What’s the most heartbreaking thing you’ve ever survived?

The Unpredictable House of Terror

My parents made my brother take his own life, then tried to frame me for it, so I went nuclear and exposed their lies. Now, two years later, they’re begging me to stop, but I just posted more proof. I was 17 when I allowed my younger brother to be abused in every way possible. To this day, my parents are the most unpredictable people I’ve ever met.

If I accidentally said a curse word, they’d lightly scold me and say, “You shouldn’t be using that language.” But this was only on a good day. On a bad day, like they had a bad day at work, they’d lock me in the basement with no window, food, and just a Dani water bottle.

Another time in sixth grade when I wanted to improve my GPA, I wrote out every subject and wrote a list of things I can do to improve. I was so proud of it that I made the mistake of showing my mom.

She replied: “Honey, I’m so proud of you.” “You are the best son anyone could ask for.”

But not even a month later, I wasn’t understanding a math question she was trying to teach me. And she immediately started screaming, “You are worded piece of How do you not understand this yet?”

Unfortunately, I started crying and she immediately started tearing my room apart. All the improvements I had written per subject, my Christmas tree cleared off my entire desk. By the time she was finished, I was so scared that I had managed to be completely silent and stop crying.

She then said: “You’re tidying this all up, you worthless rword,” She said before slamming the door and walking out.

But my breaking point didn’t come until I was in the eighth grade and my brother Eli was 11. They started treating him the same way they treated me, if not worse. And it’s not like I spoke back to them or anything.

But one day, I heard him crying because my dad had yelled at him for being an attention seeker when he was sick with a vomiting bug. So, I came into his room, pulled him onto my lap, and slowly fed him capfuls of water so he could hydrate without throwing up.

But my dad grew suspicious of his sudden silence, and immediately his bedroom door was flung open. I stood up and pretended like I had been hitting Eli for crying. But my dad knew better.

He ordered me to get the f out and locked Eli’s door from the outside. And before I could say anything, he grabbed me by the collar, threw me into my room, and I could hear the door lock, too. That was the beginning of a life filled with pain.

Over the next few weeks, the pants that once fit me could barely stay by themselves. And as for school, our parents had pulled us out and told everyone we were being homeschooled, and of course, no one ever fact checked them.

But the worst pain didn’t even come from the constant shouting or the overwhelming hunger. It came when I heard my brother crying alone in his bedroom when I could hear his pleading for help. It honestly felt like I was in some torture chamber.

And whenever they did bring us outside, I was so scared of the world that I never even dared to tell anyone. And through it all, there was just one beacon of hope, and that was Runescape, a video game. It was the only thing that actually made me happy.

By 17, I had gotten so good that I was leading a large clan of 128-year-olds. None of them knew my face or even my real name. My confidence was enough for them to trust me to lead them into battle.

My Runescape family got so big that people were joining and even meeting their true loves. One couple even invited me to their wedding. That’s when I met Josh. He was my mentor, so to speak. He was the only one who knew my face and who I was outside of the game.

After two months of talking, I finally opened up. I expected him to change the topic or just reply with something about games. But instead, he didn’t reply. He called me. I told him everything, the abuse, the neglect, my younger brother. The other end was completely silent until I was done.

And he responded with just seven words. “I think you should stay with me.”

“Yes,” I responded with no hesitation. I figured that my life was already at an all-time low, so it could only stay low or get better.

We planned it out step by step, and the next time my parents let me out for my walk, I hopped on the bus and went to the airport. They didn’t even start calling me until the plane was about to take off. Obviously, I just blocked their numbers.

When I landed, I spotted Josh with a smudged sign that had my name on it and a huge smile on his face. But through it all, my stomach was churning because I couldn’t stop thinking about how I had abandoned Eli. And apparently, I had severely underestimated how hard the readjustment period would be.

I was sleeping literally all the time because my body didn’t have to be in survival mode anymore. So, after 3 weeks, when I could finally stay awake all day without a 6-hour nap, I went through all my voicemails, and that’s when my heart was ripped out of my chest. When Eli found out I had left, he took his own life.

I collapsed to the floor. Josh rushed in, and when I told him what happened, he assured me that my parents wouldn’t go unpunished. At the time, I thought he was just comforting me.