TRIGGER WARNINGS: MENTION OF STARVATION; EMOTIONAL ABUSE

CONTENT WARNINGS (CWs): Mention of abuse

AN: Yeah...this chapter isn't the best. But this book is currently undergoing edits, anyway.

"What?" yelled Aidan and Leah at the same time.

"Shh!" I whispered, putting a finger to my lips. "We'll get heard."

Everyone quieted down.

I sighed. "Yeah, I know. It can be kinda shocking. But I don't want to keep on pretending to be someone who I'm not. So, will you trust me?"

Will they? All I've done is lie!

There was a pause. Then Leah solemnly spoke up.

"I will."

"And so will I," Aidan agreed.

"Winnie? Hallie? I know you already figured out my secret before I even thought of telling anyone, but still, I'm going to put the same question forward. Will you—can you—trust me, girls?"

"My answer is the same as the others," Hallie said. "Yes, I can—and will—trust you, Arwen. The way you behaved yourself during the battle—showing honor to your opponent, rushing to Leah's defense, among many other things—proved to me that you deserve to be trusted. And so, Arwen, trust you I will."

"Me too," Winnie added.

Oh my goodness! Can this be happening?

I felt all my anxieties melt away after hearing my friends trust me. All my life, I'd desperately wanted to gain someone's—no, anyone's—confidence. Right now, I had five people who would support me forever.

"Thank you. And now, you ought to know how I even ended up here in the first place."

"I've got one question, Na—I mean, Arwen," Aidan announced. "Will you tell us the entire story, starting with how you lost your mum and dad... that is if your parents are dead?"

I shrugged. "If you want. My first four years of life were as happy as a child could have it. I was named after Arwen Undómiel from The Lord of the Rings. My parents loved and cared for me, making sure I had everything I needed. But they were very busy, having to attend conferences every month. So, my Aunt Susanna babysat me.

"My parents died in a 'car accident' when I was only four. But somehow, somehow, I know that 'accident' wasn't really an accident, but on purpose. In other words, murder."

All the kids gasped. Leah looked ready to cry. So did Winnie.

I forced my bitter tears to stay where they belonged, back behind my eyelids. "So yeah, that's how I lost my parents.

"Anyway, I was sent to foster care." My mind relived the horrid treatment I had to endure those years. I took a deep breath. "And 'cuz I don't want to get into much detail, all I'm gonna say is that my foster mom couldn't have cared less about her traumatized four-year-old ward. She was in it for the money."

Winnie seemed horrified. "Couldn't you have called the law on her?"

"Why was she allowed to foster kids anyway if she was just going to abuse them? That doesn't make sense!" Aidan's eyes held an admiring look as he realized what I had to suffer through.

"How long did you even stay with her?" That was Hallie.

"To answer your question, Winnie, the law would never have listened to me, a little kid. Besides, when you're a little kid, you don't think about those things. And Aidan, I have no stinkin' idea. I just hope she's not fostering anymore. Hallie, I spent four miserable years there. Anyway, enough getting sidetracked. Let's get back to the story. On my eighth birthday, I ran away. I couldn't bear any longer the way she treated me. A few months later, the missing posters showed up. I became a fugitive.

Leah shook her head. "That's not good."

A door slammed nearby. The kids jumped.

No, no, no! Please don't let it be one of the adults!

When we were positive no one was coming, I continued my story. "Yeah, that was definitely not good. When I was eleven, I was caught again. This time, I was placed in a foster home that really felt like home."

"Well, at least something good came out of that," Hallie noted.

"It ended up impacting my life in a positive way. I'm grateful for that," I replied. "The Bartholomew family cared for me as if I were their own daughter. Teegan—the daughter—and I became best friends. But I wanted answers about the fate of my parents, so I regretfully ran away.

"Three years later, Thomas and Harry discovered me, mistaking me for a certain Nadia Blair. After being teleported, I ended up here. That's my entire story."

"Arwen, you are officially my hero," Aidan decided. "You need to have the gumption to live alone on the streets and survive. I lived a few years as a street rat. It wasn't the best experience. Trust me."

I nodded. "Thanks, Aidan."

Hallie was bursting with questions. "Why weren't you caught more than once? When did you realize you were blossoming? How old were you when you blossomed? How did you learn to control your powers?"

"Hallie, you're awesome, but could you go easy on the questions?" I begged. "Well, I was (and still am) petite, so I could squeeze myself into some pretty weird hiding spots. No one even realized I was there. I'm not sure what blossoming means, but I'm assuming you'd like to know how I got my powers. So, one day, I started feeling inexplicably hot, and then boom! I'd set a cardboard box I was holding on fire. When I looked at my hands, I realized they were in flames too. I was twelve at the time."

Hallie beamed. "You're right about blossoming. It's our euphuism for getting your powers. We're kind of a secret, you know. Back on topic. So, you're a bit of a late bloomer?"

"Again, I don't understand half your lingo, but I think it means I got my pyrokinesis kinda late. So then, yes. Now, enough with the questions."

I was going to warn them about my mistrust of Lady Folman when eight o'clock struck.

Hallie grabbed Leah's hand. "Come on, Leah. Let's go to our rooms. I'm sure our roommates are worried." They tip-toed down the hall to their rooms.

Aidan waved. "Night, girls!

Well, I did it. But what are the costs? If Lady Folman finds out, we're goners for sure.

Once everyone had cleared out of our room, Winnie whispered, "Arwen, I will keep your secret safe, no matter what."

