"It seems as if your family has finally moved on and forgotten about you?"

Annie kept her eyes firmly on the white ceiling above her bed, even as she heard the nurse, Bridget, as she was finally told to call her by that name, moved about in the place that she had come to accept as her new home. It was like this everyday. Bridget brought oatmeal and shitty pancakes and also injected her with some type of drug that made her too weak to do anything but just stare at the ceiling endlessly.

Although she couldn't pinpoint the exact number of time she'd spent in this hellhole, she knew that time had passed. It had passed so much that she'd lost hope of ever seeing the daylight again. And she hadn't ever thought that she would miss seeing the sky or the sun ever again.

And while she tried to ignore every jab Bridget threw her way everyday, she knew it was the truth. She had seen the pages of the newspapers of how her family still went ahead celebrate the anniversary in full swing. They looked happy for people who lost their only daughter and it wasn't even a month yet. There were many other articles of them celebrating one thing or another.

It was as if she never existed in the first place.

The one that tore her apart was the article of Jovon and a very pregnant lady together on the beach. They looked so happy and relaxed and they even shared a kiss. He moved on quickly. She had been just a body to fuck and use to him. It shouldn't hurt her so much given the way he treated her the last day she ever saw him but it did.

It had hurt so much that she didn't eat for few days, not that she knew how many days it was anyway. It wasn't until Bridget beat her into a bloody pulp and forced the food down her throat did she start eating again. But still, it was only few bites here and there.

Annie already resigned herself to whatever fate was in store for her. She didn't even care if they killed her or torture her. She felt bland. No emotions or feeling whatsoever.

"Are you really going to be quite for the rest of your life?" Bridget asked as she picked the tray which held a plate still filled with the food from yesterday that Annie hadn't been bothered to check whatever she brought. "You might as well live your last days as a happy person. Or for your baby at least."

Annie's hand itched to cover her very visible baby bump, but she kept it firmly to her side. The baby was what destroyed her whole life in the first place, plus she might not even get to see it grow, so what was the need to be attached to the thing?

"Are you really going to be that way?" Bridget scoffed. "The family you're crying over and the man you love are having the time of their lives. No one even cares about you anymore, why are you still sulking and pining over them?"

"A mirror."

Bridget's head whipped around at her words. It was the first thing she said ever since that man beat her and bruised her ribs. And while Annie remembered a man tending to her wounds, she couldn't recall what he looked like. And she never saw the man that hit her either.

It was as if everyone was falling of the face of the earth. Or maybe she was the one who fell off.

"What did you just say?"

Annie's gaze remained on the ceiling. "Give me a mirror."

Bridget stared at her as if trying to read her thoughts and when she saw that she wasn't going to find anything, she went up the room and returned with a very tall dresser mirror. She rested it against the wall adjacent to the bed and then left with the tray of food without a word.

Annie waited until she heard the door shut firmly before pushing herself off the bed. She made her way to the mirror, keeping her head bowed. It's been long since she saw her own reflection and she was scared of what she would find if she did. What she knew at least was that she had lost a lot of weight. The blue hospital hung off lean frame. It had been cut in the sides to accommodate her expanding belly. Her mouth had lost the sense of taste since long ago, and she had already grew accustomed to the smell of her own dirty body that it didn't hurt her as much as before.

Her hair had grown overtime, but was hacked off messily by Bridget two days ago. The strands were shorter than each other and hung to her chin in a zigzag pattern. Her feet were swollen too, as her right hand where needle pierced each day. Her other arm had healed messily, but she couldn't use it to hold anything for long else it would cramp up and it wasn't pretty when it did.

Summoning the last of her courage, she raised her gaze to the mirror. The person that looked back at her looked nothing like her. Large black spots had a permanent resident under her eyes and were extending to her cheekbones. Her eyes were sunken and looked dull; almost lifeless. The hospital gown neck gaped open to display a very hollow neck. Her lips had lost color since. They were white and cracked and had many bruises and cuts allover them. The flesh of her cheeks were nothing but bones now. They too had too many scars to count.

Annie lifted the hem of her gown with shaky hands. The sight of her body had tears filling her eyes. Her ribs barely had flesh concealing them. Her body had shrank so much that it looked as if her life was hanging on my a thread. The only big thing her body had was her belly.

It was slightly rounder and huge, but there was no mistaking the green veins that scattered allover them. She felt the baby move inside her.

Annie stumbled away from the mirror as tears ran down her cheeks steadily. No sound came out of her mouth, even as snot dripped out of her nostrils and mixed in with her tears. She was going to die. Her baby was going to die too.

She fell onto the cold floor and cradled her belly with her hand as she continued to cry. Even though she didn't want the baby, she still didn't want it to die.  It was the only thing of her that was left. The evidence of her affair with Jovon.

The only evidence of the man she only truly ever loved.

No. She wasn't going to let the baby die. No.

