I have no one. I will never be anyone. At least, no one that is important. Maybe it would be better if those needles were laced with drugs. Maybe it would be better if I got taken away with them. Or even better, if I was never born.

I look to my right, see the door to the backyard, swinging softly open and closed on a light breeze.

“Maybe we should take him down to the station,” I hear one of the men say.

“Maybe one of the women will know what to do with him.”

Women?

My mother was the devil.

My father was Hades himself.

That last thing I want is to be manhandled by grownups, put away somewhere where no one wants me. Where no one will ever stay with me. Wait for me. Be there for me, like they were never there before.

My feet itch. My legs begin to bounce up and down.

“Let’s go talk to him, see if we can get him to come willingly before…”

Fuck that.

I bolt out of my seat so quickly I surprise myself. I hear them yell for me to stop as I run through the room, down the hall, and out the back door. I’m at least twenty feet in front of them, and when I glance back over my shoulder, I know they don’t stand a chance at catching me. Ducking quickly into Kingston Gardens, I lose them in the dark shadows that are falling at twilight.

My breaths are rushed as I hear them run by in the wrong direction. I quickly dart about, hiding further into the garden while a heavy mist hangs in the air around me. It has almost a twinkle to it when the last of the sun shines through. I slow down and think I hear bells. Suddenly, I see a sharp light flash past me and quickly dart out of the way. When I turn around, I hear a soft voice calling to me from further into the garden and follow it.

Coming around a corner, I see a young girl, not too much younger than myself, kneeling in a baby blue dress with puff sleeves. A dark blue bow is fastened at the back of her blonde head.

“Two,” she sings as she spins in circles, “two is the beginning and the end of everything. And two,” she stops spinning and smiles, her eyes landing on me. I startle but I don’t turn away, “Is my favorite place to be. My favorite part. The beginning and end of you and me.”

It sounds like a riddle. A game. As her eyes hold mine, I step out of the shadows and fall head over heels for the magic that I see hanging in her eyes. She blushes and takes a bow.