9 months ago, a small woman with long black hair sneaks out of her caravan and her only home. It's a dark night with no moon and no stars, the kind of night when a lost soul might wander off and get caught by evil creatures, looking for a future to destroy and a soul to control. She looks around cautiously before catching sight of a tall figure in the darkness. She sighs and her breath clouds the air around her. She walks confidently towards it and disappears into the night, unknowing that small eyes are watching her from the caravan window and that a small boy is wondering where is mother is going. Now, that same woman is being wheeled through a hospital, screaming in pain and cursing that day 9 months ago. 2 hours and multiple screams later, she lies in her blood soaked bed and as she feels her life slipping from her grasp, a nurse tries to hand her the creation of her mistake. Even though her throat is hoarse and she has no energy left, she screams and pushes it away, refusing to let her soul be tarnished even more. And as she passes away, a doctor picks up the phone to contact the life she had run away from and the nurse shakes her head and holds the small black haired girl, unaware of what she would become.
It is now the 18th January 1989 and the black haired girl has hardly grown, thanks to her family's lack of nurture. She stands inside the main house on her family's farm, watching her cousins play through the window. Her brother is out on the fields with the other men in the family. If you stand at the gate leading to the fields on a quiet day, you can hear her grandfather, Martin, yelling and the unmistakable sound of a stick hitting her brother's back. It is early afternoon and her aunt Lillian would be having her nap before the men came back and she would have to cook them dinner. The girl decides to risk it and sneaks out of the room she is meant to stay in, downstairs and out into the courtyard. She stands in the doorway for a minute before gathering the courage to walk across the yard to where her cousins are playing. Her eldest cousin, Tara, is playing with her youngest cousin, Aaron, who, even though he is the same age as her brother, doesn't have to work in the fields all day. As Tara caught sight of the girl walking towards them, she straightens up and sneers nastily,
"Go away, freak. You're not allowed out of your room." The coldness in her voice didn't sway the girl who just answered in a meek voice,
"Please can I play with you?" Her request was met with a harsh laugh from Tara but Aaron picked up the ball they had been throwing and offered it to her,
"Yeah sure, here-" His sister stared down in disgust before pulling him away from the girl and batting the ball out of his hands,
"Don't be an idiot Aaron, she has no right to live in the same building as us let alone socialize!" He tucked his head down and backed away from the girl who was watching them with a blank stare. Tara looked back at the girl with narrow eyes,
"Why don't you crawl back to whatever hole you came from and leave us in peace, you filthy monster" The girl turned slowly to head back to the house but a loud recognisable shout stopped her in her tracks.
"REAGAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF YOUR ROOM GIRL!?" She looked in the direction of the voice to see her grandfather dragging her brother up the dust track from the field. She froze with fear and her cousins ran back to house, eager to avoid their grandfather's wrath. Reagan didn't move until her grandfather was towering over her. He was so tall that he blocked out the sun and she was left in his cold shadow. Her aunt hurried out of the house, awoken by her children and came to a sudden stop when she saw Reagan's brother, his shirt split open at the back with blood dripping from the hundreds of lashings that his grandfather had kindly given him.
"Take Xander inside, Lillian and clean him up." The grandfather ordered, his heavy voice brimming with anger, "I need to have a word with our Reagan" As he raised his stick, bloody from beating Xander, her brother used the last of his strength to jump between his little sister and the weapon, catching it as his grandfather brought it down.
"What do you think you are doing boy!?" Martin grabbed Xander by what remained of his shirt and lifted him into the air. Reagan held on to her brother's arm and tried to pull him away,
"No Martin please… don't hurt him anymore… please!" Lillian pulled Reagan away from them as Martin strode around the house to where he kept the old whips, still holding Xander in the air. She struggled to contain the squirming girl who was now crying floods of tears that stung her face and blurred her vision. The only thing that stopped her efforts was the sound of a whip cracking and the cry of her brother as it hit his wounded back.