The pain came late.
Not sharp. Not sudden.
It bloomed quietly beneath my ribs, spreading like cold through warm water. I looked down too slowly, fingers brushing something wet, something wrong. My legs gave out before my mind caught up.
Poison.
That was the last clear thought I had.
The world tilted, sounds stretching and bending as if I were sinking underwater. I felt hands catch me before I hit the ground. Liam's voice broke through the haze—calling my name, once, twice, then again, desperate.
I couldn't answer.
I saw him kneel, his hands shaking as he pressed them against me, his face unraveling in a way I'd never seen before. Liam never broke. Not like this.
Tears slid down his face, hitting my skin.
"Stay with me," he whispered, voice cracking. "Please… just stay."
I wanted to tell him I was trying.
But my eyes closed anyway.
When I opened them again, I was small.
Too small.
My hands were different—rounder, softer. The room was wrong, too familiar in a way that made my chest tighten. I knew this place before my mind accepted it.
I was eight again.
Night pressed against the windows. The house was silent in that terrible way that comes before something breaks. I remembered this fear. It lived in my bones.
I hid where I always had.
Then the sounds came—raised voices, chaos, sharp cracks that made me clamp my hands over my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing to disappear.
When it finally stopped, the silence was worse.
I stepped out slowly, heart pounding so loud I thought it would give me away.
That's when I saw them.
Men I didn't know. Blood I couldn't look at for long.
And then—another sound. Another group. Shouts. More noise. Men yelling in pain.
I didn't understand it then. I only knew that somehow, the danger had shifted.
An old man found me.
He looked like my father, just enough to hurt.
"There you are," he said gently, kneeling to my level. A boy stood behind him, watching me with wide, wary eyes. "It's going to be okay now."
I believed him because I had nothing else to hold on to.
They took me with them.
That was how I met Sebastian Lee.
And Adrien.
And then we left the house l Didn't ask much or even had the strength to think to that point. We got to there home and l started living with them from then on. The little boy was called Adrien, and from that moment on we lived as brother and sister, so years passed by while l lived in that household and nothing ever seemed strange to me until the day Adrian said that he was going to leave for the military things and we all said out farewells to him and l started living with the old man called Sebastian Lee, about a month passed and nothing ever called out danger with him, until on that one night, it all went downhill again and it was on my sixteen birthday, when l was sitting in my room, opening up a gift l brought for myself, and that's when he knocked and opened the door after l told him to come in and brought a gift in a package, he sat down next to me and started saying how he was proud of me and loved the ages he had me as his daughter. And that he really felt like that's what his old friend, my dad would be happy of. After saying that he gave some chocolates and l thanked him, very much, l was so happy that this man saved my life that day and gave me a second Chance, but the gifts weren't over because in that package wrapped in ribbons , there was something in a box and l took the box and was about to open it, when he caught my hands and said that l had to first keep the gifts l had already because this one was very special coming from him, and l did as he said l got up from the bed and kept my dress that l had bought today, and then kept the chocolates he gave me and cleaned the bed by removing the wraps and ribbons and threw them in a trash bin and then sat next to him. I was so curious and couldn't anticipate what was coming for me that day. He then took out something form the box which looked like a white thingy in fluids stuff and was very strange, l Wondered if it was bracelet, l was so confused, but l couldnt wiat to try it on, he opened it and then took it in his hands and told me that in order to try it on l had to lay down on the bed so he could see it f it fits well, he started somehow removing his black coat he has on and when l asked him about why he removed it he said it was starting to get hot . And that's when l felt this feeling of where l was so unease and scared but because he was like a fatherfigure to me l didn't think much about it, he then removed his pants and then got up on the bed too, I again asked him what was the gift like and he only smiled. He then touched my hips and then removed the shorts l had on, telling me that they were going to be a bother if had them on while he was giving me the gift. He the proceeded to remove my tank top and l was confused again, and that feeling crept in again, l was left only in my underwear garments while he was the removing his boxer too. He got barely all wearing nothing and l could see him clearly with everything he had, how huge they were . And he proceeded to take on the white thingy he brought for me and now it was his.
I believed him.
That was my mistake.
What happened next fractured something inside me—something I didn't have words for back then. I only remember the fear returning, sharper than before. The way my body knew before my mind did that something was wrong.
That night did not end the way childhood stories do.
It ended with silence.
With escape.
With me leaving that house carrying a truth that would shape everything I became after.