"Have you ever done this before?" April asked me nervously. She was sitting on the ground in front of me, both of us still right next to the paper mill, and I held my hands above her head.

"No, but I promise I won't kill you. You'll be ok." I reassured, knowing that April was worried that I would accidently burn her into nothing but soot. This was a reasonable fear, all things considered. 

I closed my eyes, and focussed all of my attention into trying to control my powers. I thought of that feeling of energy that runs through me when I get overpowered and kill people, but I focussed on watering it down, and forcing it to be less intense. When I felt something happening in my hands, I peaked one eye open, and then opened both of them in wonder and pride when I saw that light was being projected out of the palms of my hands that burned as bright as the sun. 

April had her head turned up towards the light from my hands, her eyes closed, and a soft smile on her face. I watched as April inhaled deeply, her skin gaining more color, and her hair poofing out more as if it was made of wilted petals that were suddenly coming back to life. April sighed happily, then opened her eyes to look past my hands to my face, and contented grin smiling up at me. 

"Thanks Gill. I really needed that." April told me, grabbing my hands and closing them for me, causing the sunlight to go away. 

"Glad I could help." I replied. April and I began walking back to her house, me following her wherever she turned. We talked about different things, like school, things that have happened as a result of the court meeting, and stuff like that. When we finally reached April's house, we stopped outside as she turned to face me. 

"Thanks for the light Sunshine." April grinned. 

"Anytime." I smiled back. Then April went inside, and I began to walk back to my own home. 

***

The end of the school year came quickly, and I was only all too relieved to be done. I had missed a significant amount of school, but since I was kidnapped, and no one really expected me to come back alive, I had been excused. Honestly, I was ready to be done with school completely. I even considered dropping out, and getting my GED, then just living with Steven, Warren, and Jess until I was able to get my own place. However, when I had shared this idea with Steven, He encouraged me to stay in school until I graduated, and I didn't have the heart to tell him no. 

The school year being over meant that I was spending all of my time either at home, or out with Mike and Bell. Sometimes, I would find myself hanging out with April, who made me give her my phone number after I ran into her while out with Mike one day. Sometimes, but not often, I would find myself hanging out with Ben too, because he would be hanging out with Mike or April when they invited me out. 

One day, I was walking down the street to meet Mike at a little restaurant for lunch, when I felt something hard hit me in the back of the head. I fell down, my vision blurring, and feeling like my head was filling with cotton, and I felt someone wrap their arms around me and  hall me into the back of a car. I was thrown against the seats, landing limply, struggling to keep myself awake long enough to push the little black button on the inside of the black bracelet on my wrist. Only after I pushed the button rapidly a few times, just for good measure, did I let my eyes fall closed, and my world turn black. 

When I woke up, my arms were tied behind my back, laying on a dog bed in the bathtub of a strange bathroom, wearing a shock collar, and otherwise completely naked. At first, I didn't register what was happening. I was confused, and a bit scared, and my head was throbbing. I groaned, and tried to sit up, but I was shoved back down. 

The movement jostled me into awareness enough for me to realise what was going on. There was a large man behind me, and he was pressed up against my rear. No, actually, he was pressed inside of my rear. I whined out in pain, the burn of the man sliding in and out of me was too much for me to stand. 

"Stop!" I begged, starting to sob. 

"Quiet!" The man hissed out, grabbing my hair harshly, causing my scalp to throb in pain, and forcing my head down. The man leaned over me, plastering himself flat against my back and whispering coldly in my ear. "You're a lot tighter when you're awake." 

"Please stop. Get away from me. You're hurting me. Stop!" I begged, continuing to just ramble on, hoping I would be able to convince the man to get out of me and set me free. I had no such luck though, as the man just yanked on my hair, jerking my head back, and slapped his free hand down hard on my rear, then began jerking his hips into me harder. 

"I said to be quiet!" The man barked. 

I cried out, tears running down my face in huge, unspotable globs of boiling salt water. I felt like the man was going to rip all of my hair out of my skull, and I could feel myself tearing as the man rocked into me. I tried to relax myself as much as I could, to make it less painful for me, but I had no luck. I was in pain, and afraid, and I just wanted the man to get out of me and let me go so I could go home. 

I squirmed, trying to get free, and pulled on whatever was holding my hands together as hard as I could. There was a loud snap, and I saw half of a zip tie fall onto the bottom of the tub out of the corner of my eye. I heard the man behind me growl as I got my hands underneath me and pushed myself up off of the bed. Despite the man's tight hold on my hip and my hair, I was able to get free of him. I jumped out of the bath, and almost immediately crumpled to the ground, the man being ripped out of me so suddenly causing a lot of pain. 

I got back onto my feet and took off. I ran out of the bathroom, and found that I was in what appeared to be an apartment, and I headed for the front door. I was almost there when I heard a whine come from the collar I was wearing, and I was dropped onto my knees by a searing pain that radiated in my neck and pulsed through the rest of my body. 

I looked behind me at the man who had just been inside of me a minute ago as he stood there grinning evilly down at me with the remote to the shock collar in one of his hands. The man was tall, and wide. He had brown hair that was starting to thin, and almost grey hair covering his chest, legs, and arms. The man was still naked, but he had started to grow soft, which was a relief to me. Not only that, but the man was still wearing a condom, and I couldn't help but sigh a bit happily knowing that there was a barrier, no matter how thin, between the man and the inside of me. 

