The hardest part of any story is where to1 start. Some may say it is best to start from the beginning, but where does the beginning even occur? Where will that lead to? What good would it be to start at the beginning of anything? Every beginning is a story of its own, but everyone has their beginning that helps the story made from war.

Somewhere in the universe are many happy and normal families, then there are some families that seem normal but hide so many different dark secrets. Aella knew the second type of family well, it didn't matter if the family was wealthy or poor she knew the second type felt bitter and cold. Kind of like grapefruit, people still like it despite the disgusting taste.

Her adopted mother had hidden her life a secret from everyone she knew, everyone except for Aella's father and sister and those that Renee had hired under an NDC contract. She was even sent away from her biological father up in Forks Washington when it was revealed that her mother had died giving birth to Aella. Renee rushed to get custody of Aella, claiming her father wouldn't be able to give her the time and attention that a baby would need to grow, after getting custody Renee booked a flight to Arizona, more specifically, Phoenix Arizona. Forks was where she lived for the first sixteen months of her life, before the move with Renee.

Renee, her adopted mother, knew who her biological mother was and tended to blame Aella for everything that went wrong in everyone's life because of who her mother was. She would go on saying Aella should be grateful that she even adopted the burden who killed her best friend, a best friend who couldn't conceive the normal way and keep her from being abandoned by Charlie. When Charlie and Renee got divorced when Bella was three and Aella was seventeen months, Renee took both her and Bella, stating that Charlie was allowed visitation rights to Bella and Aella. Though only Bella went for visitations, Aella was forced to be home, alone, for a weekend or a week. Renee would hire a teen to babysit, but all the babysitter would do would feed and change Aella, nothing else.

Maybe it was her fault? If she was never born maybe, just maybe, Renee and Charlie would still be together and her biological mother would still be alive without having to go through the stress of child labor. Sometimes she wishes she was never born so that her father could have a happier life, a life with her sister and Renee.

Every time she had thoughts like this though, Aella felt as if her skin had a bunch of fire ants under it and it had her trying to relieve the burning itch by scratching at her skin. She would scratch and scratch until she bled, sometimes leaving a scar when the scratches healed, most leaving a few months after healing, but there was one scar near her elbow that was still pink and showed each dig that her fingernails left. With that one scar, she covered it with either makeup or a sleeve. The only person who ever knew about the scar was her father.

Her father, Charlie Swan, loved Renee but he was also open about his younger daughter, often telling everyone in his office about how he misses his baby girl. At least, that is what she always heard over the phone when she heard people in the background. He would always say, it's my Aella so shut the hell up. It made her happy to know that he cared, though, at the same time, she doesn't know what to do about the change in dynamic because she can't say she knew what it felt like to feel love from a parental figure. The times that she hears the joy and pride that comes from Charlie's voice had her believing that she would have been a total Daddy's Girl if she was given the opportunity.

Sighing, Aella glances outside in the early morning in Phoenix Arizona. It was a bit cooler than most who lived in the hotter states were used to, but to Aella she still felt too hot. She watched as Bella soaked in the morning rays of the sun as Renee and Phil, Renee's new husband, watched with soft happy smiles on their faces. Aella felt something heavy inside of her chest, something dark and numbing as she watched Renee fuss over Bella. Phil rolled his eyes fondly as he called out to the two. It was then that he looked up to her window and noticed Aella standing there in her room in the attic of their house. Phil gave her a sad smile and reached inside his pocket discreetly to grab his iPhone, her dull brown eyes watched as her step-father tapped away at his keyboard on his screen. Soon her burner phone dinged.

Don't worry, I will get her to get you there before your birthday. Aella smiled softly at the man, a fake one but it was more than she gave Renee and Bella. Still, she continued to watch as the three got into the car. Desperately Aella wanted nothing more than to just be with them for the ride, her hand resting on the warm glass window.

Initially, Aella was supposed to go along with Bella but Renee and Bella both had a fit over it. Phil and Renee had many disagreements in the time coming to this day. Renee was worried about anyone knowing that Aella was her adopted daughter after taking everything that she could to prevent such a thing from happening. Aella was homeschooled, she had very private tutors that had to sign an NDA with Renee, and she was forced to stay in the attic. Renee went as far as to renovate the attic. Soon Aella had a built-in apartment up in the attic with everything included. It was just a storage room before she turned five and Renee wanted Aella and Bella to be separated.

Renee even got her on a disability, one Aella thought she completely made up. Somehow even Charlie was convinced of Aella having a disability for a long time. It wasn't true. Aella was completely normal. Just as normal as anyone else in the house was. Renee had a few people come to evaluate Aella, and she would force Aella to drink so many sugary concoctions and slip something in the drinks that caused her to not see right and had her body feel too warm. Renee even had Bella at a friend's house for a while as she made herself look so tired and messy as she made it seem as though this was normal. It wasn't until Aella was twelve that she learned Renee mixed two shots of pure vodka into her drinks. It was also at this age that the visits stopped happening and when she was pretty much told to never come out of the attic.

At least that was until a year ago when Phil came into the picture that Aella was slowly allowed to spend time outside of the attic. She would just sit there watching as Bella would practice her ballet moves with stiff and jerky movements in those times, she sometimes would feel relaxed just by watching her sister. Then there were a lot of times when Phil asked for her help to cook or bake something with him, somehow getting Renee to agree to let her out of her attic to help him.

