“Mina, darling, I’m home!” A gruff, loopy voice shouted loud enough for the walls to vibrate. Several stomps vibrated the floors, followed with the crashes of the man running blindly into walls.
Meanwhile, a small, stick thin girl of ten or eleven shuddered in pure horror and struggled desperately to hide herself farther in the back corner of an empty room. The bangs and crashes grew closer, and a whimper wrestled it’s way out of the girl’s lips. The girl’s hand slapped against the rotting wooden wall, and her nails dug deep into the wood as if she was trying to sink into the wall, just disappear. And she was so close…
But it was too late. The bangs suddenly stopped, and as Mina slowly turned her head around, her big green eyes met the born, bloodshot eyes of the drunken man who was steadying himself with the wall, which creaked. Her father was home.

Lithium- don't want to lock me up inside
Lithium- don't want to forget how it feels without
Lithium- I want to stay in love with my sorrow
Oh but God, I want to let it go

“Hey, sweetheart. Have a good day sitting in this damn corner?” the man whispered hoarsely with a cough that sent a shower of smelly spit on the girl’s raven black hair.
“Y-yes, Papa,” the girl attempted to whisper, but only managed to mouth it/
“I didn’t hear you, Mina.” the man said angrily.
“I had a good time, Papa,” Mina whispered shakily.
“Are you afraid, girl?”
Mina only turned her head and focused her eyes on the cold wall, forcing her thoughts and feelings to numb.
“Answer me, wretched child. Are you afraid of me?”
Mina refused to respond.
The man reared up in a shot of anger, and Mina shut her eyes tight and leaned her forehead against the hard surface. The next instant, the back of her head was meeting the same hard wall on the other side of the room.

Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone
Couldn't hide the emptiness you let it show
Never wanted it to be so cold
Just didn't drink enough to say you love me

“YOU WRETCHED CHILD! EVERYDAY I GO TO WORK FOR YOU, SLAVE MY LIFE AWAY FOR YOU, AND YET STILL YOU CAN’T EVEN LOOK AT THE FACE OF YOUR PROVIDER,” the man roared.
Mina shook her head to keep herself conscious and clutched her broken arm. She only allowed a short pause to come before she raised her head and glared. “You don’t spend your day working, Papa. You spend your day at the bar. You are not my provider, Mama is. Now go away, back to your real home: hell.”
The man took a deep breath and with surprising speed brought the empty beer glass down onto Mina’s head and proceeded to shamelessly hammer his arms into the girl’s stomach and throat, smiling as she curled into a ball.
“Scream for me. Scream for me! SCREAM FOR ME!” He screams.
Mina only slid her eyes closed and kept the rest of her face blank. Pain would not overcome her. Papa would not overcome her.
A fat, rough, and sticky hand suddenly gripped Mina’s throat and lifted her into the air. She tried not the cry, she tried not to show her pain, and she tried not to make him happy, but it seeped through anyways.

I can't hold on to me
Wonder what's wrong with me

Lithium- don't want to lock me up inside
Lithium- don't want to forget how it feels without
Lithium- I want to stay in love with my sorrow  

The man shoved her against the wall and pushed. A crack of her back made Mina scream. He raised a fist to watch in glee as her faced smashed through the wall.
But suddenly a blow from behind forced the man to stumble to the ground, and a thin, pale woman with a flat wooden board in her shaky hand stood where he was. Mina slipped onto the ground and laid very still. The only way to make him leave her alone would be to pretend to be dead.
“Do not hurt my daughter again, you jacka-” the lady began, but suddenly the man was on top of her, beating her face from one side to another, splattering blood on the floor and his knuckles. Mina curled herself tightly into a ball and blocked the screams out of her mind, but the vibrations of every time her mother’s face cracked against the floor seemed to reach into her soul, grip her heart, and squeeze. She let out a scream of terror.

Don't want to let it lay me down this time
Drown my will to fly
Here in the darkness I know myself
Can't break free until I let it go
Let me go

Mina fought her physical exhaustion and leaned against the wall. Her parents were rolling around on the floor now. She watched as her mother managed to slip away, crying and shrieking as she crawled away, her legs dragging awkwardly behind her.
Papa suddenly grabbed her by her hair and pulled back with all her might, and she let out another scream that made Mina burst into tears and wail, “no” as many times as she could, trying as hard as she could to make it all disappear.
But if course it didn’t, and her father’s hands tightened into her mother’s arms and began throwing her into one wall and then another.

Darling, I forgive you after all
Anything is better than to be alone
And in the end I guess I had to fall
Always find my place among the ashes

I can't hold on to me
Wonder what's wrong with me

Mina stumbled down onto her hands and knees and slowly slid her way to the board on the ground in front of her. Her little fingers wrapped weakly around it, and she struggled her way to a stand.
Her mother suddenly stopped screaming, and Mina looked dup to see her father pushing her mother into a sack. Mina took in a deep breath and tottered her way toward her father’s fat head. She gritted her teeth, and with all her might plunged the board into her father’s head.
Papa screamed and fell to the ground instantly, blood pooling quickly under him, his breathing still steadily continuing. The monster was dead for now.
As quickly as she could, Mina pulled the bag away from her mother’s head and wrapped her single working arm around her waist and cried into her shirt. The two sat in silence and whimpered as their blood slowly stopped draining, saving their energy. The next minute, the man shifted, and the two braced themselves for the second round that would last through the night, as it always did.

Lithium- don't want to lock me up inside
Lithium- don't want to forget how it feels without
Lithium- stay in love with you
Oh I'm gonna let it go