New story time! I'm really sorry that i haven't uploaded anything for months, i started a new school and things are pretty crazy right now!

I got the inspiration for this in the night and just had to write it down to see what you all thought. Originally it wasn't meant to be a W.i.t.c.h. story but i made a few tweeks and here we have it!

I hope you enjoy this!

Lies never hurt anyone. The truth, that's what destroys us. It's funny how people will so easily believe a lie but find it almost impossible to accept the truth. How is that we can woefully underestimate the power of words to such an extent? They can break us down and build us up again, they hold an incredible force over us that for a sad amount of time we are not even aware of. It seems almost unimaginable that words hold the power to change something so drastically and even more unthinkable is how they have the ability to change history forever. All this in just one tiny sentence.

We've found them for you, someone that will take you in. They're going to look after you, is that clear?

These were the words that altered my history forever. In some ways they marked the beginning of my freedom, and in others they marked my decent into the most hellish and brutal course of my life, but in all these years I have never really been able to distinguish between the two.

If you really want to know about my childhood there isn't very much to tell. From the age of 6 I lived at Hillgrave manor. What really bugs me is when people here the word "manor" they just absentmindedly assume I had an excellent upbringing with wealthy parents. I can just tell they're thinking I spent all of my days trotting around happily on one of the many ponies daddy bought for me. I hate how people just assume they know me, when really, they have no idea. People aren't't so cheerful when I tell them that Hillgrave manor is actually an orphanage. You can see their face just drops. Then they hit you with the whole sympathetic eyes thing, like they care about you or something, but that's not what they mean. What they mean is they pity you, and if there's one thing I can't stand in this world, it's pity. I hate it. From then on all anybody ever see's you as is the kid with no parents. The orphan. I hate that word orphan. That's what I'm labelled as, an orphan. I just hate it. Who needs parents anyway? I'd love to say I was like all the other kids, who's mothers died in child birth and their daddy was a hero who died fighting in the war. But nope, that's not me. I never knew my dad, he ran off the moment I was born. Don't even think about pitying me for that, I mean, you can't miss what you never had, right? And my mum? My memories of her all seem to have one thing in common. A bottle of vodka. That was her poison of choice every night. From then on the memories are a little blurred of her, perhaps I was too young to remember, or maybe I've just blocked them out now. Either way I don't wish to dwell on those thoughts, what good would that do?

I spent 11 years at Hillgrave, and like I said before there's not much to say about it. Hillgrave is basically in the middle of now where. Look out anyone of the many windows and all you will see is these dark green looking fields and millions and millions of trees, not exactly the best looking view in the world. Also most days of the year, we are under a near constant cover of clouds, it pretty much rains for most of the year. To see the sun at Hillgrave is a pretty rare sight, so you can imagine now pale all of the kids are there, having your skin neglected from the sun so much leaves you looking pasty and white as hell. It's not like we had many opportunities to go outside anyway, most days we would just sit in our rooms. In fact the only day we really did leave Hillgrave was on Sundays to walk to the nearest town, Merseyside, to go to church. That's another thing about Hillgrave, it's really religious. is the owner at Hillgrave, and she's meant to be like this perfect Christian or something. She would always be talking about how you need to be a good Christian and follow the word of God to get into heaven, and if you defied God you would be on the side of the devil and he would drag you to hell for an eternity. I never listened to this bull. Sure, all the little kids believed it, but I knew well enough she was only saying all that stuff so they would be scared into behaving well. I'm not religious at all. Anyway hell can't be so bad, I was in my own little hell anyway, so spending an eternity with the devil? How bad could that be? Every morning and evening we had to sit and prey in silence. We were told to ask God to forgive us. Forgive us for what exactly? If he really is real I should be the one forgiving him for bringing me into this sickening world. Anyway, like I said before Mrs. Rigg is the owner of Hillgrave. I suppose I would describe her as strict, she always wore this disgusting grey suit with a grey skirt and a cardigan on top. The cardigan kind of gave this illusion that she was some loving grandma who cared about all her little children. Don't let that fool you though, she wasn't to restrained when it came to giving you a smack round the face for something. In fact she'd pretty much hit you with whatever and whenever she wanted, I suppose she wanted to show us all who was in charge, and trust me, it worked. It was quite common to see a kid walk out her office covered in bruises or sometimes they would even be bleeding. It scared the daylights out of all the kids. Except me really. Having lived at Hillgrave for 11 years from the age of 6 to 17 I had been there longer than any other kid, and I'd seen it all. Nothing fazed me anymore. Oh, and then there was the food at Hillgrave. Well, what can I say? It kept us alive, but it didn't exactly make your taste buds dance. On Sundays we would have meat, although you could never quite tell what animal and which part of the animal it was from.

So there, now you know about my childhood. But what you'll really want to know about is when I got out of Hillgrave. It still surprises me when I think about it, and trust me most of it is pretty messed up. But that's just my life really, messed up. You see, the whole of my life had been a lie at Hillgrave, but that lie kept me safe. The truth however, the truth very nearly destroyed me. So I guess now that it's all over, I should tell you a bit about it.

My name is Cornelia Hale and this is my story.

I really hoped you all liked this! Any reviews will be appreciated, so any suggestions you have are very welcome!

Also, since i stared my new school I've been studying A level English literature and language, so hopefully my writing will improve!