It started at a young age,
Pulled out of sun kissed gardens,
And into pitch black barren lands.
The friends who had sheltered me,
Had begun to run away,
As parents that used to love me,
Had begun to push me away.

The reason for alienation was simple,
I was not intelligent as the rest,
While they moved on I was stuck wondering what an 'A' truly was,
The teachers,
The ones meant to inspire the young generation,
They took the liberty of labeling me
"A retard" she called me, "you're contagious and need to be quarantined"
All for not understanding what the word retard means.

It spread like wild fire,
"Stay away from her, she's demented"
"Touch her and you'll get infected"
"A look in her eyes and you'll be one of her kind"
Rumors twist, the demented had become a demon,
Whose eyes could kill,
Bullied, slapped, punched and kicked
Soon it became a norm to go home covered in bruises,
To a mother who couldn't understand why I still existed.

Bruises tend to fester,
If left unattended,
And the bruises on my heart,
They had festered into a flower, black.
Then the change happened,
I was no longer an infection,
"God showed mercy on you" they said,
And let me back to the gardens again.

Once accepted, the need for it to happen again grows,
So I began to talk, walk and dress like them,
Anything to not be thrown out again,
But then the trial it came so soon,
A young girl like me,
Had found herself in the garden,
An eyesore that I somehow I had to deal with.

Her bright eyes, they were still shrouded in innocence,
And to stay in this garden so bright,
I had to show her the gate to hell.
"Do it if you want to be with us!" screamed the friends,
"Save her because its the right thing!" preached my soul.

Conflicted, but greedy to be accepted I picked up a blade,
And killed my soul which was getting in my way,
And fed by the blood of my soul,
One petal, two petal, the flower of darkness had begun to bloom,
Labeling her as they had done me.

But my plan to remain had backfired on me,
As the girl shed tears, people turned on me,
And the friends who pushed me to this had left me.

Tear stained face, staring at the mirror,
Finding in it the reflection of another girl,
Her actions mimicking mine as I reached for my face,
Pulled off my skin that was masking the real me.

But behind the mask there was no other face,
All there was was veins, arteries, flesh and bones,
In the eyes, the carcass of a dead soul,
Forgotten who I truly was, long ago.

I screamed and woke up to find it was all just a dream,
But on the dresser was the mask I had peeled off yesterday,
Blank face stared at the mirror,
No eyes, nose or mouth,
Like a chance to build me again from scratch.
A mask to wear or skin to build,
This choice after all the horrors wasn't so hard to make.