Prologue
"It's time for your bath." The woman informed the 4 year old that was fiddling with the cross on her necklace. Angry, the woman raised a hand and slapped the little girl's face, making her let go of the object and stagger back. She wasn't surprised. She was never surprised when it came to this: her mother hurting her for no reason at all. But it hurt and the little girl didn't like pain, so she felt she couldn't be blamed for the lump swelling in her throat. But she didn't dare let a tear drop. Not while her mother could see her. Those furious and hateful eyes... why did she look at her like that? What did she do wrong? She knew she was too young to understand unlike other kids. But she wanted to understand this. Why did her mother hate her?
The little girl climbed into the ice-cold water, shivering as the cold instantly began to numb her body. She wanted it to be warm. She wanted it to be a nice warm bath. Gradually her body became used to the cold and it felt normal. She was no longer shivering either. She waited until her mother entered the bathroom and turned to look at her offspring.
"Wet your hair." The little girl obeyed. Her mother took down a bottle of shampoo on a nearby shelf and squeezed a palm-sized amount on her hand and approached the girl, waiting for her to resurface and placed the shampoo on her head. The girl was surprised when her mother suddenly froze and again anger grew on her expression. She felt fear prickle her and a warning like an alarm kept ringing in her ears.
"Why is the water warm?" Her voice was shaking. The little girl didn't understand what her mother was saying. Warm? How was the water warm? "Did you change the water?" The little girl instantly shook her head, panicking. Would her mother believe her?
She wasn't going to believe her. Rage bubbled through the woman's blood and she grabbed the little girl's hair, pulling and screaming. "Don't lie!"
"Mumm-!"
"I'm not your mummy!" Next thing she knew, the little girl was gasping but unable to breathe. Water flooded her lungs and threatened to drown her. She kept trying to resurface but the woman's hand held her head down and she couldn't – I'm so scared... so scared... so scared...
The water bubbled around her violently and her body began to heat up. Was she dying? There was a moment where the strength of her mother wavered, and a faint, "what?" was heard before the room exploded.
