-Nathan-

I open my sleep deprived eyes to the sound of crying, it sounded like it was coming from Katrina. Slowly, I sit myself up and turn my attention to her curled up form. This was the third time she woke up tonight due to her unforgiving nightmares caused by the Doc. Her current state concerned Ali and I since the toxin didn't seem to be wearing off anytime soon. Carefully, I sneak myself closer to Katrina's quivering body to check her current status.

Up close, I could see the dark bangs under her wet blue eyes as they darted left and right in fear. Her body was covered in a cold sweat as she continued to fight back against the influence of the toxin. Around her body, were some of the crayons and pieces of paper we had been given. Two of the three pieces paper that I could see, had been drawn on. One held the picture of what looked like to be a burning car, and on the other looked to be herself bleeding while cowarding in a corner as a familiar figure approached her. The figure looked to be the Doc, but I wasn't for sure. The third picture was hidden underneath her and from what I could see, it held "~m ~~~ry!" This worried me.

Upon reaching Katrina, I sit myself down behind her, she doesn't seem to notice me move behind her. I sigh silently to myself as I stared at her shaking, she reminded me of myself when I was a little kid. When I was about her age, I had many night terrors. They happened every night for a few months and the only way I could be put back to sleep was my mother. Whenever I was scared from my awful dreams, my mom would come into my room and rub my back to soothe me. It worked on me very well when I was young and now I wonder if my mom's technique could work on Katrina. Slowly I reach my left hand over to her back and begin to gently stroke it. She flinches as well as tenses up to my touch before rolling over a bit to look at me. Our eyes meet, and I offer her a genuine smile. I feel her muscles begin to loosen up as she hesitantly returns the smile before returning her gaze to the door.

"Hey, are you okay?" I ask in a silent whisper. Her eyes remain on the door as she shook her head. "What's wr-?" "Shh!" Katrina interrupts. Confused, I listen closely. At first, I heard nothing and thought that maybe, the toxin was making her hear things, but that couldn't have been right. Last I checked, her eyes were blue again and not orange. At this time, she wasn't under the toxin's influence anymore. "So, what did she hear?" I pondered.

My question was immediately answered as the sound of footsteps approached the door. "It's dawn. How did I not hear anyone else wake up?!" I yell to myself. Katrina's eyes were still glued to the door as we begin to hear someone grab the keys. I quickly grab Katrina's shoulders and start shaking her in fear, "Katrina, come on we need to hide!" I whisper. She remains silent and to my horror, I see why. Her eyes were once again orange, she was under the toxin's spell again. "H-he's coming. P-please h-hide y-yourselves." Katrina whispers. "No! Are you stupid? I'm not leaving you alone!" I retaliate silently. Katrina quickly shakes my hands off her and glares at me. "I'll be f-fine, just g-go. I'm too t-tired to move anyway." Katrina sighs while laying back down.

Before I can even protest to her lazy excuse, the door is unlocked. As fast as I could move, I grab sleeping Ali and quickly move us to the opposite corner of the room. Ali wakes up startled and I cover her mouth immediately. Knowing her, she'd scream to the sudden change, but at this moment in time, she needed to remain quiet. The door opens as I sit down with Ali in my lap on the opposite side of the room. We are all instantly greeted by a blinding morning sun and cover our eyes as it shines itself down into the basement. Luckily for us, we were still hidden under the basement's dark blanket, but Katrina wasn't. She was in the spotlight. A dark chuckle interrupts the silence as a familiar man began to descend into the basement. It was none other than Gabriel.

Silently we watch as Gabriel fully descends down the stairs with a cup of coffee in his hands. He stops at Katrina's body and nudges her with his right boot. Katrina reacts by looking up at him with curiosity and worry lacing her features. "What is he doing here? What does he want?" Ali whispers in my ear. I shrug and motion for her to continue watching, which she obeys. "Morning six, how are you feeling? You seem tired." Gabriel smiles. Katrina laughs at his words which confuses all of us. "I was actually f-feeling great, at least, until you s-showed up that is." Katrina rebels, "Also, my n-name isn't s-six, it's Katrina y-you idiot."

