“My, my, my. You’ve grown so much since I’ve last seen you, Clementine.” Chuckled my Aunt Lucy. Her eyes twinkled brightly, making her old age disappear completely. The brightness of her twinkling eyes made my eighty year old aunt’s age decrease by twenty years. Her smile was warming, and was better than anyone else’s smile. My aunt acts like she has seen me every month, but I, myself has only met her once when I was eight, so you can tell why she has seen growth in me. I was sitting in the rocking chair on the right of Aunt Lucy, and I continued to slowly rock back and forth. We both chatted about how our days have treated us, and about life in general. I had told my Aunt Lucy that everything was going great. My life was practically paradise, but really life was hell. I faked my smiles, laughs, and my innocence.

My name is Clementine Rose. I am fourteen years old, and I have no memory about my past life before I was eight years old. I have the blackest eyes in the whole world. My hair was an unnatural color of green. It was real hair, but its color was unreal. My “family” was small. There were only two girls, including me, and one boy, whose name I cannot recall. For some reason, I do not recall the nights I had at “home” or the days I had at school. Yet, I do remember when I was taken from my “home”.

It was ten o’clock at night when I suddenly awoke from only one hour of peaceful sleep. I walked over to my window and opened it slowly so I wouldn’t wake anyone. The cold air swept past me as I stared into the dark night. The streets were bare of living things. Trash, branches, and dead leaves flew through the empty streets. No dogs barked wildly. I took a deep breath in and smelled the usual cigarette smoke, the whiff of baby powder, and then the calmness of upcoming rain that never arrives. It never rained at my neighborhood, but rained everywhere around it. It was like there was an invisible barrier that kept any weather from coming to this small neighborhood. I looked toward the sky and spotted my favorite star. It was just north of the North Star. It sparkled brightly and its radiance was brilliant. I named it Mary-Ann because I had always loved that name for unknown reasons. Every night, I would look up and wish upon Mary-Ann, and tonight I wished upon that star and asked, “Mary-Ann, my life has been odd. I cannot recall all that has happened before I was eight years old. If you can grant wishes, then may I ask for the truth to be shown to me.”

I gave a small smile to Mary-Ann and then sat down on the floor. The wind was now picking up speed and I had begun to have some hope that maybe rain will come. I closed my eyes and began to slowly think about what might happen tomorrow. Tomorrow, maybe “mother” will cook the “family” some pumpkin pie. It may even rain tomorrow! I chuckled silently because I knew that thought was just never going to happen.
Then there was a quiet knock on the door. My eyes shot open and I quickly and silently scurried up into my bed. I sat in my bed, waiting for whoever was at my door to walk away. I was waiting for the creaks that the floor makes when you walk on it, but the creaks never came. Then there was another knock on the door. This time it was louder. I still didn’t answer. Then the doorknob slowly turned. At the door’s entrance, there stood a muscular man. His face was covered except for his eyes. His sharp eye color of blue glared at me with a mix of loathing and hell itself, and even looking at him sent chills going through my spine.

I tried to scream for help, but I was stiff as stone and couldn’t move. The man moved slowly towards me. Soon he was close enough for me to hear his heavy breathing. In one hand there was a large brown bag, and in the other hand there was a small white cloth. The man walked towards me and tried to grab me out of the bed. I swiftly ran out of my bed and raced to the door, but the man was swifter and closer to the door. He quickly ran to the door and blocked it so no one could get out. So I ran to my window, and I wanted to jump, but my fear of death was too much for me. I looked out of the window and saw the ground. Then I remembered my “mother” had planted roses right under my window. I heard the footsteps of the man behind me, and I turned around as quickly as possible to run, but it was a split second too late. The man took the white cloth and put it over my nose. It smelled of alcohol, nail polish remover. I wanted to scream out for help, but I was getting woozy, and everything around me turned fuzzy. Then everything went dark.