She had been alone.
Her oldest memories were of the orphanage.
She didn't know anything about her parents.
Had she been wanted?
Had she been loved?
Were they alive?
If the directress of the orphanage knew, she hadn't felt it necessary to tell her.
The woman had hated her.
She still wasn't quite sure why.
The directress hadn't been fond of any of the children, but she had been the only one the woman despised.
The woman had never called her by name.
When the woman cared enough to call her something other than girl, she was referred to as either "Mistake" or "Demon Child."
She only happened to discover her name when she stumbled upon some documentation of the children in the orphanage.
She was treated less like a child and more like a slave.
While the other children were left to play, she was the one who scrubbed the floors and washed the dishes.
When the other children were given meals, she was given a single slice of bread.
Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore, and she ran.
She ran for as long as she could in any direction except backward.
And that was how she became a street rat.
At first, she had been terrified of the possibility that people would be sent after her.
But in hindsight, she couldn't say she was surprised that none were.
Her priorities, however, quickly shifted to survival.
While her diet had been abysmal at the orphanage, it was still superior to nothing.
And so when asking for food turned up no results, she begged.
And when begging did much the same, she stole.
And when she was beaten black and blue for it, she began to survive off the trash.
Her face had become covered in grime, and her hair had grown to cover her eyes.
Her feet were swollen, and her stomach constantly felt like it was on fire.
Sometimes she even begged that she'd close her eyes and wake up back in that orphanage.
Or not wake at all.
Until one day, she awoke to the sounds of crackling fire and ear-shattering screams.
And she saw them: black beasts with eyes red like blood.
They tore through all in their path, whether it be wood, stone, or flesh.
Towering above them all, she saw it.
Not a man nor an animal, but something in between, its shrieks shook her to her very bones.
She hid under a nearby house and curled in on herself, and closed her eyes, ready for her inevitable end.
Until she felt a hand rest against her back.
Rearing back in surprise, she turned to a boy who regarded her with a calm smile.
That boy rescued her from that hellscape.
And to her surprise, he never attempted to get rid of her, nor did he try to demand something in return.
And while she traveled with that boy for the first time in her life, she was grateful to be alive.
But she could tell that the boy was lonely and was profoundly sad.
And so she decided that she would be vibrant.
That she would be so full of energy and excitement that he would never feel lonely or sad ever again.
And after a while, she could tell that he enjoyed the vibrancy.
She eventually realized that she did too.
And the boy no longer seemed lonely or so very sad.
And one day, she felt she no longer had to worry if the boy would abandon her.
He had become her everything, but she could tell that she had become something to the boy as well.
And she decided that no matter what happened, as long as they could be together until the day she died.
Then she would be happy.