I felt my mouth drop to her words as did Ali's, where had this sudden courage arise from within Katrina? A few moments ago she was shaking in a puddle of her own tears, and now here she was, talking smack to Gabriel as if she wasn't afraid anymore. Gabriel chuckles as he takes a final sip from his coffee. "Idiot huh?" Gabriel growls. I shallow a lump in my throat in desperation, knowing Gabriel, I knew what was going to happen next and I knew that I wasn't going to like it. Gabriel snatches Katrina off the ground by the throat and pins her small form to the concrete wall. Katrina lets out a painful groan as Gabriel choked her. As she choked he breaks his empty coffee cup against the wall and raises a sharp piece up against her face. "I know what your name is and it's subject six. Not Katrina. So what did you say was your name again?" Gabriel demands.

Fear laces around my veins as I quickly come to realize what Gabriel wanted. "He's trying to make her accept her subject number." I thought. Quickly, I pray silently for Katrina to just give in to what the man wanted, but it seemed that God had put me on hold as Katrina rebelled. "It's K-Katrina." Katrina spits out. Gabriel wipes the spit off his face while smiling. "Wrong answer." Gabriel sneers. Before Katrina can react, Gabriel places the sharp glass sharp to her right cheek and begins to slice into her delicate flesh. Katrina's screams fill the house as she clawed at his arms in pure pain. As Ali and I covered our innocent eyes and ears we could barely hear the sounds of footsteps approaching the basement door. "Gabriel, what are you doing?" The doctor's voice demands angerly.

Gabriel instantly stops slicing into Katrina's cheek to the doctor's presence and sighs, "She was disobeying me, and I believe that a punishment is in due order." I hear moment and I open my eyes to see the doctor place his hands behind his back and begin to descends down the stairs. He looked pissed. "Explain." The Doc demands. "She's not accepting her new name." Gabriel hisses. "Is she now? Well then, let me have a look at her." The Doc asks. "As you wish." Gabriel responds before releasing the shard and Katrina. Katrina lets out a gasp as she returns to the concrete floor with a thud. Katrina remains on the floor and covers her face from the doctor as he crouched down to her current height. Through the veil of her brown hair, as she hid her scarred face, I could see her begin to cry as blood trickled down her hidden features.

The Doc reaches out and gently brushes some of her hair away from her face to reveal herself. "P-please, don't h-hurt me. I-I'm sorry for l-lying yesterday." Katrina whimpers. Gabriel and the doctor smile and chuckle at her pleas. Anger fills my mind as they laughed at her whimpers. Forgetting about Ali and I's safety, I start to push Ali away and attempt to get up, but Ali restrains me. "Don't they'll hear you!" Ali whispers. "I don't care they shouldn't pick on a six year old girl!" I silently hiss. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you, unless you tell me what your real name is." The doctor interrupts. Instantly Ali and I shut up and watch, we were both silently hoping she'd give in. There is a long silence before Katrina musters up enough courage to speak again. "S-subject six. It's subject s-six." Katrina stutters.

A smile appears on the crazy doctor's face to her words before he gives a nod to Gabriel. Gabriel responds with a nod to the Doc before pulling out the set of keys from his back pocket and making his way over to Katrina's chains. As Gabriel released her, Katrina speaks again, "P-please mister Scarecrow, I don't w-want to be t-tested on again." Scarecrow chuckles at her fear towards him again, "Don't worry, I have something else planned for you." "L-like what?" Katrina whimpers. "You'll see." Scarecrow smiles. Katrina sighs as the chains fell from her ankle and she is forced to stand by Gabriel. The doctor motions with his right hand for Katrina to follow him up the stairs, to which, Katrina nods and obeys without any hesitation as Gabriel following behind her.

