*Sorry if this chapter is all over the place, it took a while to write (I got bored and school work made me take a break) so I rushed the end a little, I might make a few chapters after this a little shorter but don't worry, I'll keep my schedule up and keep on top of writing*

I was sitting in the back of the car while we drove off.
"Cieco, I can't believe you did that! Your new parents are waiting for you, they don't want you to be late." Denn said. Benn was driving and Benn was in the front seat. I sat between Stacy and Parker in the back.
"But I know him, he is my best friend. I want to make sure he's okay. He could've been seriously injured for all I know! He could be dying for gods' sake but I wouldn't know because I can't see how bad it was," I started to cry. Not knowing if my best friend, only friend was okay.
"Well that depends on what your parents say."
"But they aren't our parents, they're some randos who can't have children of their own," I continued to argue.
"Cieco," Stacy placed her hand on my shoulder. "It will be okay, they live close to the hospital and I'm sure we can go to the hospital."
"I don't care! I want to see Hunter now," I took a breath and calmed down a little.
"Look, Cieco," Denn had entered the conversation. "Even if we waited, you probably wouldn't be able to see him until later, tomorrow even."
"I would've happily waited," I crossed my arms.
"Well you should get a good sleep and think about it. Pray for his recovery? This is up to your parents though, not us," Benn said, placing his hand on my knee. I just rolled my eyes and sat back in my seat.
"Well we're here," Denn pulled the car to a stop and got out.
"Stacy! Cieco! Parker!" I heard a sure, warm voice yell before getting pulled into a big group hug.
"I'm your new mom!" The hug got tighter and it became harder to breathe.
"Could you please let us go, miss?" Stacy requested before we were released.
"Right, sorry. I forgot about your valve disease, it must be hard to breathe right?"
"Uh, sometimes," Stacy answered, awkwardly.
"Hi, you must be Cieco, the blind one?" I heard the woman ask me. I just nodded.
"I'm Leila, but you can just call me mom," she hugged me.
'She's a hugger,' I signed to my siblings.
"I am a big hugger," Leila said.
"You know sign language, how fun," Stacy sounded very uncomfortable.
"Yup! And you must be Parker. You can't speak, correct?" She moved on to my brother. I assume he just nodded because everything was silent for a while.
"Can we go inside now?" I asked, breaking the silence. Right after, Parker grabbed my arm and dragged me along.
•••
It was dinner time and we were eating around the table.
"Thanks for dinner, Leila. The spaghetti is delicious," Stacy was always the first to compliment and the quickest to warm up to people.
"No problem, and just call me mom," Leila answered.
Stacy giggled, anxiously. I was about to shove a huge bite of my food in my mouth when some doors slammed open. I didn't bother to turn around to check because I wouldn't be able to see anyone anyways.
"It is not very polite to start dinner without everyone here," a rough sounding voice echoed in the room.
"Oh, I am so sorry Harold. I didn't know how late you would be, and the children were getting hungry," Leila sounded scared.
"You," Harold paused. "Always look at the man of the house when he enters a room."
I felt my head jolt back as he pulled my hair back.
"Ow, stop that! I didn't look because I'm blind, there's no point," I struggled against his force and called out in pain.
"Stop that, you asshole!" Stacy started to pull against him so the pain was tolerable. He finally let go and grumbled something about respect to himself. I rubbed my throbbing head and cursed to myself.
"Cieco, Stacy. A word please?" Leila called us over.
"Yeah?" I asked.

"We do not call the man of the house—your own father—an asshole, Stacy," she paused, "And we don't curse about him under our breath, Cieco," she said after a minute of silence. 
"Didn't you see what he just did to Cieco?" My sister argued back. I just stood there awkwardly. 
"Yes, but he pays for the roof over your head and he pays for your food. He provides everything you need to survive. Be grateful and respectful," Leila reprimanded.
"Then you're to blind to see that he's abusive, probably alcoholic and not a good father. I'm not calling him dad, father or whatever you want me to call him, and you're not our mom," I said before either of them could argue their point any further.
"How would you know? You're just some useless kid who is the actual blind one here. Literally, and metaphorically," I heard a whooshing sound, as if Leila was raising her hand to hit someone.
"What the hell are you doing? Don't try to touch my sister!" I heard a loud clapping sound right before a thump.
"Bitch, why the hell did you slap me?" Stacy sounded like she was struggling to hold back tears. I crouched to the ground and hugged her.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I glared in Leila's direction.
