Sixteen-year-old Tyler wakes up in a puddle of sweat, screaming, and crying. His sister Ava hearing, becomes alarmed. She darts into the room, unsure what she is going to do once she gets there. She sees Tyler laying their knees to his chest, shaking, and sobbing into the pillow. Her first reaction would be to rush by his side, but she just stands there temporarily paralyzed. Finally snapping out of it, she runs to his side. She pulls him close, wraps her arms around him. Ava says “it’s okay, it was just a dream.” Tyler responds by sniffling and hugging her back. 

Roughly ten minutes later they slowly release each other. They make eye contact and lock eyes as to silently say I love you. Ava smiles and nods as she turns and walks out of his room. Once she is gone Tyler releases a sigh of relief. With that, he gets up to get dressed. He walks over to his dresser and pulls out his favorite pair of basketball boxers, a pair of neon green shorts, and a short sleeve nirvana T-shirt. After getting dressed he throws on his socks and running shoes. Then without another word he’s out the door, down the road, and around the corner. He starts with a speed walk, then eases into a light jog. He slowly maneuvers into a sprint. He sprints the one mile to the local school track. He walks on to the track, puts both fingertips on the ground, and gets into his takeoff position. Without a second's hesitation, he’s off and down the track. All his thoughts and mental conflicts seem to be temporarily fading away as he is running. He feels the best he’s ever felt, he’s clear-minded, he feels free. For the first time in his life, he feels like he is safe, in a place where no one can hurt him. He is confident that he is doing something right. He lost track of time, by the time his lungs are burning he finally slows to a jog, then a walk. He looks up at the sky and it's almost dark. With his lungs still on fire, he decides to lay down on the track while looking up at the almost dark navy sky and just breathe. It’s been a while since he’s been able to just lay there and breathe calmly. After about another hour, he wakes up and looks at his phone. It's 10:30 and he gets up and starts to head home.

When he finally makes it home it’s almost 11 he tries to sneak into the front door. All the lights are off, he thinks he’s in the clear until he passes the hallway to his dad’s bedroom and turns to head down the hallway to his and Ava’s rooms. He feels a tight grip land heavily on his left shoulder. It’s his dad, Kayne, and he looks like he has been drinking. Fear slowly starts to rise inside of Tyler, he feels his chest tighten up, his face starts to get red, and his breath quickens. He tries to pull away, but he just feels the grip get even tighter and heavier. He yelps out in pain, turns around, and shoves his drunk dad into the wall. Kayne stumbles for a second then falls into the wall. Tyler, seizing the opportunity, takes off running out of the door, down the street, and around the corner before his dad even knew what hit him. Tyler doesn’t know where he is going, he just knows he has to leave. It’s like his brain and body are connected, they know when and where to turn. When he finally stops he realizes he is in front of his closest friend Macy’s house. He hasn’t talked to her in a while because he hasn’t been at school for the past week. He is scared to see what she will say to him, but not having another place to go he hesitantly walks up to the front door. He stands there for a moment, then finally knocks. 

Startled by the knock at the door, Macy jumps up and looks at the clock on the wall, 12:15. Scared at who could be at her front door, she grabs her Ruger LCP .380 pocket pistol out from the top drawer in her nightstand. Walks up and looks out the side window. Seeing Tyler she gasps in shock, drops the gun, and runs to open the door. She swings the door open and pulls him inside. Macy wraps her arms around him and hugs him tight in relief to see him again. When she pulls away she can easily tell there is something wrong. Alarmed she has him sit on the couch while she gets him a bottle of water. When she walks back into the room she sees him sitting there elbows on knees, head in hands. He is sobbing and saying something inaudible. Cautious, Macy slowly approaches and sits next to him. She places her hand on top of his knee, he shakes a little less now and looks at her. Not meaning to scare her, he lunges at her with arms wide open. Before she can react she feels his warmth against her, she smiles sadly and embraces him back. Thinking back to their childhood she remembers when his grandma would sit there and hold him in her arms while singing to him and rubbing his back. She starts to rub his back while lightly humming You are my sunshine and it still takes a while but after about 20 minutes he is calm enough now to talk. She slowly stops and pushes him away so he is sitting up now and says “What happened, are you okay?” He just looks at her and shakes his head no. They sit there in silence for a moment then finally he speaks, he says “I can’t do this, I can’t escape.” Her confused reply is “What do you mean escape... From what?” He looks at her in the eyes painfully and then looks at his hands and watches them fiddling with anything he can grab. He finally looks up at her and says “Help me, please just help me!” Concerned she answered “of course I will help you, do you need a place to stay for the night?” eyeing the couch they are sitting on. Grateful he takes her up on the offer. She gets up and walks to the other room. 10 minutes later she walks out with a blanket, a sheet, and a pillow. Macy sets them down next to him on the couch, hugs him, and says “get some rest, you’ll need it” with that she turns around, walks out winks at him, and goes to her room, cracks the door, and crawls into bed. In the other room, Tyler is left sitting there alone with his thoughts. All running through his head at the same time. Why me? Why dad? Why like this? I wonder what family feels like? They just keep rolling on and on. Eventually, he gets them to subside for now, at least long enough to try to sleep. He stands up and grabs the bundle Macy placed next to him; he starts making it suitable for resting and lays down. Even though he closed his eyes his mind is still wide awake. He lays there and finally drifts off to sleep.

Macy wakes up and walks into the living room to only find the bundle she had given Tyler the night before laying there folded neatly. Tyler was nowhere to be found.