Arogen

Chapter I

"Amy! Bea! Come back to me my sweet children!"

I watched as the woman I once called mother cried out for my sisters, flailing her arms as a mad woman while being held back by the men here to take us. I couldn't help but feel joy in seeing her cry out in despair. Now she could feel a taste of what I felt my entire life living under her roof.

"Mom, I love you. Don't cry! Me and Bea will come visit you, I promise!"Amy yelled back, tears streaming down her face. Bea was pulling her out the door, waving goodbye at Mom as we were taken out of the house. I felt a ting of pain that my existence was of such little value that I didn't even get a goodbye. You would have never guessed this was my family and these were the sisters I was raised with since I was 5. Sometimes, I found it hard to believe myself.

I felt a hand on my back, pushing me forward back into reality from where I stood frozen watching the woman who raised me cry out for my siblings and not acknowledge my presence.

"It's time to go," said the muscular, dark haired man who pushed me forward. I stepped forward and walked out with not so much as a glance behind me. I was relieved to finally leave the home that had brought me so much pain. I stepped into a white van with the words Property of Edgewood painted on the side to find Amy and Bea inside seated at the back, glaring at me with contempt. I sat in the front seat as far away from them as possible and prepared myself for the trip ahead of us. I could feel their eyes boring into my back and could hear their angry whispers and ignored them. If looks could kill, I would've been dead years ago. I was used to their hateful gazes and condescending looks. I pulled my hoodie up and leaned my head back into the headrest and dozed off.

My name is Saron. I am 16 years old. I don't know much about where I came from or about my real mother, who gave me to Mrs. Gerbin. What I've heard is that she went insane and Mrs. Gerbin took me in because no one else wanted me. Amy and Bea didn't always hate me. In fact, growing up we all were best friends. It all changed when I turned 8. That's when something strange happened.

"Sar dear, hand me the butter will you?" said Mrs. Gerbin, smiling down at me while beating the eggs with sugar.

We were making my birthday cake for my 8th birthday after I insisted we make it ourselves instead of buying one.

"Okay!" I said happily as I jumped off the step stool and ran to the cupboard on the opposite side of the kitchen to get the butter.

"Got it!" I said proudly holding up the block of butter I pulled out of the cupboard. I stepped down the step stool I was standing on to make my way back down and jumped off too early, landing face first on the ground.

"SARONNNNNNN WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!" Mrs. Gerbin screamed, looking at me with fear in her eyes.

I looked up in confusion, rubbing my face where it was still throbbing from face planting on the ground to see the kitchen engulfed in flames. I watched her figure in the smoke, desperately running around throwing water on the fire to quench it to no avail. My eyes felt heavy then everything went black.

I vaguely remember waking up in my bed to Mrs. Gerbin sitting beside me frowning down at me. That's when my life, or the life I had known up to that point went to shit.

"Saron, you're sick. From now on you are to stay in this room and take these pills every day. You can't go out with the other girls anymore," she said as she showed me a bottle of pills on the desk beside my bed. I saw unimaginable fear and hatred in her eyes and nodded in confusion. I drifted back into sleep where I would spend the next eight years drifting in and out of.

Every day since, I have never left the house. I was constantly in and out of consciousness due to the pills Mrs. Gerbin forced me to take daily. Bea and Amy stopped playing with me after that, never bothering to check up on me. It bothered me but soon, I got used to it. As time passed, their indifference turned to hate and so did my mother's. They saw me as a freak, a burden. I was too weak from the pills to argue or fight when they taunted me or withheld my food. I spent my days in bed hearing and watching Amy and Bea live their lives. The only thing I had to look forward to was turning 16 because that was when I would leave and go to the Academy.