{I knew something was piercing my skin but I didn't know what it was. I looked over to my left and saw the face I was all to familiar with. The same scraggly white beard, same oval shaped glasses, and the same twisted smile. Those stupid glasses that always looked at me when I squirmed and the same smile that mocked me when I would scream in agony. I took in the rest of my surroundings, the same room, same white lab coats, same blinding light in my face, and the same plastic straps that kept my hands and feet strapped down to the surgery table. I saw that it was a small blade that was cutting through my left arm, the blood pouring out of the wound, dripping onto the clean white floor. Drip! Drip! Drip! No pain, no feeling. I felt nothing. But yet, I'm screaming. Screaming for help, screaming for the invisible pain to go away. My eyes were growing heavy, I felt sleepy. But I knew it wasn't sleep, it was death. Maybe death wasn't such a bad thing, what did I have to live for? The thought still scared me though. My eyes were closing shut, then, nothing. Darkness was what I saw. Just pure darkness.}

I jolted out of bed in a cold sweat. Ugh! Another dream, another nightmare. I looked over to my alarm clock it read 4:55, I still have 2 hours until I have to wake up. I kicked the hot covers away from my body and laid back down closing my eyes. I've had hundreds of nightmares like that, them always ending with darkness. That's how I know when it's over. When I know it's not real, and it's just a dream. I toss and turn for a couple minutes and sit up. Well sleep is definitely out of the question. I go into the bathroom and turn the water on. The coldness numbing my fingers as I wait for it to turn warm. When it finally goes to the right temperature I strip from my clothes and let the warm water slide down my body. I feel relaxed. I close my eyes and take deep breaths. I don't bother to wash my hair, I just needed something to calm my racing heart. I turn the water off and rap myself with a blue towel. I change into blue skinny jeans and a white over sized t-shirt. Since I have nothing else to do I might as well finish up packing. I sit cris cross at the foot of my bed and continued to pack whatever I had left.

When I finish packing the last things in my room, I look at the time and it's 7. I hear a knock at the door and my aunt walks in.

"Zara hurry up we're leaving in an hour." my Aunt Patty said. I got up from the floor and made my way to the kitchen. I grabbed a bowl and poured myself some Lucky Charms cereal. My aunt walked into the kitchen and sat next to me.

"Now, Zara. You know what people say about you in this city, try not to mention anything about it when we get to Glen Echo. I want you to have friends, ok." she says in her sweet voice.

"I'll try not to open my big mouth." I shove another spoon full of Lucky Charms in my mouth and smile at her.

"Great! Now a friend of mines will be here soon to help us put our boxes in the truck. So hurry up and eat so you could help us." she got up from her chair and walked outside. I spooned the last bit of cereal into my mouth and threw the bowl in the sink. I walked upstairs to my room and started taking my boxes down stairs.

The friend that was suppose to help us load up the truck decided to have a quicky with my Aunt Patty. So guess who got stuck packing away all the boxes? Ya, me. No offense to my aunt or anything but, she's a whore. The only reason we're moving is because she got a new position as a stripper at this new gentleman's club called Passion. Her stage name is The Watermelon, because of her hooters. I don't know who picked the name but it's awful.

"Come on Zara, get in the truck and Patrick, thanks for helping." she winked at him then got in the truck and started it up.

"I feel bad for Patrick." I said to her.

"Why sweet heart?" she turned to me.

"I feel bad he had to help us with so much of those heavy boxes." I say sarcastically.

"Oh I'm sorry sweety. We got busy, saying good bye." she lied.

"Really? Because I didn't know saying good bye involved moaning and screaming for him to go faster." she looked at me with her mouth open then turned towards the road. The drive to Maryland was quiet and awkward, so she put the radio on and we didn't say a word to each other the entire way.

3 hours later we pass a sign that says Welcome To Glen Echo. I look out the window and see kids walking down the sidewalk laughing and having a good time. Then we pass a group of girls with short skirts and bikini tops. They see me passing by and they give me dirty looks. Huh. More like Welcome To Hell. Patty finally pulls into a drive way, the house in front of me is humongous.

"How the hell did you afford this?" I ask shocked.

"Oh I did this guy a favor and in return he gave me this house." she said casually.

"It must have been a big favor."

"You have no idea." she turned the truck off and stepped out into the hot sun. I get out of the truck and see kids watching me from across the street. They all gave me looks of disgust then started whispering to each other. I shrug and help take the boxes into the house. The outside looks like a mansion but the inside is like a fricken 5 star hotel. The floor and walls are pure white marble, and there's 2 stair cases on either side of the house leading to the 2nd floor. I carry all of my boxes upstairs and set them on the hallway floor.

"Aunt Patty, which room is mine?" I call down to her.

"Anyone you want babe." she says. I look into the first room and the walls are bright pink, I quickly slam the door shut and go onto the next room. I open the 2nd room door and there's an ugly fish statue in the middle of the room. I close that door and open the door to the 3rd room. The walls are light blue with purple swirls going across the room. The bed is a queen size and it has its own bathroom so of course I pick this one. I grab my boxes and dump everything onto the floor.

