The very first memory she had was hiding in a cupboard in the kitchen as the voices grew louder and angrier. Her mother had pushed her in urging her to be a good quiet girl and that once the bad men had left she'd get a treat. So Julia stayed in that cupboard in the kitchen, crouched, then sat crossed-legged, hugging her bunny tight at the voices came and went with anger and sadness to them. The loud bangs caused her to flinch where she was, but she squeezed her eyes shut and made sure she didn't make a noise. Time passed, she didn't know how much but her stomach began to growl and she couldn't help it she wet herself. But she had said she'd stay there so she did. Her mama was gonna come for her, she promised. 

She woke up confused, sore, and damp after a fitful sleep in her hiding space. There were voices again, but they didn't sound angry or sad. Businesslike, when Mama would answer the phone late at night sometimes and she was supposed to be sleeping. The voices were quieter than the ones from before and she wondered where her mama was. Pressing her ear against the cupboard door she strained to hear the sound of mama's voice, even faintly from the backroom. 

Thuds of footsteps got closer to where she was hiding and she tried to move back into the shadows but the cupboard was pulled open too quickly, a man's form filling the space and blocking most of the light. "NO!" she screamed as she shoved her fist forward, like tony the boy on the block showed her when bad men showed up. Her small fist didn't have much of an impact, although the appearance of the wild girl and the swing that followed was enough to get him to fall back a bit, so Julia could scramble out on all fours and start yelling. "Mama!" she cried, as she avoided the man, getting to her feet and running as fast as she could her arms pumping as if it'd help her speed. "Mama!" 

The stature of the small girl was enough that she could easily maneuver around the men who hadn't been expecting her to be here. And as she ran the final steps towards her mother's bedroom she tripped, flying a foot forward and sprawling out on the wet carpet. She laid there, the breath knocked out of her for a second before registering this wasn't water that had made the carpet wet. She pushed herself into a sitting position, breathing faster and faster, before lifting her hands to stare at the palms covered in thick crimson liquid. "Mama..." she said before turning her head to look at what she tripped over and letting out an ear-piercing scream.