She grew to kind of trust Phil. Though, there was one person she trusted the most and that was her father. Phil had even helped her with telling Charlie what was going on, but there wasn't anything to be done about it now since it's been years since she was given any large amounts of sugar or vodka. She hasn't even seen any of the people who would come over to evaluate her mental state.

Time slipped past her as she sat there in the light that flowed through the window as she waited for hours for Renee and Phil to come back. Only, they didn't. Hours passed, and she was up all night waiting. Risking getting into trouble for leaving her room without permission, Aella began to clean a messy home.

At first, Aella didn't mind as she was glad to finally be able to get out of the attic for longer periods. Time in which she spent cleaning, baking, cooking, reading, and just trying to keep busy. Showers were taken every day, but her hair would be washed every couple of days, so she was fine. She knew how to shop, so she would take the time to shop and she would go out and shop as quickly as possible. Sure, she felt bad for having to refill everything that she used in the last few months, but she also knew that it was necessary to have the things she gets. The only thing she never had to do was pay the bills and that was because Renee and Phil would do that where ever they were. This was their home.

She got messages from Phil, her father would call her every night. Until one night Phil stopped texting as Charlie forgot to call one night. Messages became sparse, calls happened every weekend. She didn't have any kind of social media as Renee forbade her from making any accounts, sure she could make one now that no one else was around as it was only her but just the thought of what Renee could do to her terrified her.

She slowly began to feel so alone, so much so she began to text both Renee and Bella just so she wouldn't feel so alone. So the silence didn't feel so silent. Even if the replies she got from Renee weren't happy or positive, texting did help her connect to Bella better. She would spend time telling Bella everything she wanted to know and if Aella knew the answers she would tell her. Aella even began to do research for her sister just so she could continue to talk more with her. Though, it was odd when she was on a call with Bella and she would ask Aella to look up anything she could about 'The Cold Ones' and related searches. Like vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters, all of which Aella felt were odd to look up, but she did. Even going as far as to read the Harry Potter series within three weeks just to tell Bella what she learned. Then one day Bella stopped replying to Aella for a long time and the only thing to distract herself was to watch the television or listen to the radio. Sometimes she would watch YouTube, but she just couldn't find any motivation to find a series of bloggers or whatever to watch.

Television and the radio were good for a while. Even her now favorite cartoon channels didn't give her the mind-numbing distraction she needed, so she began to watch more channels that she knew people her age watched. Sure, she was fifteen going on sixteen but everything didn't help her. It made her feel restless.

She opened the windows to try to get the sound of the wind or animals to enter the house when it got too bad, but then she would begin to get too hot and she would force herself to close the windows. It didn't help. The hum of the AC became too bothersome as it was the only thing she could hear until she couldn't take it anymore and just turned on either the television or the radio. But most times she was in silence.

Silence filled the house as no one was around.

Empty.

She was all by herself.

Alone.

Having no one to do chores or anything with.

Help.

That air conditioner needed to shut up.

Static.

For the first time, she lost the battle with the static inside her head and she knew she needed to get some help. Her mind went blank. Everything around her felt dark, cold, and fuzzy. She knew where her feet were taking her, the cold of the tiled floor sank into her bare feet as she came closer to the bathroom where she grabbed a random bottle. Opening said bottle she poured a lot of its contents into her mouth as she was quick to douse it down with water. Her mind fought against itself as she tried to hurl it up as Aella fought to get to the landline to call for help. It hurt too much to force it out. Her mind and body felt as though they were warring against each other as she fought for control over her mind and body.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency," a soft-spoken woman on the line reached Aella's ears. Putting the phone on speaker, Aella watched as her nails dug into her skin.

Grounding.

Focus.

"Help," she whimpered as she saw blood coming from her skin, bright red and hot. It was starting to cake under her nails as she brought her arm more pain to focus on something that wasn't static, "I've been alone for three months. I am fifteen almost sixteen, and my dad is in Forks Washington with my sister. My mother and stepdad are doing leagues baseball traveling. I overdosed on something."

Aella wasn't sure why she was reaching out to someone for help when it seemed to her that no one seemed to want her other than for their own personal gain or something.

Why was she trying to continue to be alive?

Scratch.

No one will want her.

Static.

No one most definitely needs her.

Blood.

She deserves to suffer.

Nausea.

To die.

Scratch.

Bleed.

But, Aella was scared.

Scared of death.

Scared to be alone.

She wants to feel normal.

But she wasn't.

"Okay, sweetie. Tell me what your name is first," the woman on the line sounded much warmer than she had before. Her voice caused Aella to start crying in relief that she could talk to someone again. It had been too long since she had heard anything but the static around her. Just her and her mind with the ever-constant static.

"My name is Aella Rose Swan."

"Okay, Ella," the woman spoke, as she typed something out. "Can you spell your name for me?"

"A-E-L-L-A S-W-A-N. I was born March nineteenth of two-thousand-six." Panic swirled as she heard the static become louder as she began to feel the darkness slipping into her vision. "I don't feel good. I tried to puke up what I swallowed but it hurt. P'eas help.."

"Hold on, sweetie, stay on the line with me. I need to know where your address is."

It took a while for Aella to respond. She didn't know the answer to it. At least she didn't know right off the bat. "Is 87 Rose Thorn Drive in Phoenix Arizona."

That was the last thing she remembered before waking up in the same hospital as her sister, on her birthday.