I DON'T OWN DGM!

Chapter 4 – Past Recollection, Reason for Trauma?

A small pale figure lay on the dirt floor battered, bloodied, and bruised, her pale body filled with bleeding cuts. Despite the unbearable pain she staggered up knowing she would be punished if she didn't get to work. As she struggled to get outside of the small hut a cold wind came upon her chilling her to the bone. She fell down shivering because of what little clothes she had. She wore a thin white dress barely reaching her knee covered with her blood. The girl got up and picked up two large heavy pails and walked towards the forest. She hastened her speed hoping she wouldn't encounter the neighborhood children. Too late, she realized as she heard voices approaching her.

"Look at the little bitch! Get to work or I'll tell my dad you were slacking off and he'll punish you! Better yet, I'll tell him you hurt me, and then you'll really get it!" A girl's voice laughed.

Stubborn as the girl was she did not look back despite the tears welling up. These people are the same age as me, yet why am I treated so different, she wondered miserably.

Her life had been a living hell ever since Allen disappeared that day after Mana died. She often had nightmares about it.

-(flashback in a flashback!)-

It was a stormy night as she lay on the small bed feeling cold. Mana had just died recently and the emptiness left by him couldn't be filled so easily, on top of that Allen was still mourning sitting all alone by the grave. But she couldn't believe that the bright, cheerful, funny, and kind man had died so easily, so she couldn't stand to look at the grave. She dug her head into the pillow as she cried silent tears of indescribable sadness.

-(time jump)-

Two days had passed since Mana had died and Allen had remained at the grave. Neither of them had eaten or slept in the days past. Stricken with grief neither felt the need to go on any longer. Her brown hair tumbled in knots swayed behind her back as she wearily got up and looked out the window to see if Allen had returned, but to no avail, he hadn't come back. But that night had changed everything.

Alice lay on the bed finally fell asleep from exhaustion. Out in Mana's grave the Millennium Earl came upon Allen asking him if he wanted to revive Mana. Without thinking Allen agreed and Mana was revived as an Akuma. Mana had cursed Allen and with his powers awakened killed the Akuma. The Earl left and Marian Cross had took Allen away. All of this occurred without Alice knowing a single thing. A memory unknown to her leaving her with confusion.

The next day she awoken and ate hungrily without realizing the drastic physical appearance made to her. She grabbed the last loaf of bread and the little butter she had left and packed it into a small bag. She prepared to make the small trip to the graveyard to bring back Allen. She put on a thin white dress that almost reached to her feet and a thick coat with gloves. As she put on her boots she noticed that it was snowing and smiled, today would be a new day she thought. Alice made her way to the graveyard and stood in front of Mana's grave. She took out some dead flowers from the bag and placed them in front of the grave.

"Thank you Mana for taking care of us all the time. I love you and will always miss you." She said quietly as a single tear rolled down her face.

Memories of the happy time flashed through her mind. Mana teaching her and Allen to smile. Mana teaching them to talk properly. Happiness. Laughter. Smiles. Cheer. Nothing would be the same without Mana. Tears fell down onto the snow as she fell to the ground sobbing. She quickly pushed them away. She stood up and looked around for Allen.

"ALLEN! WHERE ARE YOU!?" she yelled and was answered by empty silence.

She headed towards the town hoping to find Allen heading towards the direction of their house. It was early so not too many people were out to notice her yelling. If they did see her they simply pretended they didn't. She continually called the Allen's name as she tired. As she sat down to eat a small portion of the food she had she didn't notice the people approaching her. They quickly caught her off guard and knocked her unconscious. She only heard a few things until she blacked out.

"Hey, we caught a pretty little thing! The boss will be happy with today's catch. She'll sell for good money." A man's cheerful but gruff voice said.

That was how she became a slave, 1 year ago.

-(end of flashback inside of a flashback)-

She sighed as she tried to push the memories away and focus on the situation in front of her. Useless to dwell on the past because she couldn't change it now, she thought to herself.

She looked behind her to see she was accompanied by a two large boys.

