He felt cold, a burning cold that ripped into his skin. His body felt stiff and sore in places he has never had the displeasure of feeling. Every movement no matter how minute was painful, even breathing was difficult to achieve, every breath that he seemed to suck in was stolen away almost as quickly by the excruciating pain radiating in every pore and every cell in his body. Kieran tried to muster up enough energy to peel open his eyes but instead found himself falling back into the murky depths of unconsciousness.

Ω

The next time consciousness struck Kieran could feel someone shaking his shoulders, he could hear voices but he couldn't make out what they were saying. It was like his head was underwater, the voices were muffled and distorted around him. The hand on the back of his neck was the only thing that he could be certain was real. They held his head in place against something soft and warm. His limbs felt heavy, it took every ounce of strength Kieran possessed to life his hand off of his chest. The voices suddenly grew louder almost like they were screaming.

Ω

The third time Kieran awoke he recognised the plain white walls of a hospital room. He felt numb all over, the excruciating pain that had gripped his body before was nothing but a dull ache in the back of his mind. His eyes racked over what he could see of his body. His chest was wrapped in bloodied bandages and tubes stuck out of his arms, pumping him full of pain relief.

This wasn't supposed to happen, he was going to leave town and start a new life, he should be out of here by now not stuck in some hospital room recovering from a beating. This wasn't how he had pictured his life going. The monitor beside him went crazy, loud obnoxious beeping filled the small room, it only made him panic more which made the beeping even louder.

There was bustling from outside the room, suddenly he was surrounded by doctors who were screaming orders at each other, some tried holding him down, trying to stop him from ripping the needles and tubes out of his arms. From the corner of his eye Kieran could just make out a doctor inserting a needle into his Iv. It was only a few seconds before he was plunging into darkness again.

Ω

It was eight weeks later that he was finally released from the hospital, doctors had him on suicide watch after the third time he tried to disconnect himself from the machines feeding him oxygen. In his defence Kieran only wanted to leave, he was a sitting duck for anyone who wanted to beat the crap out of him.

His luck still wasn't looking up for him. Kieran was locked in the passenger seat of a minivan belonging to the caretaker of the orphanage; Miss Alice.

"I don't know whether to be happy or pissed off," she sighed "this is the third time in as many months I've had to pick you up from the hospital,"
"It's not my fault," he sighed
"I know that, I do but you need to do something about this,"
"What am I supposed to do! They labelled me a freak the moment they saw me, I never had a chance. I tried being normal, I did and it's not working!" He screamed, he was so sick of bottling everything up, he needed to get everything off his chest "I tried to be a normal kid I really did, I gave up being who I am so that I wouldn't get beaten up at lunch time but they still manage to find something to pick at, they pick and pick at it till there is nothing left!"
"I hate this town and I hate everyone in it! Ever since she dumped me here I've been miserable. I am nothing but the freaky orphan who sees crap no one else does! Don't you think I know that?" by now tears were running down his face. He sucked in a shaky breath before continuing "I know I'm a freak of nature, people like to remind me of that every day, so what the hell am I meant to do? Everyone's mind is already made up, there is nothing that I can do that will change their mind about me."

The car was plunged back into silence. Every once in a while Kieran would sniffle and wipe at his leaking eyes but Miss Alice remained silent until they pulled up in front of the dusty old two story house hidden behind the church. It was an old building donated by the church to house the 'children of the state' they were well locked after by the men and woman of the church, they supplied them with food and water but the orphanage primarily ran on donations and they were scarce these days. "Look," Miss Alice sighed, she turned in her seat to face him "You're not a freak, you just…. you say things that scare people and folks round here tend to attack what scares them…. just lay off the demon talk for a while ok?"

"Whatever, it's not like it's going to make a difference."

He pushed open the door and slid from the front seat. Kieran hiked his bag up further onto his shoulder as he made his way up the steps and into the familiar house. All of the lights were switched off except for the porch light. He didn't bother to turn the lights on, Kieran knew the house like the back of his hand, he could navigate it in the dark with ease. Slowly he made his up the narrow staircase, avoiding all the squeaky floorboards. Anyone would think that the house was abandoned if it weren't for the loud snores coming from some of the rooms at the far end of the hall.

Kieran shimmied open the door at the far right end of the hall. It gave an undignified squeak of protest. He halted his movements, sucking in a deep breath when one of the boys groaned and rolled onto their side. Slowly Kieran lowered his bag to the floor and kicked it through the small sliver that was open. He tried to squeeze through the open gap but he wasn't small enough to fit. Kieran sighed, he wasn't in the mood for this at the moment. He pushed the door open, trying to be as quiet as he possibly could. The door squeaked again but Kieran couldn't be bothered staying silent and continued to open the door far enough to squeeze through. He walked over to his bed and laid down, leaving the door halfway open.

Kieran laid back on the bottom bunk and simply closed his eyes allowing sleep to carry him away to a world far, far away from the orphanage.