“Shut up, all of you!” The bowl hit the wall above the little girl’s head, and she squeaked from where she was now crouching, closing her mouth. Next to her was a younger girl, looking more frightened. The empty bowl had stopped rolling on the ground and now lay flat, and all of them were looking at it. “You’re all impossibly annoying. Keep your mouths shut.” The man said, spitting angrily. The two girls crouched under their shared blanket and the boy looked at them with a smug grin from across the room. The boy was the oldest of the three, but even so, he was only 5. The older girl was a year younger, making her 4, and the youngest girl was only 2.

The boy thought that he could boss the girls around because he was the oldest. He did boss them around, but it was more because he was the man’s favorite. The other man’s favorite too. The woman didn’t really seem to care either way, but it was clear that she thought the boy was stronger and better than both the girls. At least she gave some sympathy to them. Both the men didn’t, they both shouted and threw things and made it very clear that they didn’t like any of the children, especially not the girls.

The older girl, Tigree, hated it. Sunny didn’t really know better, because she was just a baby, and didn’t even really talk yet. Tigree talked to her though, because there was no one else to talk to, other than Phantom or the man. Phantom would only hit her if she tried to talk to him, and the man would just yell. The man liked it quiet.

Tigree hated it being quiet.

It was very quiet at the moment, because Sunny had stopped babbling when the bowl hit the wall, and Phantom had stopped laughing after getting a stern look from the man. Tigree covered Sunny’s head with the blanket, so that maybe the man wouldn’t see her and hurt her, because Tigree knew that they were going to get hurt, because the man hurt them whenever they were bad. He said that they were bad a lot.

He was moving towards Tigree, probably going to hit her, when the woman came into the room. “Trevor.” She said sternly, and the man turned around, looking annoyed. “Leave them alone. They’re being quiet, that’s what you wanted.” The man glared at her, but he turned and left the room anyway.

The woman looked at all three children and sighed, setting down three bowls full of food on the table and picking up the empty one from the floor. “There’s your food.” She said, gesturing the bowls, and then walking over to Tigree and Sunny, pulling the blanket gently off of the two year old. “There you are. You’re okay now.” She smiled at the girls, and then turned around and shouted at Phantom who was taking two bowls from the table. “Phantom! Only one.” The boy snarled but put one of the bowls down anyway and retreated back to his bed. The woman sighed, looking back at the girls with pity before leaving the room, locking the door behind her.