The Forgotten
Chapter 1
I haven't said a word since I got here. I dream about blood almost every night and I'm lucky enough to wake up before I see both of my parents lying dead on our living room. I want to forget about them, forget their faces in order to stop needing them during the nights, when the lights go out and we can't see our own hands.
When they brought me here, the man took me to a filthy mattress with no blankets and no pillows; he ordered me to sit and be quiet and handed me a notebook and a small pen, "so you can write your deepest thoughts" he said and then walked away, locking the door behind him. Since then, I haven't stopped writing and I guess that's the reason I'm rewarded more often than the rest of the kids.
I have lost track of time. There are no windows in here, no way to find out if it's day or night, I only know that soon will be mommy's birthday and neither of us will be there to share a long-lasting hug. But I have Roman now, and he tells me that I shouldn't be sad anymore, that he's here to protect me. Sometimes we sleep together to stay warm at night and he leaves to his bed in the morning to avoid detection from the morning patrol.
He was the first to approach to me the night I arrived. He told me he was the bravest from all the kids and that he got his scar for misbehaving; since then I've had the dream of becoming the bravest girl from here.
The door opens for the fifth time in the day today and a big man with dark skin walks in with a white girl around my age. Her eyes are green and her hair and clothes are as filthy as the ground we step on every day; she still looks scared, she hasn't stopped shivering and she hasn't said a word or written in her diary. I get up to make my way towards her but Roman stops me and throws me an icy stare, as if he didn't want me to speak with her, but I free my arm and sit on her bed.
I say hi to her but she doesn't seem to understand, apparently she doesn't speak the same language as Roman and I. I try to remember how to speak in English but the memories of my parents assault me and I feel a horrible pain in the chest, and all the sudden they're surrounded by blood as the man drags me out of my house and covers my eyes and mouth.
Someone holds my hand while I try to get some air; it's the girl that's sitting next to me and she's looking at me intently. "You okay?" She asks, her voice trembling. I can understand her, I know those words. I nod and she seems to relax but doesn't let go my hand.
"What is this place?" She's looking everywhere, taking in all the ugliness of the room: rotten mattresses, skinny kids, filthy floor and sadness.
"I don't know, nobody knows" I say with a rusty accent. "What's your name?"
"Taylor. Taylor Shaw"