h a strange, drifting clarity. My mind, free from the panic of my failing body, went back. It

for a fair. Emily, with her bright blonde hair, was riding the carousel, and my parents stood by, thei

e crowds thinned. The lights of the fair began to seem menacing. They had forgotten me. It was nearly two hours later when a park security guard found me, shivering on the bench, and my parents

secrets, just the lonely doodles and sad little poems of a nine-year-old trying to understand her place in a family that felt alien. Emily

to them with tears in her eyes.

He didn't ask me if it was true. He didn't even let me sp

oared, shaking me so hard my teeth rattl

musty smell of old coats and mothballs. He pushed me inside and slammed the

you learn to be grateful!"

physical weight, crushing my chest. I screamed until my throat was raw,

own to weak sobs, I heard a whisper from

mphant little snake slithering through the keyhole. "You're just trash th

my bones. It wasn't just about the small space, it was about being trapped, forgotten, and worthless, with only my sister's hatred f