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Chapter Twenty-One

Once I became aware of my surroundings, a severe pain in between my legs became prominent. A dull throb went through my skull, traveling through my weak muscles in my limbs. My right wrist was chained to the metal post at the top of the bed. I felt sick, an awful ache pooling in my stomach. My eyes clenched shut; I did not want to be awake.

I wished that I could sleep forever and that my unconscious state would not have the ability to think. If I could, I would remember everything that happened to me that I did not want. Like losing my loved ones and being abused.

Distracting my mind from the thought, I looked around. The room appeared to be different than I last remembered. Rather than looking like a normal bedroom, it now resembled a jail cell. Thick bars were on the windows, and furniture was pinned to the floor carefully by screws in metal plates.

My body shook from having no warmth. There was no cover on the bed. I only wore a silky nightdress with some bandages on my wounds. Angry red scratches etched around the gauze; it could not cover them because of how long they stretched. Blisters decorated my shoulders, and bruises covered my peeling skin. I felt like a lizard as I pulled a layer of dead skin off the sunburn on my thigh.

Not only did my outer layer burn, my insides did too. Not just from the hunger, but from the hatred towards Lorenzo that simmered in my heart. I was so angry that sadness clutched me in its grip, due to feeling such a vile emotion. I have never loathed anyone before, but I do now. No, all those petty emotions I felt towards Marisa and Amanda were nothing compared to what was crawling through my insides now.

I gritted my teeth as I held in tears that threatened to spill over, knowing that if I let them out now they would never stop. Images in my mind focused on the memory of my mother and me carving pumpkins.

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"Mommy! I need to know what to make." I cried out, laughing as she kept making funny faces at me through the hole in her pumpkin.

Mother had messed hers up, so she said she was going to make a moon—until she discovered that the pumpkin was slightly larger than her head. That made it the perfect fit for her to be a spacewoman. She looked so goofy as the pumpkin seeds hung down her bare neck. A low-cut sweater dress clung to her small stature as she jumped up and down.

"I am going to space! You can only come with me if you carve the best design. It is now or never, pumpkin." She joked, crossing her eyes.

"Please tell me what to make so I can go too!" I exclaimed, giggling as she walked like a crab towards me.

"The creatures from the sky are calling... And they want you to make a monster for them!" She declared, using a paintbrush as a fake phone.

I felt distressed. My arms crossed and my fist fell under my chin. Mom froze as she waited for me to tell her what I was going to make.

"I guess I could make the aliens a witched pumpkin. That's a monster, right? They are sorta alike, after all."

She cackled, "Oh yes! They would love for you to make them a wicked witch."

Mom pulled the pumpkin off her head and sat it on the picnic table. Her arms swooped me up with ease as I screamed in delight.

"Fly like a witch! It is the only way you can know how to paint one!" She hollered.

I threw my arms out on both sides of me, letting them soar in the wind. I felt so free and tall. The world around me was colorful and bright, the orange and brown leaves falling from the trees into large heaps.