We stop at a small house. It has an apple green roof and there is not much room on the inside. Goldie blushes and explains why it's so small.
"They're all built like this but once you pay off your mortgage it'll get a whole lot bigger. Everyone starts off with the same stuff. We get a tape deck, a cardboard box for a table and a candle for light."
I walk over to the candle. There are no lighters or matches anywhere.
"Um… How am I supposed to light this?"
Goldie looks up at me. She still has the same shocked expression on her face from the river. I frown. She smiles but I can still see the frightened expression in her eyes. I frown.
"What?"
Her eyes widen and she walks over to me quickly.
"It's nothing. You wanted to know how to light the candle right, woof? We don't need matches for that. We just do this, woof." She waves a paw over the wick of the candle and it bursts into flame.
I stare at the candle and wave my hand over it. The flame disappears as if a wind has blown it out. I grin broadly. The cuts on my face stretch and the pain is unbearable. But I hardly notice it. It's the first time I've smiled in a few years. I turn to Goldie. She's biting down on her bottom lip and it looks like she's trying to chew it off.
"Goldie you're gonna bite your lip right off if you keep doing that. Now what's the matter?"
Goldie looks at me and pulls out a pocket mirror.
"Look at yourself Amber."
I take the mirror and look, unsure of what I'm going to look like. I've never used a mirror in five years.
A girl with wild, knotted brown hair stares back at me, her face cover with scars, bruises, scratches and cuts. But that's not the scary part. One of the girl's eyes is a normal dark chocolaty colour, but the other is a bright pale blue, almost white.
A shock runs threw me and I gasp, dropping the mirror. It shatters into a million pieces, each one reflecting the wild frightened girl.