| Haven |

One: Cereal

Sierra «

I stayed on my tippy toes, creeping around the kitchen. I peered around the corner at the time on the oven.

2:15 AM

After being sure the coast was clear, I entered the dark kitchen, using my phone as a light source.

As quietly as I could, I opened the cabinet silently hoping it wouldn't squeak.

I grabbed the cereal I wanted from the top shelf, but mistakenly in the process knocked over two other boxes— making me wince as they loudly hit the floor.

"Fuck."

I heard my grandfather get up from his bed, with his heavy footsteps coming toward the kitchen.

There was no use in hiding. The light turned on, and he walked in still in his pajamas.

"Sierra. Didn't I tell you to go to bed hours ago?"

"Yes..but..you see..I didn't eat dinner, and I was still feeling a little sick. I thought that I needed something on my stomach-"

"Why didn't you eat dinner, Sierra? Do you remember?"

"But I-"

"Why?"

"Because I missed bible study." I said lowly.

"You missed bible study because you wanted to stay home, mope around and pretend to be sick. And I told you that if you didn't go to bible study, you weren't eating dinner. You made your choice."

I sighed and put the cereal back.

"Go to bed, we have cleaning to do in the morning." He mumbled, turning around and turning off the light.

Religion was his life. Religion was our life.

Bible study every Wednesday and Saturday evening, church every Sunday, no exceptions. Normal for many families, sure. But being not allowed to eat because of a missed study? I don't think that's normal.

I went back into my room, closing my door softly.

Crashing onto my bed, I grabbed my phone from beneath my pillow. Making sure my vpn was on, I opened Instagram. My grandparents, being the helicopters they are..had a friend put a parental lock on anything they deem as "not god honoring."

Clever I have to admit, but at the end of the day they're both over fifty, meaning they didn't realize there's ways I could easily bypass these "locks".

Though the locks on my phone were escapable, most things in my home weren't. Pretty early in my life, I realized it wasn't normal.

Up until the sixth grade, I thought everyone's family was like this. I thought that no food, beatings with books and shoes, even being woken up with buckets of water in the morning were regular punishments every kid got at some point.

Once I jokingly ranted to a group of five girls at a sleepover in a desperate attempt to be relatable, I quickly realized that it wasn't.

From then on, I knew not to talk about it.

-

As I was scrolling Instagram, a FaceTime appeared on the screen. I rolled my eyes, before answering.

"How'd I know you'd be up?" My best friend, Reese said laughing.

I'd known him since second grade, each year we'd known each other I would go through phases where I'd have a crush on him..then didn't. As of now.....