The Loudest Sound is Silence

          My nose is on fire. Hot tears soak my pillow, and my cheeks feel soggy. The muffled, hateful screams outside my door swarm inside my head. My head pounds, pleading for the noise to quit. Then. Nothing. Nothing but the loud eerie sound of silence. I listen closer. But not a word is spoken. The silence rings in my ear. I almost hate the loud ringing, promising no good could follow, more then the constant bickering. Unsurely, I slip out of bed. I pace myself slowly towards the door, only to hear gravity take place on a table, and glass shatter. My heart and feet race at the same tempo. I clutch the smooth door handle with power, swinging the door wide open. Its cold steals the built up warmth from my hand in a split second. I walk out into the unwelcoming situation, all the while wishing I was still back in the comfort and safety of my well-worn room. The soured smell of the stained carpet mixing with the nose-hair-singeing cigarette smoke hits me like a brick wall. The smoke of my mom's last cigarette still lingers in the air. It stings my eyes, that were already trying to adjust to the dim lighting. I stare down to the very end of the seemingly never-ending hallway. The terror that fills my loved ones faces adds to the painful lump sitting inside my throat. My mother resides unsettling on the floor, surrounded by broken furniture. She pulls on my sisters hair that sits on the crown of her head. Supporting herself only with one locked arm out behind her pushing on her crushed glasses lying between her hand and the bumpy carpet, she tries with everything she's got left to pull my sister down with her. Tears still flowing, I stand motionless at the opposite end of the dark endless hallway. Where I remain, choosing not to intervene.