A.N. : Hello and Happy Easter to all of you ! I just returned from my holidaysand
decided to share this story with you. Hope you like it. Please R + R.

Prologue:

"Miranda?"

There it was again, that complacent voice with a steady, singing tone in it. It had found her, had found her once again – it always did, no matter where she was hiding. She could already feel the tears fill her eyes, the hot, salty liquid that was bedewing her eye-lashes. She didn't want it to happen, but she knew she was unable to fight. As the voice always found her, the tears were always streaming down her face. She couldn't help that.

"Miranda!"

She could hear it – more demanding now, already getting angry, getting angry with her. She forcefully shook her head and hoped to make the voice go away, but she knew it wasn't that easy – it never had been. She pulled the blanket above her head, pulled herself into a fetal position and put the hands above her ears. It was just a desperate security measure – she knew she would hear the voice none the less. She always heard it.

"Please, go away, leave me alone..."

She begged and although her words sounded muffled, the tone lowered because she covered her ears, she could hear the trembling in her voice – the fear. And they would hear it too, they would hear how afraid she was, how much she feared them – the would gain satisfaction, gain victory above her once again. They would start to have their fun with her once again – soon.

The voice's tone – as she had expected it, still audible loud and clear – changed once again, having a false emotion of empathy in it right now. They were only trying to hurt her, trying to break her. She tried to tell herself that she was stronger than this, that she could live through this. They had to stop sooner or later and then it would be over. But only for tonight...

"Ah... Miranda – poor girl, so afraid. Wanna cry, wanna tell your mommy? Poor girl – we're so sorry."

She could hear the hard laughs of the voice and now she wasn't able to hide the tears any longer, she couldn't hold them back. She felt so desperate, so helpless – she grew weaker and weaker every time they appeared. The time they needed to make her cry was getting less with each night that they visited her. Why wasn't she able to defeat them? Why wouldn't they stop?

"Now she is crying – look at her, she's crying. Look what a coward you are, Miranda! Stupid little bitch! Can't do anything right! You can't hide from us, Miranda – try as you might, but you can't ever hide from us. We won't go away – we won't ever go away..."

The voice died down and then it was gone, they were gone. She was all alone once again, left here to cry and to be afraid until they would come back the next time. Left for a sleepless night and a morning even worse than that. She couldn't take it – she just couldn't take it. She couldn't go on like that – never in the world could she go on like that. It needed to stop, she needed to stop the voices from coming back on her. She knew she was afraid and she knew she had no courage, but she was desperate – she was that desperate that being a coward didn't matter to her. She would stop them – no matter what…