know I'm going to get it worse than ever. I didn't have to hear the front door being slammed open tonight to know he was in one of his foulest moods. It wasn't the noise that followed after his entrance, it was the cold silence before it. I'm broken out of my thoughts as the footsteps stop in front of my hiding spot. The closet door suddenly opens, and I'm face to face with the Devil. His lips curl into a wicked smile, much like the Cheshire Cat.

"Clare, Clare, Clare." He tuts, staring at me. He kneels down in front of me, still smirking. "Aren't you a little too old to be playing hide and seek? Time to be a big girl and face the consequences."

Before I could protest, he yanked me up by the arm, and tossed me back down to the ground. I smack my head against my desk on the way down, and I cry out as my head stings with agonizing pain. The monster called Glen merely laughs at this, and I feel a kick to my ribs. Then another. And another. I feel white-hot pain run up and down my body, and I scream but nothing comes out.

"Please…" I begged, barely above a whisper, blood from the cut on my head dripping into my mouth.

"Pleeease", Glen mocked, before grabbing me up by the hair, and knocking me into my dresser. My head hits wood again, and had it not been for the higher tolerance for pain I've had lately, I would've passed out by now. I stay bent over the dresser, too scared and too hurt to move. He comes behind me, and I feel my heart stop as he glides his hand up my thigh.

"No… don't" I pleaded, tears falling freely down my throbbing face. His hand stops right under my butt, and I shudder, out of fear and revulsion.

"Okay," he says nonchalantly, as if molesting and beating your stepdaughter was a normal thing.

"You're too fat anyway. How you have a boyfriend, I don't know…"

Before I can react to his painful words, he twists my arm back with such force, I feel something crack. I cry out in pain, and he slams my face back into the desk. My nose starts to blaze with fiery pain. I feel more blood gush out of my nose, and hear his disgusted sigh. I hear him and the faint sound of my text ringtone, right before I black out into a blissful escape from my own personal hell.

"I don't know why anyone would ever keep you. Worthless." When he knocks me out, it's the few times I'm truly happy, when I'm not with Eli. Being unconscious keeps me safe, and pain-free. I don't have to see his face, hear his voice, or feel his fists. I don't have to hear the reasons he hates me, and I don't have be conscious, conscious with the fact I hate myself.

(ELI POV)

I'm sitting next to Adam, while we're watching Bates Motel. (A/N: Love love LOVE that show!) It's been a routine thing for us; go to school, meet up after school with Clare, and hang out at my place. The three Misfits. I feel so lucky knowing I have the most amazing and breathtakingly beautiful girlfriend, and the most kickass best friend. It's just so bizarre and comforting to realize how far I've come. I used to think that I'd never have this; a somewhat normal life. I used to think that I was destined to be miserable, misunderstood, and alone. After things had taken a downward spiral for the worst, my life suddenly stitched itself back together and reconnected the pieces. Thanks to Clare, to Adam. Sure, I still miss Julia, but the hole in my heart seals itself slowly, one day at a time. Clare helped ease the pain inside me immensely.

You see, Julia didn't break up with me; she died. Because of me. I killed her. Not directly of course, i'm not a maniac for christ's sake. We got into an argument, a lover's spat, if you will. Julia, the ever so beautiful Julia, cheated on me. I don't know, I guess I had too many problems that she didn't want to deal with. I guess I was just a big problem. I loved her, but in a different way than I love Clare. The love I felt for Julia was mainly lust, mixed with understanding. We understood each other. It was like she was a female version of me. We were both incredibly fucked up, in different ways. She was the girl who cut herself because nobody in her family bothered to take care of her, nobody loved her, nobody understood her. But I did. I knew exactly how she felt. I knew how it felt to feel so alone in a world of people, except my parents loved me.

I was the fucked up kid who was bipolar, misunderstood, and depressed. My depression went away when I met Jules, though. My parents, Cece and Bullfrog, were at least glad one factor of my self-destruction went away. They practically pushed me and her together. When Julia was having problems with her stepmother, she came to me. My parents took her in without a second thought, and that's what caused the downfall of Juleli. Haha, Julia had put our names together because she thought it had sounded cute. I guess our new-found closeness caused her to become further apart from me. I don't know, maybe I was too clingy, maybe I didn't give her enough space. Shit, maybe she woke up one day and realized she could do better than a fuck-up like me.

I don't know, though. I'll never know. The night I found out she cheated on me, I lost it. I screamed at her, I called her every insult I could think of. I cried and told her how much she hurt me, how much she broke my heart doing what she did. The last thing I ever said to her was that I never wanted to see her again. That I hated her. That night was the last night I'd ever see her. She took off on her bike, I don't know where she was going, and a car hit her. When I found out, all I could do was blame myself. I wasn't allowed to see her in the hospital, and I hadn't been allowed to go to her funeral. I had my own ceremony for her in secret, with Adam. I sat down before her grave and begged for forgiveness that would never come. When she died, a piece of me died with her. I was lost inside myself, inside my depression, until Clare.

