Yeah, she's my sister.
With brown hair and blue eyes.
Thin lips and a wide smile.
She always knows when I'm down.

Hell yeah, a few years back.
Just wishing down the wishing well.
Tossing pennies in the creek.
Most people never know.
The kind of pain I wished away.

Dreams swirled like black smoke,
I could see figures dancing in the ripples.
Strange I know, the voices in my head.
No, I'm not crazy.
They're memories.
That only two ten year olds could hear.
My eyes ripple harder than the stream.
My hands shake with more fervor than the trees.

But still she loves me.
Holds me tight in the dead of night.
Whispers don't cry.
Tears streaming down her own cheeks.
Stained with bruises.
Stained with fear.

She knows all too well the bite of the belt.
All too well the sting of the slap.
She knows what it's like to breathe,
eat, and sleep sadness.
The same as I do.
Now she lives far away,
With an Aunt Sue.
I do not know her as once I did.
She rolls with a crowd.
Dangerous and Untrue.

She left me behind,
Below,
Buried,
Beneath the pain she heaped on me.
For now at least, she is free.
And I, here, must remain.
Filled with regret.
With hate.
Far from the friends that love me.
Quillian tells me to suck it up.
At least I have a father.
Rowan tells me to love him,
but I can't.
I won't.

For Sarah Lynn has left me.
To survive under him, alone.
And I will find,
Out how to escape,
To "Free Myself From Here."
And I will be the one standing.
Saying, "Free at last. Free at last.
Thank God Almighty, I am Free at last."