"I knew you would pick this room, so I already put the bed in." My aunt says as she makes her way to my bed.

"Thanks. Which room did you choose?" I asked while I put my clothes in the white dresser she also provided me with.

"The master bedroom of course. It has a walk in closet!" she squeals.

"Ya so does this one." I say pointing to my closet.

"Oh, well I'm still excited. Oh ya your first day of school is on Monday so we have 2 days to settle in and check out the town. So you want to go for a drive with me?" she asks.

"Nah, I've had enough driving for today. Maybe tomorrow, I'll just stay here and finish unpacking."

"Suit yourself." she got up and walked out of my bedroom. Not too long later I hear a loud doorbell.

"Zara come and meet our neighbors!" Patty screamed from downstairs. I sigh and get up from the floor. When I reach downstairs I see 2 people with bleach blonde hair. The taller one looks older and definitely had botox done to her face. The shorter one must be her daughter, she had a pretty face and light green eyes like her mom. When I reached the last step they all look up at me and smile.

"Oh, you must be Zara. I'm Mandy and this is my daughter Megan." she held her hand out and I shake it.

"Well Zara, Mandy agreed to show me around the town so Megan will stay here to keep you company ok? You two have fun." they walked out of the house and I was left alone with Megan.

"We're going to be the best of friends." Megan said giving me a big smile.

"Hope so. Um, you wanna come up to my room?" I ask.

"Totally!" she ran upstairs and started looking through all the rooms. "Which one's yours?"

"This one." I walk into my room and she starts having a heart attack.

"OMG! Your room is so cute!" she screams. "Where did you move from?"

"New York." I finish putting away all my clothes and start unpacking my cosmetics.

"What's it like?" Megan hops onto my bed and watches me carefully.

"Big, noisy, smelly."

"Sounds amazing. I love your hair color, it's so bright and red. Did you dye it?" she starts playing with a pen she found on the floor. I give her a funny look.

"Well, ya. No one's born with this color hair."

"Right. It looks like blood." she says randomly.

"Ya, blood." I close my eyes and a chill runs down my spine. I walk out of the bathroom and sit with her on the bed.

"So what's your school like?" I ask to try and make conversation.

"Eh, it's ok. I don't really have friends. People say I'm too crazy."

"Why are you crazy?"

"Oh I guess cause I'm so loud. But other than that I guess it's a good school, I mean if you just ignore the cheerleaders and jocks you'll be fine." she sits up and faces me. "So do you have a boyfriend?" she suddenly asks with a big smile plastered on her face.

"Ha. No, I don't. Do you?" I ask.

"Ya I do. His name is Ethan, he's amazing." she says with a dreamy look. "I can't wait for you to meet him on Monday, you'll like him. Whoa! You have a tattoo? That's so cool." she grabs my left arm and looks at my tattoo in awe.

"Um, ya. I do." I pull my hand away and give her a small smile.

"Why don't you have a boyfriend you're so pretty." she says.

"I guess guys don't think that about me. I'm not one to really date."

"Oh, of course you are. Everyone is, when you go to school on Monday you'll have guys at your feet." she says with confidence. I wish she was right. After about an hour of her blabbering we decided to make popcorn and watch Tangled to pass some time. Well she decided too, I just went with it. After the movie finished Patty and Mandy got home.

"Oh, Zara I'll pick you up on Monday so we can go to school together." Megan said as she walked out of the door. She's way to hyper for my liking, but she might be my only friend I have so I might as well be happy.

"Hey, I'm ordering pizza. What do you want on it?" Patty asks me.

"Just cheese. How was the town?" I ask sitting next to her on the couch.

"It's not all that, but I saw some cute guys playing basketball by a little park. Maybe you could be friends with them." she smiles at me.

"I think I'll just stick with Megan." I get up and walk up stairs. I look out of my window and see Megan sticking her head out of her room (which is right across from mine) and wave at me like an idiot. I give her a small wave and quickly shut my blinds. I lay on my bed and just stare at the ceiling. Maybe I could start over, no one would know what I did. Or at least what they thought I did. I could make a couple friends and just lay low. Ya, that's what I'll do. What if no one likes me though? They don't know me so how will they not like me? Those kids across the street definitely didn't like me. Maybe they don't go to the same school as me. Ok I'm over thinking this way to much. I need to calm down or else I'll have a panic attack.

"Zara, pizza's here!" Patty screams.

"I'm ok. Im not hungry!" I scream back.

"You sure?"

"Ya!" I change into some shorts and a tank top. I take the lights off and hop into bed. I really wish I didn't have to go to bed, I'm so sick of these nightmares. I close my eyes and try to think of the positive things about going to a new school. I slowly fall asleep and I could already see the binding light in my face.

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So I know it's not all that, but it's only the first chapter so bare with me. It'll get better. Please comment, vote, and share.