Clare numbed the pain, eased it until she eventually made it disappear completely. When my room became cluttered, piled high with painful memories, Clare helped me clear my mind, my heart and my room. I still have a few things lingering in my room that remind me of Julia, but I no longer feel the guilt or sadness. I just remember the happiness. When Clare saved me from myself, I vowed to protect her, to never leave her side. This girl meant the world to me, she was everything Julia wasn't. She was pure, full of kindness, understanding, and full of love. I love her. I Love Clare Edwards. Lately, though, I feel as if Clare is hiding something from me.

No, I don't think she's cheating on me, especially since it's happened to her. I started sensing something was up when I first saw the bruises. She wouldn't realize her sleeves were pulled up when it was hot, and I saw the ugly colored bruises that marred her arms. She always had excuse after excuse though. Sometimes she'd slip up and say the same excuse. Nobody slips, falls, or trips that much. Not even a klutz like Clare. Something was happening, but I couldn't place my finger on what. Adam felt the same way too, but he was just as clueless as I was.

"Clare," he would ask, "Is everything alright?" She would turn pale, and blink at him before quickly nodding her head.

"Of course everything is, Adam! Why on earth would you think that?" There would always be a hint of sadness in her voice, but we didn't ask why. We were stupid.

"I don't know," he'd say, frowning at her. "It's just, you always have these bruises on your arms or on your leg that one time," his voice would increase in worry, and Clare would brush it off with a shaky laugh.

"Oh, Adam don't be such a worrywart." She'd let out a fake laugh, as if she felt like it was convincing us. "You know me, Klutzilla. Clare the Klutz!" Of course she'd say this jokingly, but she didn't know we saw the pain in her eyes. That we knew that every word out of her mouth was a lie.

I would eventually ask her, "You'd tell us if something was wrong, right, Blue Eyes?" I would stare into her baby blues, and see them flicker with fear.

Every time she would respond, "Of course I would, Eli! You know I tell you everything!" A fake smile would plaster itself on her face, and she'd quickly change the subject. We were stupid then, especially me, the boy who was supposed to know everything about her. I guess I didn't. I just wish she didn't feel like she had to lie to me. We started realizing that she was lying, when she'd come back the next day with bruises even worse, when we saw them. I want so badly to help her, but I can't. I can't help her when I don't know what's wrong with her. I guess I must've been lost in thought for quite a while, because Adam's voice snapped me back to reality.

"Yo. Earth to Eli!" Adam's somewhat feminine voice rang in my ears. I turned to him, and he was looking at me expectantly.

"Uh, hi?" I tried, not willing to bother trying to figure out what he had said while I was off in La-La Land.

Adam rolled his eyes and sighed, giving me a quick glare. "What were you so deep in thought about? Were you imagining marrying C-la-aaare?" he sang the last part of her name, and his shrill voice grated my ears, so I swatted at him.

"No, I was thinking about what Clare could possibly be lying about to us," I said, and slight frustration slowly came to me.

Adam noticed me tense up, and he became instantly serious. "What do you mean, lying to us?"

I glared at him in frustration, and rolled my eyes back at him. "I want to know why she;s lying about how she gets those bruises? Y'know, the ones we see?" I let out a heavy sigh, and fiddle with the skull ring on my pointer finger.

"I don't know, Eli, dude. Maybe she gets into play-fights with Jake, I—"

I cut him off, giving him a death glare. "Jake wouldn't give her those kinds of bruises. Plus, it'd be kinda weird of them to do that; they dated."

Adam groaned, knowing we were back to square one in the Clare Edwards Mystery. He let his head fall on the back of the couch, and stared at the ceiling.

"Maybe she plays a sport?" He asked almost hopefully.

Shaking my head, I shut the movie off. No matter what, I couldn't think of a valid reason as to why Clare was so banged up.

"She doesn't play sports. She doesn't have time for them because of the Newspaper."

"Maybe she's taking a self –defense class?"

"That still wouldn't leave bruises like that."

He scratched his head, and furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Maybe then, Eli, what she's saying is actually the truth?"

I felt a sudden anger boil up inside me, almost escaping. Almost. I pushed it back down.

"Adam. She's not telling the truth!" I rubbed the heels of my palms over my eyes, exasperatedly. "God, haven't you been watching her? I don't even have to hear her to know she's lying. I see it now."

He kicked the coffee table in front of him, letting out an angry yell. Then he started breathing, forcing himself to stay calm, like I did.

"Then what the hell should we do, Eli? How would we get her to tell us what's really going on?" He almost pleaded with me, he was as desperate as I was to know why Clare was secretly in pain. Why she kept her pain and suffering a secret from us.

I pulled out my phone, and looked at it with intent. Then I stared at Adam. "I'm going to tell her to come over because we need to talk, and we're going to catch her in a lie." He raised a brow at me, seemingly impressed with my sly skills.

With that, I unlocked my phone and started writing a new message to her.

Clare, I wrote, We need to talk. It's nothing bad, just come over as soon as you can.

Love, Eli

Little did I know, that my message would arrive too late for her to see. Little did I know just how badly My Clare was suffering, and I had no clue as why. God, I was a fucking idiot.

Yay! Chapter One of my new story done! I wrote this because it was extremely helpful to me, since I recently got out of a really toxic and abusive relationship and all. Hope to get the next chapter up within the next week, but you know, College stuffs! Let me know what you guys think!

~~~~Beccky