A/N: This chapter contains violence and reference to kidnapping and captivity. If you are sensitive to any of that, look away now.

"I had a great life. There was always food on the table, a roof over my head, and a family that loved me with all their heart. But it didn't stay that way.

"I was five when they came. As I was playing in the yard, a man and a woman came up to me in a car.

"Get in the car" they said, "There's ice cream in here for you."

I refused.

They repeated their demand more forcefully. I started to feel scared and I yelled for my parents. The man grabbed me by the arm and dragged me inside as I kicked and screamed. No one heard me.

"The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a dark room with my hands tied to a pole behind me. They came downstairs with a frilly dress and told me to put it on, because they were having dinner with guests that night and they wanted their little girl to be all dolled up for the party. I refused. The woman knelt down in front of me.

"Sasha," she said, "It would make your mummy and daddy very happy if you were a good little angel and did as you were told."

I stared at her in shock, "My name is Skye, not Sasha."

"Don't be silly," she told me, "That's your name Sasha."

I shook my head "My name isn't Sasha and you're not my mommy."

"But we are your parents Sasha." the man said, "You've been dreaming that you were somewhere else, but now you're awake again and we're all together at last."

I started to cry. The woman hugged me and said, "Don't be sad. Nothing bad will happen to you."

"Let go of me!" I screamed, "I want my real mommy and my real daddy! I want to go home!"

She slapped me hard in the face.

"Now you listen here young lady." the man said sternly, "Don't you ever speak to your parents like that again! You're going to stay down here and think about your actions, and when you're ready to apologize, you can come back upstairs."

"They left me down there for days. I still don't know how long it was. I was constantly screaming for my parents, to be let out, to go home. They brought me food three times a day, and fed me by hand rather than untie me so I could feed myself. Every time they came down there, they would ask me, "Are you ready to apologize Sasha?" And I would always answer, "My name is not Sasha!" This was followed by another smack, then they would leave again.

I cried myself to sleep every night. I would constantly whisper to myself, "My name is not Sasha. My name is Skye. This is not my home and they are not my family."

"All of it took a toll on me eventually. I stopped crying and started answering to being called Sasha. When I was finally released from the basement, I believed that they were really my parents, and that everything I remembered from my old life was just a dream. My surroundings felt soft, like some sort of fantasy world, and it was as if there was a haze over my thoughts. The only thing that wasn't fixed by my new dream state was my voice, which had a permanent rasp from me having screamed so much.

"It lasted for almost a year before something shattered that "safety". I was watching a cartoon on my sixth birthday when a news program came on, showing a picture of me with the word MISSING scrawled along the top in large letters. I remembered that the place I was living in wasn't really my home, so I tried to leave.

The woman caught me as I tried to escape.

"Where are you going Sasha?" she asked.

"Stop calling me Sasha!" I yelled, "My name is Skye! And I'm going home to my mommy and daddy!"

I turned to go again, but I felt a pain in my heart. I looked down and saw the end of a knife sticking out of my chest. As I fell to the ground, everything went dark.

"I woke up hours later outside the house for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. I didn't know how I was still alive, so I went inside the house again.

Most of the lights were off, but I could hear them upstairs getting ready for bed. I found myself wishing for a light, and a ball of fire appeared in my hand. I jumped at the sight, and the flame froze into a sphere of ice. I managed to turn it back into fire, and crept up the stairs.

"When I reached the top, neither of them seemed to see me, even though I was standing in a pool of light only a few feet away. I called out, but they didn't hear me. As they moved to the bedroom, they passed right through me without a second glance.

"I was terrified. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My hair was streaked with all sorts of bright colours. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the blood that was still on my clothes. I screamed out in fear, and the mirror shattered. The woman came rushing in, but she couldn't see me, just the broken mirror. I ran outside and never looked back."

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When Skye had finished her tale, Jack was stunned. He had known she had endured a lot of hardship, but not anything like she had explained.

"I was completely alone." Skye muttered, "You don't know what it's like to watch your family spend years searching for you when you're only a few feet away. Tooth found me one night while she was collecting teeth and brought me here. Then I met the rest of my friends, had a mini revolution, got tossed in a mirror dimension, got released from the same mirror dimension to fight Shadow's evil dad, and had a heart to heart with the being of winter."

Jack smiled lightly, "Feel better?"

Skye shrugged, "A little, but not by much."

"Do you want to head back with the others?"

"Yeah."

Jack helped her stand up, and the two of them headed back to their friends.