e a merciless predator. Sinking its icy claws into my flesh, clawing at

never been kind to me or offered any warmth. But this.. this was something

little body heat I had left. The darkness was oppressive, broken only by the fain

right? What if I am useless? I can't even pr

efer to call it. Apart from the faint drip of water as it fell from the ceiling, dispersing as it hit the ground

pe from the memories that were adamant on ruining my life, of reminding me of what I tried my hardest to no

just beginning to discover the world when the future should have stretched out b

g all over again. The night not just my childhood but my world an

I would play with the next morning, of the songs my mother would sing

ill dreaming, that the shadows moving in the corners of my room were just figments

creaked open, and the sh

t pounded in my chest, and I wanted to scream out for my daddy, to call out to my mother,

me from my bed, pulling me into the shadows with them. I struggled,

the only home I had ever known. The night air bit at my skin as they

st flashes of light and dark, of the van rattling ove

ame to comfort me, to tell me that everything wo

n't wake from. I was passed from one pair of hand

them, I was nothing more than a commodity, something to be use

led my life. I was no longer a little girl with dreams of dolls and songs; I was something else entir

hell. Not taken by strangers this time, but by the very person who had taken everything from me-my

f freezing air rushed in, stinging my already numb

ked force that seemed to suck the warmt