"Nope," Axel answered. "Usually she'd call me out while he's at work and we'd play or something. She didn't show up for two days and I took a chance to go in the house. Of course I was a stupid ten year old at the time." The seventeen year old scratched his head, at least to have something to do with one hand -- he'd already finished his last smoke. "She was out with him apparently. I went into the house looking, since she didn't come out to look for me for almost three days. At first I thought she'd escaped and was going to come back for me within a week of the fact like she said. They came home arguing and then he saw me. I wasn't thinking at the time, too excited to see my own mother. He asked questions she tried to lie about, trying to convince him he's drunk -- the man reeked of beer -- and he just lost it. He manhandled her into the bedroom. You know kids -- what's theirs can't be tampered with. So I'm there trying to fend the guy off. Failed, of course. All I could do was watch the bastard hang her from the ceiling fan. She didn't have long, either, already wasted half her breath with fighting and she was gone in less than a minute."
Axel's brows furrowed, expression dark. "I was next. Running from a beat up F-150 should be cake, but Christ, that thing was fast. I think that was the first time I really hated kids' toys. Tripped over a mountain of them on a sidewalk three blocks over. Buck got me, knocked me out. Next thing I knew I was on the side of a dusty road miles away from any kind of civilization. I didn't know what direction I was going in, but I'd been traveling ever since. I didn't know any aunts or uncles so that was me. Seven years later, here I am."