Have you ever seen the life of a leaf? It comes in as a little hope, and as time goes by it dries off and falls away, and it waits for the appropriate season to grow again.

My life was like a leaf. Only it had dried way before it grew. But not my sister's. She was still young, just a wee little baby, only six years old. I could give her a better life. A life, where no one dared to lift a finger on her, a life where she could obsess about as many butterflies as she liked. A life much better than mine. All I had to do was leave.

Like Cinderella waited for the clock to strike 12 to run away, so did I. This was not my home. Only monsters lived here. My father, Steve and his bitch of a wife, Kathy. She was maybe 5-6 years older than me, but the poison in her heart had been festering for much longer than her age, I could tell. It didn't help that my father was a crackhead, and completely pussy-whipped. But then again, it didn't come as a surprise. Steve had found Kathy on one of his whore-runs. He picked her up, they popped some pills and did it in the back of his car. And the result? My sister, Allura.

If Steve had the chance, he would treat Allura exactly the way he treated me, beaten, downgraded and absolutely humiliated at any given time. A bottle of gin was more important for Steve than putting food on the table for his family. But thankfully, Kathy had some sense of responsibility and motherhood left in her. Even if she had never physically abused me, her words were razor sharp. Both of them were a piece of work. At the tender age of 12, I had to start taking care of my baby sister, because Kathy was too busy 'earning' for us. She had me to make up for her loss of presence, just like my mother had. I was thankful to Kathy for at least putting me through high school.

It was safe to say I didn't even know who she was. I had never seen her picture or even heard of her from my dad. He would beat the shit out of me whenever I tried to dig any deeper. Steve had done an excellent job in keeping me isolated. No one dared to even make eye contact with me.

Living in Vernon, the town's people knew to stay away from Steve Larsen's daughter. Rumour had it, I was a crackhead just like my father. Not that I gave two shits about what they thought, my heart only hurt for Allura and no one else.

I turned 18 today, and it was probably the best day of my life. Why? you ask, because Steve had graciously fallen asleep, that meant no drunken slurs and beatings today. To be honest, that's the least he could do for me today.

I went to school like a ghost, no one wished me except for Allura. She was my only ray of sunshine in this pitiful world. I didn't have any friends, because the kids from the upper end did not like to familiarize themselves with the scum of the town. Thankfully, Allura was home schooled, she didn't have to go through things that I went through. Kathy didn't bother enrolling her in a school. She thought I was educated enough to teach the little child the basics of science, maths and language. I had absolutely no issues with teaching her, but how could I provide her with the knowledge only school could impart. I genuinely felt she asked too much of me, or maybe it was just my bitchy side that felt this way.

I couldn't leave Allura even if I tried to. I planned to take her wherever I went. I planned to give her a better life. Life away from Vernon. She deserved it. She deserved much more than a deadbeat dad and an absent mother.

Allura was sheltered, whereas I bore the brunt of my father's beatings and words. It was just once that she had witnessed Steve and Kathy gang up on me. I was running a fever and I couldn't cook dinner. Kathy had just come back from work all frustrated because Steve had gone and spent the whole week's cheque on some blow. He was out of it when she confronted him about the money, and somehow all of it turned on me and the dinner. Kathy called me names while Steve threw punches at me, Allura had woken up from her sleep because of her mom's screeching. Allura let out a loud scream at the scene unfolding in front of her.

"Lulu, get inside now. I'll be with you soon." I rushed to her and tried to console her, but it was all in vain. Allura wouldn't stop crying. It took a few days to get her out of that trauma. That was one pain free week when everyone played happy family.

Huh, what a joke!

Ours was probably one of the most dysfunctional families out there. If ever there was a competition for dysfunctional families, we would rank in the top 5.

After I got back home from school, I made sure Allura and I spent some time together before I got to work in the kitchen. Shortly, Allura had decided to join me in the kitchen to bake a little birthday cake. Later on, we got to doing a few worksheets I had prepared for her. It took a lot of effort to get her to study, the girl was a rebel.

Allura and I shared a room, she refused to sleep alone. According to her the boogieman couldn't hurt her if I was nearby, just a little story that had come out of Steve's vile mouth. The only thing he was good at was terrorizing little girls and passing out.

We played monopoly junior for a while, before eating dinner in our room. Since it was my Birthday we had baked beans, bread and some cake.

Allura was slowly getting tired, this was the perfect time to give her my phone and watch a few videos on YouTube. She loved watching animal videos before sleeping. This also gave me some time to catch up on my school work. I wasn't a straight A student, but I was average. I didn't let my circumstances affect my studies. I did the best that I could.

I made my way to the bed after finishing my homework. I took the phone away from Allura, with a little bit of backlash. We read a bedtime story before I felt her soft snores beside me.

Allura had fallen asleep in my arms. I brushed her dark mane of hair off of her face and kissed her forehead. Little girl was so excited about my birthday that she ate half of the small cake that we had baked. The sugar high had her running around the house at the speed of light. Like I said, today was a lucky day. Steve had been out getting high the whole day and hit the bed as soon as he got home.

I was going to start applying for jobs tomorrow, and soon get the fuck out of here. I just had to wait for midnight.