"Adeline, I'm going to have to ask you what happened".

My mouth was dry and every inch of me felt repulsed by the pungent stench of disinfectant. I couldn't spit the words out, it was like they were there yet clinging to the tip of my tongue. Desperate not to breathe in the air, to reveal themselves.

"Take all the time you need". What I needed was air, not time. Gulping, I shifted in my seat, a rumbling of indignation gently simmering in my stomach.

Before me sat a solid looking man, with a rounded yet chiselled face and kindly hazel eyes that lay inquisitively upon me. They X-rayed me in mandatory fashion yet I knew his intentions were only kind.

This couldn't be happening.

"Mom"

I was screaming, yelling as a rang my fists on the motel door. It all made sense, the gunpowder on her fingertips, her loving attitude that had suddenly appeared and the words she said before I left.

'Don't forget about me'

At the time I'd ignored her statement. It wasn't until I reached the vending machine that the irksome thought had struck me. The room was about 500 yards from the machine. I didn't care about the rain that was soaking me to the skin, or about the wind that felt as if it was scratching at my skin. I just needed to make sure she was okay, to ensure this crazy theory was stupid. She would never back down. Mom had trained me to be a fighter, to never back out. She was a Proiettile and proud, even if I wasn't.

But right now she was week, she was broken and I didn't know why.

Then came the flashes of red and blue and every breath was sharp and jagged and broken. Ramming the door with my shoulder, I felt hot tears slide down my cheeks in frustration. Not knowing what to do I begin to shake in fury as the officer behind me began shouting orders?

And then with an ease, the door clicked with a jolt. Pressing my palms upon the splintering wood my brow quivered with an uncertainty.

There she sat facing the door, her beautiful pale completion tinged with an unnatural grey, her shirt crumpled under her neck. Her usual strong, elegant poise angled crooked and seething. Yet it was the weapon she grasped in her hand that poisoned my hope. Freshly polished it seemed to glow and whine to the buzz of the ceiling fan. The muzzle edged closer into her chocolate locks and a sick twisted smile pursed her lips.

"Mom" I gasped; I could feel hot breath on my neck but didn't dare let my view flicker from my mother. Helplessness was cascading over me, I was drowning and I couldn't stop her. No one could stop the crazed sorry look in her eyes, not now.

"Please, mom" her finger began to stroke the trigger.

"MOM" my urgency was too evident now; I could see the pressure that she had of the trigger.

"MOM" I screeched, every shred of my dignity crumbling. I could feel the men behind myself paint the peeling walls with pity.

"You've always been one of them" her voice quivering in anger.

I could feel my features twisting with an uncomfortable confusion as I struggled to find the words to respond. This couldn't be happening, not now.

"You were never mine" she whispered, as the first tear I'd ever witnessed her shed slithered down her cheek like a snake in a hypnotic pattern.

And with that something deep within me, something within me I didn't know I had split with a whip of insanity. I lunged towards her fingers outstretched toward her with every effort I had to grasp her.

Cracking through the air the gunshot ran clean and slick. Pairs of muscular arms gripped me from every direction as I yelped and screamed wildly. I screamed for my Mom, for her to hold me tight in every way. Veins throbbing on my head, pressure mounted within my head. Gritting my teeth together the room flashed white then grey and to black. Over and over again. But I couldn't sleep, I couldn't let blackness invade, I wouldn't let her go, not now not ever.

"Mom" the words were horse and dry yet louder than ever, yet no response occurred.

Finally the darkness arrived.

"Thank you for that Adeline, but I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you a few more questions", the steely blue eyed agent beside him frowned with a withdrawn expression.

"That's fine"

"It appears you may be linked to another case".

"Like what?" my glance shot up from my lap. Was it something I'd done? I was 14 I'd barely socialized never mind committed a crime.

My stomach began to stir, from the look upon the agents face the news to arrive was neither pleasant nor something I would wish for.

"To be specific, a child abduction case. From Beacon Hills."