"She deserved it, she talked back to me. The one who feeds her," she answered.
"You said Harold feeds us? That's no excuse," I was hurt and wanted to scream, but my focus was Stacy. She was in full tears and gasping for breath.
"I don't care, I am the authority here, you wouldn't have anyone to care for you if it weren't for me. No one has the money for kids like you. Respect us, or live on the streets," her footsteps receded and I held Stacy.
"I will find us a way out of here," I pulled her closer and sighed.
"Here," I struggled in my pocket to grab her Xarelto, "It's time for your medicine," I gave it to her and just hugged her tighter.
"You don't have to take care of us, Cieco. That's my job, I'm the oldest," she just hugged me back before taking her pills.
"I love you Stace."
"I love you too Cieco."
•••
The silence in the room was deafening. All eyes were on me.
"You want to... what?" Harold asked. Leila went silent, as if afraid.
I lifted my chin defiantly. "I'm going to visit Hunter at the hospital."
"You're going to, huh?" His chair made a shuddering sound as it slid backwards, and, a second later, she could feel his hot breath on her face as he towered over her. "You're going to?"
I quivered with fear, but my voice didn't shake as I said, "Yes. He's my friend, and I want to make sure he's okay."
I could hear Stacy let out a little squeak of anger before I could feel a whoosh of wind, and my cheek suddenly stung with pain.
"You are in my house," he grabbed a hold of my face roughly, his hand shaking with fury. "And as long as you live under my roof, eat my food, spend my money, you will not be doing anything, or going anywhere without my permission. And you will not be visiting any of your buddies."
Tears pricked in the corner of my eyes, but I wiped them angrily. His fingernails dug painfully into my face, before he threw me onto the ground.
"Don't do that to Cieco!" Stacy burst out with a shrill cry. I could hear scuffling feet, as if Leila had rushed over to her.
"Be quiet," she hissed at her.
"Don't tell me to be quiet!" Stacy shrieked, "That man is hurting Cieco!"
A smack rang around the room. "That man is your father," Leila yelled, "And you will treat him as such!"
Silence echoed around the room, before I heard the front door open and slam shut, as if Harold and Leila had left. After a few beats passed, Stacy promptly burst into tears.
I ran to the sound of her hiccups, engulfing her in a huge hug.
"It's okay," I said fiercely, "Everything will be alright."
I could feel Stacy's tears staining my shirt. "No it's not! Why does this always happen to us?"
I could hear a rustle, before I felt Parker's hand grasp mine, in silent support. I swallowed my tears and comforted Stacy gently. "It'll be okay," I assured, "we'll find a way out. I promise. Harold and Leila aren't here right now—we can call child services!"
This only seemed to cause Stacy to cry harder. "Don't you see?" She cried. "They're the ones who put us here in the first place! They're just as bad as Harold and Leila are!"
"Then we'll run away!" I exclaimed desperately. "We'll run far, far away and we'll make money and be together forever! We don't need those jerks Ms. Aniperria, Stacy, or Harold. We don't need any adoptive parents. We just need each other!"
Parker's hand tightened, as if he agreed. Stacy's sobs came to an abrupt stop. "R—really?" She hiccupped.
I nodded. "Yes! Let's go right now, while Leila and Harold are gone. We don't even need to bring anything—we don't have any valuable possessions, we can just take off and go right now!"
Stacy stood up suddenly, seeming determined. "Yes! But what about Hunter?"
I froze, an ache coming to my heart before an idea formed in my head. "We can visit him right now! If we run away, there aren't any rules—no one can tell us that we can't visit him. Let's go! Let's go!"
I pulled Stacy and Parker up, parading them towards the door.
"Cieco, we should stop and form a plan," Stacy pulled out of my grasp.
"Fine, but we escape tonight. And we won't let anything get in our way," I let go of Parker's hand.
"Okay, Parker agrees as well," Stacy said, then she brought us back to the house and to our room.
"Okay, so it's noon right now. What time should we escape?" I plopped onto Stacy's bed while she grabbed paper to write everything down.
"Midnight seems too obvious, plus we need sleep and we have to gather supplies," Stacy pointed out.
"True, but we can't go too early either. Harold and Leila stay up really late."
"How about I gather a bunch of food and water when we're going to bed so we have supplies."
"Okay, what would be your excuse? Harold would flip out if he caught you." I was getting worried. If we couldn't even decide the first two parts of the plan, how was anything going to work out.
"I can say we got really hungry, if he says no, I'll sneak back in later." I heard the paper rustle—she was writing down the plan.