Ali and I watched as Katrina climbed her way to the top hesitantly. Before vanishing through the door of the basement with the two psychos, Katrina turns and gives us a reassuring smile and mouths, "I'll be back." Even though her smile and words reassured Ali, it didn't for me. I could easily see through her words and smile. She was doubtful towards her words, and somehow, she didn't seem to think that she would be returning after this visit with the doctor. It's was like she thought that she would be the next one to be crossed off on our tally board. I just hoped that I was wrong.

-Scarecrow-

~Twelve hours ago~

After experimenting on subject six and returning her to the basement, I returned to my lab table and opened Katrina's file. I was glad that Mrs. Todare was very compliant, especially since it was my first time contacting one of the guardians of my test subjects. The only reason I needed Mrs. Todare to give me Ms. Parkman's original files was due to the fact, that any information I tried to pull up on her, came back negative. It was like this girl didn't even exist. Even through her school records, I found that it held no information of her enrollment or basic information, yet she was still in the school's yearbook. I couldn't seem to find any reasonable explanation to this and decided to dig deeper into her files to see why she was so hidden in this dark city.

Upon opening the old decaying file, it held a U.S. government document for a witness protection program. My eyes widened at my discovery, it seemed that Katrina was placed under Gotham's protection services and was given a Gotham Guardian. Katrina's Gotham guardian was a woman named Sonya Lee, but from what I heard on the news, a Sonya Lee was killed by Gabriel's hand back at the school. She was Katrina's teacher.

Below the Gotham's Guardian's paragraph, held the reason towards her protection. It seems, that through a persuasive message to the mayor, Batman issued a concern and asked to place the child under protection after the car accident. It is disclosed why and it irritates me. "How can a car accident place a girl under witness protection?" I thought. I turn over the page and look at her current basic information. On the left corner, it held her current photo and below it read the following:

Name: Katrina Ann Parkman

Parent(s): Oliver Parkman and Becky Albright

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Blue

Age: 6

Religion: Christian

Blood Type: O-

Medical issues: PTSD, Anxiety disorder, and night terrors

I only got that far until, I forced my eyes to return her parent's names. "Becky Albright?!" I yelled as I slammed my fist down. That name just sends me into a frenzy if she is even spoke of. She is, was, my worst enemy after my career as the Scarecrow began. She was a simple college student at Gotham University that testified against me for my actions towards the city of Greenvale. Of course she won, and I was returned to my cell in Arkham for my crimes. Upon my return to Arkham, I was made a laughing stalk of my fellow inmates and it was all because I couldn't scare her. Of course, I seeked her out after I escaped and got my revenge, but it didn't turn out the way I had planned. She revealed her fears to me after I gassed her, and they turned out to be the same as my own. I tried to pry more information out of her, but Batman showed up and I was forced to leave.

I later discovered her whereabouts at a nearby hospital and visited her. Not as myself, but as a janitor. The only reason I returned was to see what the aftermaths of my toxin did to her feeble mind. She was talking to a doctor when I arrived to her floor. As she talked, I pretended to mop the floor a few feet away from them. From what I could pick up, she was talking about her past and how thankful she was for me confronting her. Through this conversation, I learned that she had a similar past to my own, but instead of striking back at her bullies like I did, she forgave them. I also learned that she was afraid to strike back at her bullies, which gave me the idea on how to destroy her.

Once she was released from the hospital, I hunted her down again and cornered her. I immediately asked her to join my side and become the Mistress of Fear. I expected her to accept since we had such a similar past, but she surprised me. She refused my offer and called my actions insane. Upset at her response, I tried to kill her, but Batman stopped me before I could've striked. After that I returned to Arkham, and forgot about her. At least until a year ago.

I was scouting out a nearby park in a few nearby bushes. I needed a new test subject for my toxin and I thought a child would do just best. It wasn't too long before I found an easy target. It was a girl around five years old and she was playing on the see saw with her teddy bear. Her parents were off talking with other nearby parents, which left the girl defenseless. When the timing was right, I exited the bushes in my suit and tie and approach her. As I got closer, I prepared a sedative in my suit's coat as well as prepared myself to run once I injected her. She hears me approaching her from behind and turns around. She instantly looks up at me and gives me the brightest smile I have ever seen. "Hi mister!" She greeted.

