Virgo

****Prologue.****

"Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, fight or be beaten, survive or perish" ~ Freedom trio law of the lands.

When I was young I would have terrible nightmares that would wake me up in the middle of the night. My mother would hurry to my side as I screamed and cried in panic. Sometimes I would wake up in a pool of my own sweat, creating damp circles on my pillows and bed sheets. She would sometimes joke about it and tell me if I had showered on the bed. At the time I didn't think it was funny but now that I think about it, it is pretty funny. She would then lay me in her arms, being in her gentle warm embrace was somewhat reassuring to me. As she held me in her arms she would run her fingers through my damp hair and kiss my forehead ever so gently.

Mother would then tell me stories to try to get me to go back to sleep. Stories about a girl who had long hair named Rapunzel, another one about a girl who's skin was white as snow. Snow White was her name if I remembered correctly. But the oddest story was one about a land they once called America. How many years ago it was called the land of the free, a place of possibilities. Every time she brought up that particular story I would ask what happened to such a great place? Where did it go? Why aren't we there? And she would always reply with a sigh. "You will find out sooner or later". I always end up disappointed in the answer, but knowing that one day my question will have an answer made me excited and anxious. How I wished the answer wasn't true. I wished this was all just a bad dream and that any minute now I would wake up in my mothers arms again. Hearing her soft heart beat and feeling her soft hands run through my hair knowing that it was all just a nightmare. But this was no dream. This is the world I'm forced to fight to survive in. A world my mother tried to keep hidden from me and now I see why.