"Thanks," I whispered back before falling asleep.

~~~

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I'd become best friends with Winnie in a way I could never imagine. She was my confidante and the person I could go to after another nightmare about my past.

However, I wish I could say my life at Lady Folman's was as wonderful as my relationship with Winnie. Every morning, we were woken up early (five in the morning or earlier) by blaring sirens and a threat of missing out on breakfast.

I think I would have actually preferred skipping breakfast in the mornings. Breakfast had gradually transformed from a hearty meal to a teensy bowl of watery gruel. I'd barely been able to keep it down the first time I'd tasted it. Our other meals devolved as well. I was lucky if I was able to eat three full meals a day. The worst part? We were expected to exercise our powers or weapon skills in intense training exercises with the same stamina as if we were eating three large meals. I honestly believe that that woman had purposely fed us orphans more the first couple of days to lure me into a false sense of home and welcome. Thankfully, I wasn't that dumb and saw through it within a couple of weeks. I guess that's one perk of naturally mistrusting everyone.

The moment I really saw Lady F.'s true colors, though, was about a month ago. She'd had all—and I mean all—of us gear up for sparring. In our uniforms. I wouldn't have minded so much if we'd been allowed to eat first. But we weren't.

I remember it so clearly. We were all trying our very best to not show any signs of weakness or fatigue. However, I knew I looked awful. I had shadows under my eyes and just enough time left over after pulling on my uniform to style my hair into a sloppy ponytail with a headband to keep stray hairs out of my face. We'd been sparring for over an hour when suddenly Leah collapsed on the floor. Everyone was extremely concerned and gathered around the younger girl. Everyone, that is, except Lady Folman.

"Get up, child!" she barked.

"I can't," Leah whispered. "I'm too weak."

The noblewoman mocked her before proceeding to diagnose the result of her collapse as "laziness." Maggie looked ready to strangle the noblewoman. Agatha was oddly stoic, but a hint of worry still appeared on her face.

"She's a little kid for crying out loud!" I jumped to her defense. "Leah's gotten barely any sleep, plus you're practically starving her. Her little body couldn't take your abuse any longer, my lady!" I spat out the last words. My hands were balled into fists, and I was breathing heavily.

I willed my hand to catch on fire. My dark eyes danced with a challenge. I wasn't backing down. She reminded me of a slightly less insane version of Alvah Drake. I wasn't gonna let myself be bullied.

"Nadia does have a point, my lady," Agatha admitted.

"Yes, she does," Maggie agreed. "It would be best if Leanna rests today, if not for the rest of the week, my lady. I'll make sure she's ready by next week. Please."

Eventually, she relented and let Leah rest, thank goodness. But after that, I knew for certain that we had to get out of there—and soon. I hoped Maggie would be alright. Lady Folman looked ready to fire her on the spot.

That incident caused me to reveal myself to the rest of the orphans. As soon as I wholly trusted everyone, we'd be gone before Lady Folman even realized we were scheming against her. That night, I planned to formulate a real escape plot, if possible, with all the orphans.

Right after dinner, we all headed over to my room. After my assuring myself we weren't being spied on, I gently shut the door.

"The time has come, fellow orphans, for us to choose captivity in these walls or liberty in the outside world!" I declared.

The orphans cheered. Cries of "liberty!" burst from eleven throats.

I continued my speech. "To gain this liberty, we must escape. We shall not obtain it by strengthening our powers for the sole purpose of serving Lady Christine Folman. Nor shall we find it if we stay trapped behind these walls. This means escape must be our course of action."

More cheers. I felt like a military commander rallying my troops. My heart swelled with pride.

"YES!!!" Toby and Alyssa shouted. The rest soon joined in.

"Okay. Winnie, you've been here all your life. Do you know of any places that one may use as a means of escape?"

"Not really," Winnie confessed, "unless you want to risk climbing the garden wall, which is a near-impossible feat. Believe me, I've tried."

I perked up at hearing the words "climbing" and "wall".

"Sometimes you have to take some near-impossible risks, Winnie. Therefore, I think we ought to risk the wall. Does anyone else have an opinion?"

Toby spoke up. "I do. That wall ain't unclimbable, that's fer certain. But it's a challenge. A challenge that me, Toby Fisher, is willin' t'undertake."

"When I was a ten-year-old daredevil," Alyssa added, "I used to try climbing that wall. I failed miserably, but I think Toby and I can team up to figure out how to quickly scale the only barrier to our liberty."

"LET'S DO IT!" whooped Aidan.

"Shush!" Amiyah hissed. "Dad taught me how to construct a makeshift rope using articles of clothing. I'm quite sure we can use rope to aid us somehow."

"Great. Now we should probably do this at night so we don't get spotted."

The kids murmured in agreement and discussed more details in lowered voices. I didn't realize how loud their "lowered" voices were until it was too late.

The door creaked open.

"Who goes there?" Archer, our sentry, challenged.

I jumped and grabbed Firebrand.

"A friend," a female voice responded.

"If you truly are a friend, identify yourself."

"If I must. It's only me, Agatha."

"Alright, Agatha. Do you swear not to mention anything to Lady Folman you may have overheard?"

"I swear it. I only came to let you all know, children, that it is time for bed. The clock struck eight a good five minutes ago."

Agatha nervously twisted her red hair, which was down. We orphans retired to our own rooms and bid each other good night.

As I pulled on my pajamas after everyone left, I confided my fears to Winnie. "Can we really trust Agatha will keep her word? Can we trust her at all?"

"Yes, Arwen, we can. She'd never tell Lady Folman anything. She never mentioned any of my escape attempts to Lady Folman. She's like an older sister to me," Winnie confirmed.

I sucked in a breath. "For the sake of all the kids held in this wretched prison, I hope you're right."