I turned back to the door, and began to crawl towards it. I made it only a few inches before the pain got more intense, and I was practically vibrating with the force of the shock. Then, rather than continuing to try and crawl my way to the door, I simply wiggled my fingers under the collar, and pulled the collar apart. I dropped the pieces, and was panting in relief as the pain subsided. I heard some shuffling, and then the man was squatting down in front of me, now wearing a pair of black sweatpants. 

"You know, you sure do cause a lot of trouble. And here I was thinking that Peter had you trained well." The man hissed. I looked up at him in fear, wondering how he knew about Peter, and what he was going to do to me. I guess I really should have known that something was terribly wrong, and that whoever this man was, he had something to do with Peter, considering the collar and the dog bed. 

"What do you want?" I asked. I wasn't willing to fall victim to another Peter, and whoever this man was, he was in for the fight of his life. 

"I was in Peter's house when he showed you off. I came to him afterwards and asked him about buying you. You see, I was rather impressed with your performance, and I wanted you for myself. I think you would be very useful to me, and, ever since I was a little boy, I've wanted a well behaved pet." The man told me, grabbing my chin and holding it roughly in his hand. 

"I'm not a pet." I responded, jerking my head to the side, and forcing the man to let go of my face. 

"Oh yeah? Then why were you given this? So that your so called friends can let everyone know that you have an owner?" The man grabbed my wrist, lifting it up as an indication of the black bracelet. Judging by the bruises that had formed under the bracelet, I would guess that the man had tried to take it off of me. I was so glad that Steven was a genius scientist, and built the bracelet so that only he or I could remove it. 

"He's not my owner. He's my friend. I'm a human, not a pet." I pulled my arm back, and covered the bracelet with my hand. I secrectly snuck one finger under the bracelet, and pushed the danger button multiple times very quickly. 

"We both know that that's not true. Humans don't have glowing eyes, or golden scars. You're not human Bitch. You're something else entirely."

I flinched when the man called me 'Bitch', and flinched again as the man began to run his hand through my hair. I jerked away quickly, standing to my feet and glaring down at the man. He didn't bother standing up to be level with me, and instead settled for looking up at me with an unamused stare. 

"Where are my clothes?" I asked, though quietly, looking down at the floor. 

"You don't get clothes. Animals aren't supposed to wear clothes. You've clearly forgotten how to behave, so I guess I have to teach you." The man rose to his feet, then kicked the back of one of my knees, knocking me down until I was on all fours. 

"Screw you." I hissed, Pushing myself back up, easily over powering the man. 

"Shut it!" The man hissed, and I watched in apprehension as the man walked a few feet into his kitchen, and pulled the biggest knife out of a knife block. 

"Stay away from me!" I cried out, backing away from the man until my back hit a wall. The man stalked up to me and, without warning, jammed the knife down to the hilt into my thigh. I cried out, smashing myself against the wall behind me. When the man pulled his knife out of me, I collapsed to the ground, breathing deeply as blood pooled out of my leg. 

"That'll teach you to stay down." The man growled. 

"Get away from me."

"Shut up!" The man jabbed his knife back into my leg, exactly in the same place as before, this time, he twisted the knife too. I screamed, falling onto my forearms and panting heavily. The man pulled his knife out of my leg, only to jam it back into my leg, but this time at the back of my knee.

The man was practically butchering me, and I knew even then that there was no chance of saving that leg. It was going to have to be amputated, and I was probably going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. This meant no more Sunshine, no more sleeping in my room, or anyone else's for that matter at home, no more hanging out with Mike in his room, and so many more things that I wouldn't ever be able to do again. 

I was laying limply on the ground when I heard the front door of the apartment fly open with a bang. The man was yanked away from me, but his knife was still sticking out of my leg. I opened my eyes and found Steven kneeling down in front of me, looking absolutely horrified, and overwhelmingly concerned. 

"We're gonna get you help, ok?" Steven said softly, and I watched as he hurriedly pulled his belt off. I was a bit confused, but then Steven shifted me enough so that he could tighten his belt incredibly tight around the top of my thigh as a makeshift tourniquet. Then Steven looked down at the rest of my leg, and decided that one belt at the top of my thigh wasn't going to be enough to prevent me from bleeding out. 

"Warren! I need your belt!" Steven called out, standing up and rushing over to Warren, who had the man beaten and bloody, and pinned against a wall.

"What?" Warren asked, tearing his angry gaze away from the man to look at Steven in confusion. 

"You heard me." Steven responded, reaching around Warren to undo and remove his belt for him. Warren looked a bit baffled and confused, but I knew he understood when Steven rushed back over to me. Steven tightened Warren's belt around the middle of my leg, then rushed pulled off the long sleeved thermal shirt he was wearing, and carefully slipped it onto me.

"We're going to get you to a hospital, and everything is going to be completely ok." Steven told me, seeming so sure that he was right. I just nodded, and pushed my head further into Steven's hand when he placed it on my cheek.