"Hey monster we're going to play a game! It's called Prey & Predator! We're the predator and you're to prey! Try to escape us!" one boy laughed as he picked up stones from the ground. Gently as it could get rocks were thrown at her until she was hit with a violent typhoon of rocks flying towards her. She quickly fled into the woods remembering to grab the pails. She headed towards the well located in the center of the forest. She tried as well as she could to act stealthy so they would lose her trail. The forest was very complicated and if you didn't know the way you could get easily lost. She hopped from spot to spot making no sound as she made it into a clearing with a well located in the middle. Quickly she put the handles of both pails around her arms as the climbed the tallest tree she could find making sure she could still see. High as she could she sat there waiting purposely snapping a twig so they would know where to go. She sat there observing the new wounds she had gotten. Her body felt tired from the unnecessary exercise. She heard voices.

"I hear something this way." The girl yelled. Footsteps followed.

"Here's the well clearing, but where is the girl!?" the girl said angrily. She slapped both of them in the face.

"We're sorry mistress she must have escaped." They said bowing their heads down.

Up in a tree Alice tried to suppress her laughter. She watched them leave the clearing. She knew she headed quite deep into the forest and most likely they would not find their way back. Suddenly remembering her job she climbed down the tree and filled each bucket to the brim with water and heaved them back to the house making sure to take a detour to not encounter the bunch. As she arrived she poured the water into a large bucket where it would be used for many things. She repeated the journey to the forest until the bucket was filled.

(Later that night)

As the sun set Alice barely finished the chores, but it was too late. The master of the house came back angry that things didn't go well at work. To let out his anger he beat Alice. Despite the pain she refused to submit and cry out. The beating continued for many hours. She was ordered to go buy things at the town. Her owner put rusted shackles on her feet to notify people that the girl was a slave. She walked obediently to the town.

When she entered the town she was greeted my stares as silence came upon the once bustling town. She found everything she needed and left quickly. This was a routine of her every day; her owners would soon grow tired of her and sell her off. She had been with them much too long, about 5 months. The next day she was sold off.

Year after year she was sold over and over again, beaten and abused until the time came when she was afraid of human contact, afraid to be touched, to touch. Four years later she escaped from the living hell her life had been.

Alice had been laid down on a couch after she had collapsed. She was feverish and sweating muttering things. Suddenly she moaned.

"Please, NO!" she screamed out.

Yuki came over to her side and kneeled down whispering inaudible words that seemed to call her out. Finally the sounds silenced.

Shade stood up and walked over to Lavi. "Let's get this straight rabbit." She said very seriously and un-Shade like. "You don't touch the boss." She directed that part to him then she spoke louder addressing everyone in the room. "Listen up you bastards! No one touches the boss! No sort of physical contact even if you're touchin her clothing!"

Sin sighed and lay down on the ground head facing the ceiling as he rubbed his forehead. "It's gonna take FOREVER for her to wake up now!" he complained.

"I'm sure you all are aware of the conditions children that have this thing," he said as he gestured to Alice's arm. "But she's gone through the worst of it." He took in a deep breath. "Alice used to be a slave, constantly beaten and abused. That's why she's forever afraid of human contact, she'll breakdown. Despite her strong and stubborn outward appearance she's very weak mentally." He said sadly.

Yuki coughed clearing her throat. In a gentle voice she spoke, "Please don't tell her that we told you. She's not very open about her past, truthfully all she wants to do is forget it." She paused. "We all do."

They all sat back down hearing no response from the exorcists. Hours slowly ticked by as Alice showed no signs of waking. After 5 hours she twitched a dark color started crawling on her skin until it completely covered her. A line of crosses appeared on her forehead. Her eyes snapped open and revealed the golden eyes of a Noah.

A/N: I'M AM SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY! I WAS SO BUSY WITH HOMEWORK AND OTHER SCHOOL CRAP I HAD NO TIME AND I MEANT TO UPDATE AS SOON AS I TOOK THIS DOWN PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

The Shadow: I saw the anime and I thought it was more brown than red, but thanks for telling me about that. I read some other fanfics and was kinda confused. Yeah and you wouldn't be insulting my fanfic appreciate the review.

ArrowMoon: There was a bit of an Alice flashback here but I didn't really feel like getting in to detail about how they got separated. I actually have no idea where this story is going!