The screams of a five year old boy and his seven year old sister echoed throughout the small two-story house every other day, if not every day. No one heard the screams of the children that cried out for help due to the T.V. always blasting the sound of the show in the house. Torture. That’s all that house was. It was a torturous hell house that not one soul knew of that lived in a neighboring house. Kids always screamed for no reason at the ages of two to around nine; even if the screams were heard no one ever interfered with it.

As saddening as two kids crying out for help was not one person ever checked in to see what was wrong with them. They always seemed perfectly happy once they stepped foot out of the house into the open air. The smiles that strung across their face’s made everyone around them smile as well.

Everyday the neighborhood kids would wait across the street and watch the fancy white door to see when the two kids would exit. Almost everyday the door opened slowly around five o’clock and there stood the two frightened kids behind the screen door. Fear still shined in their eyes as they stared at the kids across the street that waited for them to come outside and play. It was a perfect picture to the neighbors; a five year old boy standing next to his seven year old sister while they held each other when their mom stood atop the stairs towering over them.

Terror and fear was all the kids had learned about in the house. Fear those who are superior to you and be afraid when you don’t listen. Two simple rules followed everyday just as the screams followed. The moments the kids stepped foot outside the house they put on a mask that hid their problems so no one would see what was truly happening inside that house.

“Kaylie! Shawn! Come over and play with us!” the kids would always yell across the street.

Each day the two kids would run out of the house without looking back at their mom and not caring when they had to come home. Any time outside of the house was better than none. The smell of fresh air blasted their faces as they bolted out the screen door and dashed across the uneven road. They never let go of each other’s hands until they knew they were safe with their friends; until they knew they would not scream any time soon.

The daily routine followed as the kids played with their friends, truth or dare. Sometimes they would even play truth, dare or double truth, a game where if you picked double truth and lied then the friends could do anything they wanted to that person. Time after time Kaylie and Shawn would run around in the spring grass with smiles across their faces as they escaped hell itself. The only time they weren’t safe is when they stepped foot inside the house or when their mom stepped foot outside of the house. Their only escape was their friends and each other, they both lived lives of fear and denial. Fear towards their mom and denial towards their friends; half of their own lives were complete lies and no one knew about it.