I was prepared to become a woman as a little girl. Childhood was seen just vanishing before my eyes without ever giving me a chance to stop it. That's what happens when you rid someone of love, and you open the doors to darkness without them ever realizing that there can be color. I want to say that I blame my mother, but the only way I could do that was to also blame her mother and then the mother of her mother.

The heat that escalated through my body only seemed to grow as I tried to ignore it. The longer I tossed and turned, the more that heat prickled my skin in a fit. A sigh escaped my lips as I just laid there in a pit of my sweat, hoping that it wasn't affecting Alex as much as it was affecting me.

"Nana," my sister called out from the other side of the room, "Mum didn't pay the electricity bill again, did she?"

"Stay here, I'll go figure out," I whispered to her before getting up from the mattress. We weren't fortunate enough to own anything to lift our bed from off of the ground. We were lucky enough to just simply have a mattress. Even if we did have to get up from the floor every day, It didn't matter because I was grateful. It still beat the things we had to go through in Australia.

I walked out of our room and straight to my mothers. Softly knocking on the door, I let out a groan. It seemed as if long moments passed before the door opened to reveal some random man wearing absolutely nothing. He had a small towel to cover up his man-area, but other than that, he was naked.

"Uh, your ma's pretty occupied, sweetie," the man spoke with a hint of a New York accent. His cornrow braids going down the back of his head, and the cigarette that sat perched at the corner of his mouth added to his whole bad-boy appeal. What irritated me most was the fact that he talked to me as if I were twelve. I narrowed my eyes at him before propping my hand on my hip.

"I need to speak to my mom," I told him as sternly as possible. The stench of the room littered my nostrils. It didn't help that there was no electricity to help ventilate the area. He let out a groan of annoyance right before closing the door. Seconds later, my mom appeared in all her glory with an irritated expression clear on her face. She began typing the strings to her robe as she narrowed her eyes at me.

"What the hell do you want, Nana?" She asked. Based on the slur of her wording I knew she was high. I just didn't know what she could've gotten high from this time. Could it have been meth, crack, weed? It was almost as if she couldn't survive without a high pushing her to live until the day that it's the thing that kills her.

"It's hot. Did you forget to pay the electricity again?" I asked her. She let out a sigh before closing the door. When she came out again, she was wearing an annoyed expression. This time, she walked all the way out of the room and made sure to shut the door behind her.

"What do you think I'm doing right now? I didn't have the money, okay? He's going to pay me for a good time that way I can feed you girls and cut back on our electricity," She spoke, her words coming off almost unrecognizable. Shaking my head, I grabbed onto her hand.

"You did have the money. I made sure I gave you my whole check. That was $700! Don't tell me that you spent it all just for a high!" I angrily seethed at her, "Mum, I don't get why you're selling your body for money when you could have it if only you just had your priorities straight."

She narrowed her eyes into little slits. I could smell how angry she had become in just those few seconds. "You are twenty years old. You don't like the way we live, then leave!"

"You know that I don't have the proper documents to be on my own, yet. Once I do, I'm taking Alex because I could never leave her here with you. I don't trust the way you are when there are drugs in your system. She's only seventeen, and knowing you, you'd sell her just to get high. You used to a great mother. Now, you deserve to go to hell," I told her on the brick of tears.

I knew it was coming. The pain that came from the impact of her swing. My head knocked to the side as I held my hand against my cheek with tears prickling my eyes. When I looked back at her, anger was swimming around in my eyes.

"Mum!" Alex cried out, "Why would you hit her?"

At that moment, my mother's door opened. The man who was there naked previously was now completely dressed. He looked at us before beginning to walk towards our front door. I watched as he shook his head back and forth in disapproval.

"Dante, where are you going?" My mother called out before walking towards him.

"I came for a quick fu*k. I didn't come to listen to you deal with your crazy a*s family," he spoke. My mother grabbed ahold of his wrist, tears falling from her eyes. "Baby, I'm sorry. They'll leave us alone. Please just don't go. You know how good I made you feel, I could do that again and whatever it is that you want," she cried out.

He looked at her, rolling his eyes in complete disgust. "Get off of me," he told her, pushing her as hard as he could. My sister and I watched as she fell to the floor with a loud thud before getting up and attempting to chase after him once more. She was too late though, the door had already slammed shut.

We watched her as she leaned against the door before angrily pounding against it. "Look at what y'all did! I needed the money. I needed it goddammit!" she cried out, whispering the last part. I didn't think that she wanted us to hear it, but we did.

