Chapter One: The Reason

All I can feel, heart pounding in my chest, as if it was an animal trying to break out of it's cage. My ears are ringing, my lungs are aching like they aren't getting any air. My legs are sore and stiff, but they still keep on going. Sweat, the salty liquid dripped down running down my body, moving with it. I don't know where my final destination is, but I still continue to keep going forward.

Not looking back and closing my eyes, memories flood through my mind. They just keep coming, that's what they are memories of the past. Something I can never change. Something that I can look back on, something to keep me going. Another form of liquid runs down my face, joining the sweat droplets. Becoming one, dancing down my cheeks, flowing straight to my chin. They end their journey by falling to the ground.

I rest my hands on my knees, crouching forward slightly, panting trying to catch my breath. My eyelids open and I stand up and stretch. Looking upwards towards the sun, as if looking for an answer for a question that was never asked. Sighing since no answer was found, I wipe the salty liquid from my face with my already soaked shirt. I looked around making sure no one was following me.

If I was found then my journey would be in vein. With a last glance I walked on, still trapped within my own subconscious mind full of terrors. I hoped for an escape. I listened to the birds chirp while telling myself, "I have and always will be alone." My feet moved swiftly and somewhat silently through the thicket. Farther and farther away from civilization. Away from the hell from which I came from.

I never knew my parents, they both died in a car crash, so I was told anyways. I've been an orphan all my life. No brothers, no sisters, I didn't know of any aunts or uncles, just foster homes all year round. I'd get into fights with the other girls at the orphanage, huge ones. With them ending up with a black eye or two. So I couldn't exactly stay there. The adults said I caused to much problems that they couldn't handle.

And foster homes weren't exactly for me, I'd get switched out before a year passed by usually. But the longest I've stayed in one was about a year and, I think, nine months. That was the Carter's home. I really enjoyed it there. Not one problem, like most of the other foster homes. I'd mouth of to Mr. Carter, whose name was Richard, and he'd snap back at me. But it always seemed to turn into an argument, then into a joke where in the end we would both end up laughing or smiling.

But then, all good things came to an end, money became tight, the economy slowed down. Richard got laid off and Mrs. Carter, whose name was Jenna, was expecting a newborn baby, the Carter's first child. It's not that they didn't want me anymore, it's that they couldn't take care of two children at once. So by law, I was taken away and sent to another foster home.

I've been to about eleven homes all together. Seven of those homes weren't that great. The adults acted as if they didn't care. One house I've been abused in, just mentally and physically thank god. Oh well, those seven homes are missing out on all the fun. Over the years I somehow managed to convince myself that no one really wants me, no one really needs me. I can make it all one my own.

The thicket I was walking in started to clear up. A meadow appeared in the distance, maybe a good mile or two and I'dbe there. I could rest and find some food, like berries or something. With my luck, I'd find berries that would end up being poisonous and i;d get ill form the toxins. I moved a tree aside so I could keep moving on. The birds stopped chirping, all I could hear was my foot steps, the grass and twigs crunching under them.

I started to miss the voices of the birds. It was a relief, sort of peaceful, making everything seem like it was at ease. Now the silence was getting to me, everything was becoming eerie. I felt like I was being watched. My throat started to itch from my thirst. I felt like I wanted to scratch the skin on my throat clear off my body. I started to get dizzy and light-headed. I stopped walking and I looked up, staring at the sun once more.

The light seemed dimmed. Slowly, everything was getting darker. I got confused, it was at least mid-day. This should not be happening. I started to yell, I don't know what I was yelling, but it was ended soon. I started getting tipsy, and everything went black.