Hi, I know I've been absent for a while now and I will just say that, well, I have issues that I need to work my way through. For my two stories on going right now, I can say that chapter four of "All For A Slave" is almost done and I have the next chapter of "Down the Proverbial Rabbit Hole" planed out. I just hit a wall today (yesterday) and to try to help myself over it, I wrote this. It's the prologue to a story that has been on my mind for a while now, but I won't actually start seriously working on it for a while longer.

I decided to write this because I'm just depressed right now, and the next chapters of my other stories are supposed to be happy, and I'm just… not. I can say that after writing this, I do feel better, if only a little. I want to make it clear that I have every intention of finishing both of my stories, and now this one, even if it takes me years. Let me know what you think.


The 9 year old looked with tired blank eyes at her psychiatrist. She knew she'd end up here. She'd felt it coming for months now. That final event that would make her snap, that one thing that would show everyone that she wasn't the innocent, harmless little girl they all thought she was. But she never thought she would end up here like this.

The doctor looked up from his clipboard and started another round of probing questions. "Was this a premeditated attempt?" No. "Did you hate her?" Of course not. "Why did you push her off the play structure?" It was an accident. "How so?" I meant to push Diana off instead. "Why's that?"

Silence.

The doctor looked up from his clipboard to look at his young patient. It was so sad when they came to him so young, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with time and treatment. This girl in particular has been the perfect patient; polite, giving honest answers, and very compliant. She had sat there, peacefully playing with her her dark hair. This was the first time she hadn't responded immediately.

It was almost frightening, how well thought out her answers were. When he'd asked about any family issues, she calmly relayed that she suspected part of her problem stemmed from the fact that she thought her mother loved her little sister more than her and how she thought her grandmother saw her as a pretty doll to dress up and pose anyway she wanted.

When he'd asked about any other outside influences that could have affected her she recalled all of the murder shows that she had somehow gotten into watching for the past couple years. She even told him about the various scenarios she had planned out in her head as to her preferred methods of killing someone.

That last one was the most chilling, especially coming from a third grader. In the psychiatrist's professional opinion, this girl was showing signs of becoming a sociopath. He had even made the bold move to ask the girl what she thought was wrong with her, why she was here. The little girl, who he knew after talking to her parents had never shown any signs of being able to so much as harm a fly, looked at him with cold, hard eyes and said, "I'm starting to show homicidal tendencies. I've just pushed one of my classmates off the top of the play structure. I'm here so you can correct my behavior."

It was one of the few times in the psychiatrist's career he was glad to see such a young patient in front of him. Children had malleable minds, with counseling and treatment, it was practically guaranteed she would make a full mental recovery.

But now her jaw was set, her eyes boring a hole into something he could not see. He calmly repeated his question and this time the girl replied with, "I tried to push her off because she was controlling Hailey." The girl was glaring at the wall now, remembering what she did. She had known that she wasn't going to last much longer, not with her best friend, the one she loved like a sister, being stolen away from her.

Diana had been the new girl to the class a month into the school year and being the friendly person she was, she had invited the girl to join her and her best friend, Hailey. It had been good for a couple weeks, until the new girl had started drawing them both to go play with the larger groups of girls. She hadn't liked that. She was happy with a small group of friends, just she and Hailey really. She didn't like Diana much, she was to controlling and demanding. But she was nice to her because she didn't have any other friends.

When she'd tried to convince Hailey to go with her to play like they always did, Hailey had said she wanted to play with the larger groups. So she stayed. She didn't want to disappoint her best friend, so she played. Games like 'freeze tag' and 'blind man's bluff' were more fun in larger groups any way.

But then things changed again. Suddenly, instead of it just being her and Hailey with Diana joining them at lunch, it was that they two were apart of the group that had Diana at the head. The games they played were always of Diana's devising. They always played her games at recess and they were always the same.

