Running quickly down the alley, I knew that I couldn't slow down. They were behind me slowly getting closer and closer it would be soon that they would catch me. Sweat was running down my face getting into my eyes. I didn't have time to wipe it out I would just have to deal with it.

     Almost there, I'm almost there. I can't let them catch me. I can't let them know what I am. I want to look behind me to see exactly what it is that is chasing me but I remember her telling me not to look back just keep running until I got there. I turn to the right and I can see it in the distance.

     The woods there is something about them that makes me want to run in the opposite direction but I know I have to listen to her. I have to remember the words to say too. I start mumbling them under my breath while getting closer and closer to the edge of the woods. I look around for our tree. The tall oak with the limbs branching off everywhere. The only oak in the woods.

     I see it and quickly sit on the lowest branch and bring my knees up hiding my face from the outside world. I say the last word and I can feel the rush the warm sensation running through my body as the oak pulses. I know they can't get me now I'm protected. They can't touch me and I must remember the most important thing don't let them see my face they can't know what I look like. My clothes covered almost every part of my body but my face and I can never let them see my face.

****

     I wake up breathing hard and look around frantically. I've been having that dream for the past week. I don't know what it means all I know is that it is the last memory I have before I woke up in the hospital. That was ten years ago when I was six. I didn't know my real name or who my family was. I was raised in a foster home where I still live today with what I consider my family. The dysfunctional group of children I have come to love and live my life for.

     I'm the oldest besides my best friend Tiffany, she's sixteen too. We don't really know who is older seeing as I don't remember when my birthday is we're not even sure if I am sixteen. The doctors just assumed I was six when I was put into the hospital all those years ago because of how developed my bones were, they said I looked six or seven and I chose six. I have red hair and green eyes, and the name they gave me was Ivy.