I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

It's my mom... After all this time! How did she end up with these horrible people? What have they done to her?

My hands fidget in the tight rope holding them behind my back. They took away my only form of communication. Mother is trying to talk to me... She doesn't realize I've gone deaf. I try to read her lips but she's speaking so fast. Her face suddenly goes still and she looks at the ground.

I glance behind me and find the awful men giving my mother a death glare. I bite my lip.

From one persecutor to another. Is there no escape for me? I don't know where we're going but one thing's for certain- it won't be good. Was I just doomed from birth? Doomed never to know the feeling of a song traveling through my vocal cords? Then have my ability to hear sweet lullabies taken from me as well?

Lose my mother for years, only to find her frail as a sheet of paper the next time I encounter her?

Trade the fear of my uncle's hands for fear from a gun to my back?

At least at my uncle's I could cry on my hard mattress after he was done. Here I'm afraid to even cry.

I look back up to my mother. Then, I shift my gaze to Odette and her friend. On top of everything, I have brought hurt upon others. Why were they here? Looking for me? How had they known I had run?

Chris looked rather defeated, while Odette had this look that would have intimated me if I didn't trust her.

Wait. Why did I trust her? She hadn't given me a reason not to. She had tended to the hurt on my leg. I guess that was reason enough.

There is another boy standing among us. He just stands still and stares at the ground. Odette keeps whispering to a nervous Chris.

The gun is pushed into my back again and my breath catches in my throat. The tears beg to spill. I try my best to push them right back where they came from, but they win eventually.

The man that is walking in front of me glances back over his shoulder and sees my tears. He scowls and out of nowhere, slaps me. The impact is enough to make me topple to the ground. With no free hands to break my fall, my face meets the ground and a sharp pain comes into my cheek. My chest it's as well and I'm afraid I may have broken rib from last night when uncle kept kicking me. The blow to the chest hurts like nothing has before.

I'm yanked up by my arm. My mother has started to shed tears of her own and she starts speaking with our captors. I'm guessing she's begging them not to hurt me and I'd wish she'd stop. She's only going to get herself hurt because of me.

The man who has his gun in my back sneers and lightly pushes my mother. It's enough to make her fall back as if he'd shoved her full force. He throws his head back with an evil smirk, his laughter vibrating through me and sending chills up my back.

Odette takes one forceful step in our direction, surprising her boy friend. He stumbles along with her. But the man in front of me shoves his gun into Odette's side and the fearless expression on her face runs away.

After that no one dares to speak to our captors. No one dares cry. No one dares do anything but walk where they push us.