She had looked around and saw that Diana, in the space of a few months, had successfully gained a dozen girls, not including her, as seemingly loyal followers. The thing that had disturbed her the most was that she had seemingly placed Hailey as her second in command. Diana had always chosen her for her partner, always saved her a seat during lunch and Haley always seemed to be with her. That was what she used to do for Hailey. And she was thrown to the wayside. And it hurt.

She had not liked where things were going and pulled Hailey away from the group and pleaded with her to go some play something else, like they used to. She had seen how Haily had bitten her lip and say that she wanted to stay. She had just pleaded with her friend more, saying that she didn't like the games they were playing anymore.

That was when the worst thing possible happened. Diana had come from behind them with the rest of the group. She had tolled her that if she didn't like what they were playing she could leave. The rest of the group had shared her sentiments. She had looked desperately looked at Hailey, her best friend, the one she loved like a sister, to try to get her to come with her. But she haven't even looked at her as she went to stand behind Diana.

Heartbroken, she had run away from the group, never to join them again. For the next month, she was a virtual outcast. Hailey, nor any of the other girls for that matter, had approached her outside of necessary communication in the classroom. She had aimlessly wandered around the playground, seeing the different groups that were there. She had started to think of them like packs, almost.

Well, for the one group, Diana's, it wasn't an 'almost', she did think it was like a pack of wolves. Watching from afar, she could see Diana's influence growing on the other girls. By the end of the month, all the friend groups started differing to her, if they didn't join her. But the one that she paid most attention to was Hailey.

Despite her betrayal, she still loved and cared for her. She could easily see that Diana didn't respect her, or any of them really, the way she should. It was evident in the pats on the head, the way she ordered them around, and how she expected Hailey to follow her around like a lost puppy.

For one whole month, she had been left to simmer on her own, closed off from everything and everyone. She watched her questionable choice in t.v. shows with a new kind of fascination. She had known this was unhealthy, that it would land her in front of a psychiatrist. But she had always assumed her best friend would be there to help her when she finally broke down.

Her reasoning was being twisted and skewed, she could almost feel it happening, but couldn't find any motivation to stop it. She almost welcomed it. It had suddenly become clear to her, what she had to do. Diana was a tyrant in the making, and she had Hailey especially under her foot, as a pet. She had resolved to free her friend from her once and for all the next day.

So, she had confronted Diana, Hailey and a few other girls in the middle of one of their games during recess. She had accused Diana of controlling the group and taking over, which were denied and called jealous accusations. She could see that the other girls weren't going to listen to her, so she focused on Hailey, telling her how Diana was mistreating her.

Hailey had looked somewhat convinced when, Diana had merely sneered that she was just jealous that she wasn't Hailey's best friend anymore. That did it. She charged. The were on top of the play structure where there was a gap in the railings for a pole to slide down. She had meant to push Diana down, but she had used Hailey as a cushion, making her lose her balance and fall back instead.

Needless to say, the adult supervisors had been there within moments, calling the paramedics and calming the screaming girl. She had just stayed there, frozen, as fingers were pointed towards her as the culprit. She had let the adults take her to the office and call her parents.

The next few weeks were a blurr. She was suspended from school, possibly expelled depending on what the court decided. Hailey's parents had pressed charges. But, seeing how she was nine, the judge had just ruled for her to be admitted for mental evaluation, something that her parents were willing to do.

So, there she was sitting in front of a psychiatrist, remembering what landed here here in the first place. She had cried and begged to be let in Hailey's hospital room, if only to apologize for accidentally breaking her leg. But all she had received was her former best friend, former semi-sister yell through the door that she hated her, and never wanted to see her again.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by the doctor, who was asking, "Why did that make you want to push her off the play structure?"

She turned hard brown eyes towards the doctor and simply said in a calm clear voice that made it clear she meant every word with every fiber of her being, "Because Hailey was my friend, and I would do anything for my friends."

"Was?"

More silence.


How was it? Hope it was halfway good. This is loosely based on what happened to me when I was in fifth grade. Yeah, my best friend abandoned me in favor of the "popular" crowd. What happened to me after was that some old acquaintances invited me to play with them. Still friends with them to this day. Let me know what you think, really appreciate it.