I looked over at Alex to see her nose was bleeding. Her eyes were shutting and closing as she stared at my mom. I couldn't help but also notice how her body seemed to sway. "Alex, are you okay?" I asked.

I quickly walked over to the restroom grabbing as much toilet paper as I could. Promptly, I held it up to her nose as her heartbeat seemed to be invigorating. "Nana, I don't feel too good," she whispered.

I walked her to her bed as I helped her lay down on it. My eyes scanned her body to see so many bruises and red spots. She looked absolutely terrible, and with my constant working, it made it challenging to ever even notice any of this.

"We need to take her to a hospital," I told my mum, "now!"

"For a nose bleed, really, Anastasia? It's probably just the heat," my mom said, still leaning against the door. Shaking my head, I walked back over to my sister, placing my hand on her head. She was burning up with a fever.

"I don't think so. I remember her telling me that she has been getting infections like crazy. She hasn't been eating, and look at her arm," I said before grabbing ahold of it to show her all the bruises that began to appear on her skin.

"Something is wrong with Alex, and I'm scared," I cried out. I watched my mother as she walked over to my sister. She did the exact same thing I did, checked her temperature by raising her hand to her forehead.

"I'll go start the car, and you get her in there. I can't take her to the hospital, I'm not a legal citizen of America. So, you're going to have to do everything. I'll figure out how to pay the electricity bill while you guys are there at the hospital," she said. Her words were no longer slurred, but I still didn't know if I could trust her to drive.

"I'm not high, I swear. I was just a little tipsy," she told me. It wasn't like I had much of a choice, so I just turned away from her and focused on Alex. Her eyes were shut closed as she laid on the bed. The warmth wasn't helping her at all, it only supported the drained look she was having.

"Alex, do you think you're okay to stand up?" I asked her, biting down on my lip. She nodded her head before moving to get back up on her two feet. I helped her off of the mattress before grabbing her socks and shoes. Placing them on her feet, I let her lean against me as we walked out of our small apartment and down the stairs.

There were a few times when she came close to missing a step, but I was there to make sure that she didn't fall. When we finally made it to the bottom, my mother was in the car, but she seemed distracted and was talking on the phone. I didn't pay her any attention as I opened up the back door and carefully laid Alexandria down in it.

When I closed the door, my mother had gotten out of the car. "Dante is coming back so I cant drop you guys off. I'm sorry, baby girl, but I really need the money. When you guys come back and Alex is all well, the electricity will be back on. I love you guys, okay? I really do," she cried before throwing the keys towards me and walking back upstairs.

I stared at her disappearing figure, disappointment ringing at the bell of my emotions. It wasn't her fault why she would choose money over her daughter. My thoughts reminded me that I blame it on her mother, her mother's mother, and so on. I blame it on the opioids that called out her name when she tried to stop using them. I blame it on her past that haunts her leaving it to haunt us. I blame it on the hereditary darkness.

Quickly, I got into the driver's side. My eyes cast back through the rearview mirror to look at Alex. She was laying down, her eyes open with tears falling from her eyes. "Hey, don't cry. It's going to be okay," I told her, even though I felt like crying myself.

"Mum is not a bad person. I know that she isn't. If I ever die, I just want to make sure you don't forget about her. Still continue to try helping her as if I were still alive," Alex said just as I started the car. My eyes narrowed as I processed her words.

"You are not dying, so don't say anything like that again in your life. You are going to help me get her sober. I know that I can't do something like that without you, okay?" I asked. We were already down the road, I was driving at the speed limit possibly a little faster.

She didn't respond to my words so I took it as her agreement. When I looked through the rearview mirror once more, I could still see the tears in her eyes. "You're not dying," I said.

-

"Are you the guardian of Alexandria Smith?" A doctor asked, coming up to me with a smile. Nodding my head, I couldn't form any words. They had kicked me out of the hospital room to further examine Alex. They also had to move her around to get multiple scans done. I've been waiting here for hours, and I didn't know how much longer this could take.

"Great, she's right this way. If you don't mind, I would like to speak with you about her condition as we walk," The doctor said. Once again, instead of saying words, I nodded my head.

"Alexandria has stage four Leukemia. There are many optio-"

His words were cut off as my brain repeated over and over again that my sister has cancer. A tear fell from my eyes as I looked at him, shaking my head.

My sister has cancer.

-

First chapter of Anastasia. Make sure to check out the trailer if you haven't already. Also, feel free to share your thoughts on the characters and how you think this story is beginning so far. Stay tuned for the next update very soon.

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