I never realized how meaningless the word family was until the night mine gave me away; that cold, starless night which I would've slept through if my Pa hadn't awoken me.

We were riding across a small, moat-like bridge – and though we passed the neighborhood of New Coventry – its welcoming atmosphere remained with us as we continued past rundown building after rundown building.

"Pa," I called for him from the backseat. I hadn't spoken since we entered his car. "I thought we were going to Aunt Marjorie's"

He looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror, then caught Mama's eye.

We turned past a rectangular sign for Happy Volts Asylum nailed or cemented down and missing letters, and my heart skipped a beat.

"Happy Volts," I mumbled as my eyes drifted away from my window.

Did Aunt Marjorie become loony? Am I dreaming? Are they taking me here?

"They're planning to lobotomize you." I whipped my head to Betty and my left pigtail struck my mouth. She was to my right and I was in the middle seat. My eyes widened and my jaw loosened. I rarely felt or feel afraid but what she said, and how certain she was, reminded me of that uncomfortable feeling.

I could feel my heart pounding and the sound of its rhythmic thumping in my ears.

Soon, our road grew desolate. Trees lined the sides, their leafless branches towering over us like bony fingers, ushering us closer to a tall electric gate.

"How do you know?" She gave me a smile that tilted to the side of her pale, hollow face.

"I know everything, Melody. Always have." As far as I could remember, that was true. I met her in my Aunt Marjorie's den a day short of my fifteenth birthday, but I never knew who she was, where she came from, or why she chose to all but stalk me for a year.

We cruised toward a gate larger than our Ford Model T and beside it was another Happy Volts sign. My heart began to pound faster, suddenly audible in my ears and it made my temples throb.

A dark-haired man in white was sitting in the security booth next to the entrance, but he rose when we approached. His eyes searched our vehicle as his hand mashed a big red button. A buzz preceded the gate opening and when the path was clear enough, we continued down the path paved with gravel and kicked dirt.

"Woody, I still don't think we should do this," Mama said. Part of me didn't believe they were taking me there, but then Pa spoke in his usual abrasive way

"Belle, we already spent the money. We can't afford to pay for a lawyer if he threatens to sue us." Mama turned to her window just as we reached the front of the asylum.

Pa exited the running mobile with her and he opened my door but my attention was fixed on her. A frown and droopy eyes marred her face.

"Come on, Melody," he rushed me. I looked at Betty and she had a sinister smile. It was like she wanted to tell me she told me so. Pa yanked me by my upper arm much to Mama's dismay. She didn't verbally chastise him, but her eyes were dark and cold toward him.

He walked me in with her behind us and before the doors shut us in, I looked behind us only to find that Betty was gone. 

"Welcome to Happy Volts Asylum," a lanky man with dark hair spoke from behind the gated window to our right. Finally, Pa released me and Mama juggled her gaze between us. "Are you here to drop off or pick up?"

While the men talked, I scanned the room. There were four benches – one on each side of the main doors and two facing the orderly – a map of the asylum on one of the chipped walls of what looked like mortar, and the faint sound of drills and screams.

"Mama," I muttered and she looked down at me. Goosebumps grew on my arms and my ears twitched with each guttural scream. "I don't wanna be here. I wanna go home."

She had a face like she was miserable and it told me that she felt the same way that I did.

We all dressed like we were going to Sunday school, even though it was dark, and I felt misled — tricked or duped.

The double doors across from us opened, and in walked a burly orderly wearing a hat and mask. I instantly stepped behind her and clung to her apron's bow. She threw her arm around me and even when Pa cleared his throat, my heart vigorously thumped, phantom sweat dripping down my nape. We all looked at him, he stood with his body to us and a stern gaze on Mama, and she glanced at me.

Her fingers balled up my blouse's right puff sleeve, then he yelled, "Belinda, get over here!" She and I jolted against each other, our bodies gave strength to the other lest we fell.

As her fingers quickly released my sleeve, she stared at him like she was in a trance and she trudged to him similarly. When she was halfway from me, my heart and stomach threw fits and the orderly walked toward me.

"Pa?" I looked at him and he brought his arm around her. My breathing quickened and my trembling hands grabbed my chest. The orderly took my upper arm and pulled me away from the doors. We stood a few feet away before he guided her to the exit hand in hand. "Pa, Ma!"

My lips twitched and just as they did, I broke free and ran to my parents with the orderly close behind. I grabbed his coat tail and as my parents turned to me, the orderly lifted me off my feet with his arms around my abdomen.

I succumbed to my emotions, blubbering through my plea, "Don't leave me!"

"Woody," she whined for him, but he shoved her outside before she could say another word. She stumbled under the awning, I was ripped from him with his hands prying mine away as I was pulled, and the door shut behind him on his way out.

I heard the familiar unintelligible whispers in my head. Similar to those I've had for a year.

The orderly lugged me deeper into the asylum, and I kicked, drug my nails against his wrists, and screamed, taking deep breaths in between each.

A block was eerily silent and the spacious day room between each block – containing toys, games, and a radio – was empty. He took me through the doors to our right but my eyes were briefly glued to the ones to our left: C block. The electric drill came from that area but it was the patients in B block screaming.

I glanced through the small bars at the top of cell one's door where I saw a wrinkled man in a gown. He had fists full of his thin, grey hair and his beady eyes on me. He was repeatedly hollering, "Let me out!"

We veered around a wall, then through a gate until we reached cell three. An old cot sat against two walls – the back and the right – with a window high above the back wall, and he dropped me onto it.

The voices grew louder as he turned his back to me. When he left me alone, I sat against the wall, my knees to my chest, my eyes clenched shut, and my hands over my ears.

Now you're all alone. No one wants you, no one loves you. They left you here — to die.

My eyes shot open, my body was trembling and my mouth was scrunched. I wrapped my fingers around the top of my plaits, seething with each insult the voices told me.

I didn't believe them, I couldn't believe them. My parents may have left me but if my escape was impossible, I vowed to make all those who wronged me suffer — even at the risk of my life.