"But Stacy, you know how he is, he would murder you, I'm not speaking metaphorically." I sighed.
"Cieco, leave it to me. I will accept any form of punishment if it means I can save us." She didn't sound nearly as scared as me. 
"Okay, fine. We will store the snacks for when we escape."
"Parker says it would be a good idea to delay the escape."
"Why?" I was so confused. I wanted to get out of the shit hole as soon as possible.
"He said it's because we can gather more food, in smaller amounts. So it's not as suspicious." 
"Yeah, but Parker we can't draw attention to ourselves. The food will attract ants and when it rots, it will release a stench that will for sure catch their attention. We need to escape tonight."
"Canned foods?" Stacy said
"No, I don't want to bring a can opener. Besides, we would need a microwave."
"Okay, guess we are escaping tonight. I'll grab lots of food, and some money." Stacy just agreed with me and wrote it down.
"We need protection."
"Ew, Stacy. You're disgusting." I almost puked at the thought of it.
"Cieco, not that type of protection."
"Then what type? I haven't heard anyone mention a gun while explaining the rooms," I rolled my eyes.
"Well there's knives for one thing," Stacy paused. "But I do remember seeing a gun in Harold's study room. Three months in a foster home does give you a bit of time to look around and memorize everything." My jaw dropped.
"Stace! We aren't allowed in his study room, how the hell do you know that?"
"He left the door wide open once," she said it as if it were a common thing.
"Well how do you expect to go in and get the gun?"
"Well, I open the door, grab the gun and walk out again, closing the door."
"You're so funny, smartass. How the hell are you really grabbing the gun? And when?"
"I'll hide it under the food when I raid the kitchen, dumbass." She flicked my forehead.
"Okay, what are we carrying our supplies in?"
"Some backpacks, we each get one."
"Okay, simple enough. What's our transportation? And where would we even be going?" I finally asked the question that had been stuck in my head. Silence followed.
"I didn't think of that. Parker says we could live with Coralina again. Or Grandma could take us, she was always kind."
I pondered the idea.
"Fine, grandma," I nod.
"But that's like a month of driving, we won't have enough money for buses the whole way. Plus no taxi will drive that far," Stacy argued.
"Ms. Aniperria was nice, we could beg here to take us back," I suggested.
"She said she doesn't have enough money."
"She's just being a selfish bitch. She has a mansion. Harold and Leila have a small house, but have no struggle with us financially. They would have more than enough room for us, even if they got a smaller house!" I smiled and let some of the worry go. Our plan was coming together.
"Why don't we just live on the run?" Stacy suggested and all of my worrying came back.
"Stace! We can not live on the run."
"But Denn and Benn will find us and drag our sorry asses back to Leila and Harold."
"I don't care, we need parental guidance until you're twenty-one."
"We could wait here another five years, then I could bring you with me and I can be your parental figure."
"I'm not staying another minute then I have to be in this place."
"Parker, what do you think?"
"Hey, don't stress Parker out with our situation," I sat in front of Parker.
"I'm the one with the heart problems, I shouldn't be getting stressed." She started to raise her voice.
"Well, we can't communicate."
"Fine, whatever. We will go to grandmas, and drag her away from Corlina, into our mess," she grumbled and wrote it down. "But when your plan fails, we go my way!"
"Whatever, as long as there is a plan. Now, how are we going to visit Hunter?" I asked the biggest question I had.
"I'm old enough to be your parental guardian for it, I think."
"No, we need someone over eighteen."
"I could li-"
"No! I don't need any of us to go to jail," I interrupted before she could finish.
"Fine, we could drag Leila? She seems nice when Harold isn't there."
"The point of seeing him is to ask if he wants to come," I blurted before I could even realize what I had said.
"Cieco, we aren't bringing Hunter with us."
"I didn't mean it like that," I tried to cover it up with a lie.
"Then what did you mean?"
"I meant if he wanted to come live with grandma when she found us."
"He has a happy home, don't take that away from him."
"Fine, I will go say goodbye," I sighed.
"If we go live with just grandma, we will be close to him," Stacy rubbed my arm soothingly.
"Okay, if we find any problems around the way, we will soothe them out. But we need a code name for the escape."
"Operation Nolite?" Stacy suggested.
"I like that," I smiled.
"Parker agreed."
"Okay Stace. Hide the paper. Operation Nolite, is a go."

Thanks dumplingbabe
For all of your help with this chapter. It meant a lot while you helped me out of so many blocks lol.