Walk through the door.

Dust blanketing the kitchen, cracks snaking up the walls, weeds taking pride place in the garden. Adele stumbled through the lounge, dazed and in disbelief. ‘How can this be the same house?’ she wondered. Bottles now emptied of the wine that once coloured them were scattered atop the coffee table, their number drawing her eye. ‘Well, some things haven’t changed’.

Adele was worried. Her younger sister, Melanie always came to her house for dinner on Tuesday nights, but last night she hadn’t come. Hadn’t been answering Adele’s phone calls either and that just wasn’t like her. Melanie was the only reason she had come back to this place- a house she had not entered in eight years.

She made her way down the cluttered hall, pausing outside her old bedroom door. Curiosity overcame her and her fingers lifted to the handle, lingering. Unwelcome memories swam into Adele’s mind-

flying glasses, abusive taunts, smashed window, kick to her stomach, pool of blood around her ankles, empty screen, doctor shaking his head.

Adele yanked her fingers away and staggered back against the wall, blood pounding loudly in her ears. ‘That was a long time ago’, she chided, ‘You’re here for Melanie now’.

A pond of light drew her notice, seeping beneath the bathroom door. Adele inhaled deeply and pushed it open.

“What have you done to her?!” Her scream echoed off the tiles where her mother knelt, sponging blood off Melanie’s forehead. Adele pushed the kneeling woman to the side and grasped her sister’s hand tenderly, looking into her battered face. “I’m here, Mel, I’m going to get you out of her”. The disorientated look that met her eyes was not comforting.

Adele turned back to her mother, “Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?!” A hand landed hard across her cheek, “Don’t you tell me how to look after my own daughter, you whore!”

Adele stood defiantly “You’re not fit to be a mother! And you won’t have to be anymore. I’m taking Mel to the hospital, then she’s going to come live with me”. Her mother moved to stand. “You try and stop me and you’ll have the police to deal with. Now get out of our way!” She lifted her sister gently and carried her to her room to get dressed.

Their mother sank to the cold floor, a blank look upon her face. “Get out of my house, you filthy sluts! I wish I’d gotten rid of you when I had the chance. You’ll never amount to anything, you’ll both end up dead from disease before you’re thirty! I hope you rot in hell!”

The door swung closed behind Adele, as she helped her sister down the front path. “You’re going to be fine, Mel” she whispered, “It’s all behind you now”.