This chapter contains drug misuse and an accidental overdose as well as references to domestic violence. If this bothers you then skip to the next chapter.. Well when I put it up anyway.
The main character is from Germany, while there is no dialogue in this chapter, there will be some in others. Would you prefer translations at the end of the fic, before or during?
I crept out of the bathroom and back to my own room. My dirty feet made no sound as I hurried over to a dusty floorboard and lifted it to put a small water bottle in the resulting hole. The clear liquid made little sound as it sloshed around in the bottom of the container.
A creak of the stairs signalled Mama's return. I replaced the floorboard and rushed back to my corner and pulled the tattered blanket up over door swung open to reveal a tired middle aged woman framed in the doorway, her greasy hair hung down in ropes around her sunken face, the blonde dye had long since begun to grow out, revealing her natural mousy brown underneath.
Her glazed over eyes locked with mine and she bared her tobacco stained teeth at me in disgust. I stayed silent as she retreated and the click of a lock in the door echoed in the damp house. I hardly dared to breathe as she stumbled back to her own room and collapsed into bed, th medication and alcohol soon taking hold and 10 minutes later, her snores filled the silence.
I crawled back to the hiding pace and pulled out the water bottle I had hidden earlier as well as a mirror shard. A malnourished girl stared back at me, dull green eyes set in a hollow pale face marked with numerous bruises and months of dirt. My almost platinum hair now reached my lower back but was a tangled mess of dirt and blood.
I silently put the shard back and pulled out a larger bottle, this one nearly full of clear liquid. My mind flashed back to the words on the box. "Oral Morphine Sulphate". Mama's medicine, a man with kind eyes once told me that she needed it to make her better because her body was broken. Mama keeps telling me I am broken and that there is something wrong with me. I poured the contents of the smaller bottle into the bigger one and set it aside. More medicine should make me better. Months of secreting away small amounts of it had paid off, I now had a litres worth.
Mama says she hurts me because I am not right, because I am a freak. If I get better then maybe the man with kind eyes will come back. He had left straight after the accident.
I gingerly sniffed the liquid and pulled a face. Taking a deep breath I drank the entire bottle in one go without pause. It didn't take long for my tiny body to feel the effects. I lay back on the dusty floor and smiled. It was working! I felt warmer than I had in a long time, my rags that served as clothes now felt like a thick coat. I was at peace with the world, I did not care that at any time Mama could walk in and give me the beating of my life for stealing her medicine. My mind felt fuzzy and seemed to be working so much slower than normal. This was ok, I don't want to think. I gave one more smile before sleep claimed me, it will be better now, I will not upset Mama anymore.