Chapter 3

Audra Farley.

I made a mistake once and lived to regret it.

It was a rainy day on the streets of New York. I had skipped school for the third time that week and ninth time that month for reasons only I understood. The principal was frustrated and threatened to suspend me if I skipped at least a class but that didn't stop me from sneaking out immediately after. I found my way out of the building, crawled up the fence, scraped a knee and ran as fast as I could, just so they wouldn't catch me.

Secrets of my life were unfolding before me. It frightened me, I was scared the world would think I was crazy and lock me up in a mental asylum far away from my family. No one knew the things I saw, no one knew how far I had gone, no one knew my capabilities, no one knew the things I heard and it only got worse every single day.

My world was turning into a nightmare. I shivered while I walked, flinched with the slightest sounds, screamed when the voices got too loud, wake up with marks on my skin and when I tried to show anyone, they would fade. Everyone thought I was making it up to get attention, even my my mother didn't believe me and a time came when I didn't believe myself anymore. I thought I truly was crazy like my friends had said.

Maybe everything I thought was real was just an illusion or my mind playing tricks on me, maybe that was what insanity felt like and I was nothing more than a psychotic teenage girl that screamed at everything.

My mother yelled at me for long minutes, calling me names I never thought I would hear from her. She had spent hours at work and came back home to meet me curled up at the corner of my room, crying and shivering in fear. That was something I did whenever I got too scared.

Anyone would think I was scared of the consequences of my action but I wasn't. In fact, I had no remorse for what I had done. I was glad I left school, at least no one would tease me at home all alone and no one would be there to hear me speak to nothing and cover my ears in fear. I was fine with whatever came with it, even if it was getting starved for a whole day.

It was seven at night when I decided to take a walk to free my head and that was something I lived to regret. It was an attempt to take things off my mind and focus on the things around me instead of the ones in my head. My mother didn't know of what I did, she didn't know I left the house and I didn't bother talking to her about it. I just silently walked out of the building in a sweaty shirt and jean shorts. I felt what I was doing would shut out the voices and probably the monsters inside me for the few minutes I would spend outside.

Slowly, the population on the streets reduced. People went into their shelters to protect themselves from the harsh weather and drizzle while I walked in it without a shiver. I

I didn't know what time it was when it happened but it all took place in less than a second.

I suddenly stopped walking and so did every other thing around me. I felt the wind seize, the little drizzle beating my skin pause and my mind go blank. I didn't know what was happening till my body hit the ground and my eyes sealed shut. That was the last thing I remembered from that night.

I was found unconscious the following day by the police and was taken to the hospital immediately. I stayed stable in coma for a whole month and when I finally woke up, I wished I didn't. I couldn't live the reality of what happened to me. No one told me till I started feeling the symptoms myself, they were scared I wasn't in the right emotional position to know what had happened that night but it didn't take a week before I figured out myself. When I did, my mother was the one to tell me the whole truth. The truth about how I had a baby growing inside me throughout my time unconscious.

I was raped.

Samara Shaw.

Mother was right when she said it would be a lesson for me.

The first turn was easy, I walked down a wide hallway leading to the west which I thought would lead to the hostel. Throughout the walk down the path, all I saw were doors at my left and right. They were all the exact same, all similar in color, size and style. However, there were engravings on each one of them. Different names perfectly carved out in cursive with the females to the left and males to the right. I assumed they were offices of teachers and other academical staffs and the classes were probably down the other hallways. I had not been to a school before or any academical establishment but I knew the staffs in this one were way too many. I walked for long minutes and with each step came a new pair of doors. I stopped paying attention to the engravings after a few minutes and kept walking ahead.

That was all I remembered when I met myself at the edge of a skyway bridge with no idea if I was in the West Wing or not. It connected the building to a smaller one and on it were the most magnificent statues I had ever seen in my life. These ones were not like the ones I saw outside, neither were they angels. They had no wings at their backs and weren't as tall as them. Their heads, however, were facing the ground and that was the only similarity between the two groups of statues. They had a cape around them, covering their entire bodies and a hood over their heads that exposed only half of their faces. There were seven all together, six at each side and one on the other, all in the same position.

My stomach grumbled in hunger, I didn't have the opportunity to have breakfast before I was forcefully brought here and I missed lunch because I couldn't make it to the hostel on time. The sun was setting and I still didn't know where I was, how to make it to the hostel or at least the way back to the reception where I could meet Lady Esther again and plead for help. I didn't meet a single being throughout the long hours and then, it almost felt like the whole building was deserted.

My legs ached from all the walking and both my arms from having to lift my bag. I never had to do such amount of work back in the mansion, it was my first time walking for so long. I was starting to rethink what my mother had said earlier that day about my stay here being a lesson for my attitude. I didn't want to imagine Lady Esther truly did that to make me get lost in the corners of the mansion as punishment. The thought of it made me frightened of where i was. I feared I was going to stay right there at the edge of a skyway bridge till the moon would rise and watch me sleep on the rough concrete ground with the cold wind biting through my tender skin.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a sudden presence beside me. I bounced on my feet and took a few steps back at the sight. The man before me was like none I had ever laid my eyes on. His hair was stark white, like the snow on a winter day and fell past his shoulders to his mid back. It was straight and combed backwards with some tucked behind his ear. His eyes were silvery grey and pierced through mine while he gazed down at me. He was at least six feet tall, or more and towered over my five feet figure. He had the broad shoulders and arms that bulged through his grey sweatshirt.

He was flawless, like a god.

"I'm sorry for startling you" His said "Are you okay?"

"How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to notice you're new and lost too if I might add"

My thoughts about spending the night on a bridge were gone, I had seen hope. Whoever the man was would be my only way to the females dorm. He didn't look new, neither did he speak like one so definitely, the buildings shouldn't be a maze to him.

"I've been walking for hours in search of the female's dorm but everything looks so complicated and I have no idea where I am"

"You're a few feet away from the male's dorm."

"Oh and that happens to be what wing?"

"East"

"Oh my goodness, I went the exact opposite way. Does that mean I'll have to walk straight to the other side of the building? That'll take hours"

Hours of effort wasted, I had never been so annoyed in my life. I walked in the exact opposite direction in stupidity and Lady Esther watched me make the huge mistake without calling to correct me. What sort of establishment was it? First, I was given the worst welcome by an obviously frustrated woman, no help with my bag, no kind of respect for me and not even the simplest act like correcting me.

"A couple of minutes actually." He corrected "I can walk you there if you'd like"

"Yes, that would be great. Thank you"

He lifted my bag from the ground like it weighed nothing and held it by his side as we began our walk to the west wing. His legs took long strides, walking across the bridge in a few seconds while I was halfway through.

"Hold on!" I called, stopping him from walking any further. He swiftly turned to me as I sluggishly walked towards the end of the bridge where he stood. "You're walking too fast, I'll end up getting lost again if you walk with that pace"

"Do you need me to carry you to your room?"

"No, that'll be too much work for you. Besides, it's impossible to carry both me and my bag at once, don't you think?"

"It's for your own good"

What happened to me next remained a mystery to me. I had never felt such a sudden wave of dizziness at once. It felt like something was pulling my eye lids shut and draining all of the energy in me bit by bit till I was left with what felt like an empty body. My mind was blank, I was void of emotions and my entire body felt numb. I didn't feel a thing till my body hit the ground and I passed out.