With her newfound determination, Annie rose shakily to her feet and grabbed the wooden chair by her beside. She dragged it in front of the mirror and lifted it over her head, her body swaying from the force of the weight. She brought it down on the mirror.

Glass exploded everywhere.

She was barely aware of the shards digging into her feet nor the blood seeping from the cuts. She reached for a large shard the same time the door burst open. Annie remained crouched as she heard the footsteps move closer to her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Bridget demanded as she grabbed fistful of Annie's hair and gave it a harsh tug, which had Annie yowling in the pain. "I'm going to teach your bitchy ass a lesson!"

The same time she was tugged to her feet by her hair, Annie whirled around and plunged the glass shard into Bridget's belly once. Twice. All she could see, felt, was read and black. The image of Bridget hitting her whenever she liked filled her head. The image of her arm being snapped back into place and being punched filled her vision. She thrust it over and over again until Bridget was choking on her own blood and writhing on the floor in pain.

Annie dropped the glass and scooted away from the body. She was sobbing fully now as reality crashed down on her and she saw what she had done. Bridget was barely moving now and blood gushed out from the deep cut in her upper belly. Annie's eyes drifted to the blood coating her own hands and she felt bile rise in her throat.

She retched badly onto the blood covered floor.

Her bad arm began to cramp up from the abuse it had been subjected too, adding to her pain. She could only sit there in the broken mirror, the shards digging into her thighs and buttocks, as she cried over the fact that she just killed somebody.

Annie began to shake. The baby gave a swift kick to her navel, which made her curl inwardly into herself as best her bump would allow. The kicks never ceased even as she lay on her side in the broken mirror shards. Cold seeped into her bones and her body stung everywhere. She watched as her blood dyed the broken shards a bright crimson. Perhaps, it was Bridget's blood, she couldn't tell and couldn't bring herself to care.

All she could think of was what she was a murderess now. She was filthy. Dirty. She didn't deserve to live. Her life was in shambles more than it was before.

And she could only wonder where it all went wrong. Where she went wrong.

So with that thought on her mind, she let the weariness takeover her body and sink into her bone. She closed her eyes and surrendered to it.

*                            *                           *

"It's been five months and two weeks and there's still no signs of her." Cassie nibbled on her lower lip.

The sounds of laughter filled the play room as the children bounced up and then the spring bed and scattered their legos allover the carpeted floor. Cassie couldn't even reprimand them as she wanted to. Her mind and thoughts were allover the place like it had been ever since Annie had gone missing.

While she had been positive about the fact that Annie would been found soon, her positivity was beginning to waver. Things weren't the same as before. Although the children filled the house with laughter and their inevitable squabbles, things with the adults were tense. They barely spoke to each other unless it was necessary.
Ella and William seemed to drift apart with each passing day. They didn't sleep in the same room anymore. They talked to each other in the presence of the children but don't acknowledged each other when they were with the adults. Steve and Arabella didn't talk to.

Steve moved to one of the guest bedrooms and Cassie heard Arabella crying each time she passed their bedroom. Kaden had been working late than usual ever since that wedding anniversary party. They had done as the revenge requested and tried to look happy all through the party. But what came after the party made it impossible for the family to show their faces in public for two months.

The whole of Philadelphia criticized them. People became angry and stopped buying things from their company. Shareholders began to withdraw their stocks and a using fingers were pointed whenever they went in public.

It was like living in hell. But only that this hell was on earth.

Kaden and William even went to meet Jovon Phim and beat him into an inch of his life. They'd spent the night in the police station for assault, which the man later dropped against them. The police even went as far as questioning him about the whereabouts of Annie, yet there was still no result.

Everyone was wound up tight as if waiting for the first person who would snap. And as much as she wanted to, Cassie held on to her willpower. She believed that Annie would be alright. That she would return home to them safely and all this nightmare would be over.

"I know." Came Ella's weak reply from her spot by the car seat where Canishia slept peacefully despite the ruckus that was being created by the older children. "It feels so surreal. Like it's a movie or a fiction in a book. I keep thinking that I would wake up and discover that this is just some horrible nightmare."

Cassie sniffed as she not-so-subtly wiped a stray tear with the back of her hand. "Me too. I can't stop thinking about how she is. If she's eating or even sleeping. If she still smiles. The baby too." She broke off as she fought to keep her tears from from spilling. "I wonder if she's still. . ."

Alive.

Though unspoken, the word hung in the air like a bad breath. The two of them remained quiet not wanting to say anything least they start crying again like they've been doing for the last four months.

The silence was shattered when Kaden burst into the room looking every bit disheveled as the word could be described as. His pupils were blown wide and for the first time in five months, she saw something other than concealed pain.

Hope.

"Someone called the police few minutes ago."

Cassie and Ella rose to their feet, slowly. Cassie's heart thumped away in her chest. Her body vibrated with hope. Hope that this hellish nightmare was finally over.

"Who- who was it?" Ella asked what Cassie couldn't bring herself to.

"It was Annie."