Her happiness towards me, startles me and I stop short to attacking her. I watch as her blue eyes look me up and down, as if she was studying me. "What are y-you doing here and why are you s-so dressed up?" She asked. I clear my throat and straighten my tie before responding, "I was on my way to a wedding down the road, that was until I saw your teddy bear, it reminded me of my own when I was little." She smiles to my response and receives her teddy bear. She returns handing it to me cheerfully. Whoever taught this kid about strangers, sure failed at it. "Her name's Mabel and she's my b-best friend, so p-please be careful with her." The child asked politely.

I nod to her before hesitantly taking the bear in my hands. I remember it being soft and it beginning to play a familiar song by a familiar sounding woman. "Hush Little Baby?" I ask. She nods with excitement in her eyes. "Yup, that's my m-mommy singing it." She stutters. "Oh boy, this kid will be easy to break." I remember thinking. "Well your mother has a beautiful voice. Hey tell you what kid, since you've been so nice to me, how's about I get you some candy?" I ask as I returned her the bear. Her smile widens as she starts jumping for joy.

"Really mister?" She asks in disbelief. I nod and offer her a hand. She quickly takes my hand and follows me willingly to the candy store across the road. Conveniently enough for me, there was an alley way right next to it. I ended up buying the kid her favorite candy, and in response she gave me a hug. Her actions caught me off guard again and I didn't hug back in response, which thankfully, she didn't mind. After paying, I walk her out and try to usher her towards the alley, but she stops walking and hugs me again. "Thank you m-mister, you're such a g-great person." She whispers in my coat.

I am again caught off by her kindness, and hesitantly hug her back. "N-no problem." I stuttered. She instantly breaks the embrace and looks me in the eyes with pure happiness at my stutter. "Hey, we both have s-stutters! Don't worry, I w-won't tell. Besides mom says h-having a stutter makes you s-special!" The girl smiles. Before I can respond or act on my plan, a frightened voice called out in the park, "Katrina!" The girl turns quick to the source and I follow her gaze. It was a woman with red curly hair and dark green eyes. I could easily recognize her as, Becky. Our eyes instantly meet and I watch as her face turns into fear at my sight, she definitely recognized me.

Frantically, Becky motions for Katrina to return to her. Katrina, being a kid, waves naively back at her mother before turning back to me to her mother's horror. "I've g-got to go! It w-was nice meeting y-you mister."Katrina smiles while backing away from me. Before I can stop her, she is running towards her mother and waving back to me. I sigh in frustration before hesitantly waving back to her and disappearing into the nearby alley way to make a phone call. I definitely wasn't going to let Becky escape a third time.

I had called a friend to follow Becky's SUV back to their home so I could meet up with her later. As I watched the SUV leave the park from the alley way, my friend's Honda accord follows behind. The SUV only made it to the intersection, before a semi had slammed into it's side. I watch in shock as the SUV flips over three times before landing off on the side of the sidewalk. Without thinking straight in the heat of the moment, I remember sprinting across the park to the vehicle when it had just started to burst into flames.

Upon reaching it, I stare into the drivers side window to look for any survivors. Through the window, I see the brutal remains of both Becky and her husband. Even though I was smiling at my victory for destroying Becky, I was still disgusted for the way she went out. I quickly remember their daughter and make my way to the back seat window to instantly find their daughter Katrina hanging upside down. Through the smoke, I could see that she was unconscious and injured, but still alive. Without thinking for my own safety, I instantly crawl inside the burning car as people behind me began to frantically call the police. As fast as I could work, I free her from her seat belt and catch her before her head hits the car's ceiling. She groans in pain from the accident and clings tighter to my coat in response, she was looking for a sense of comfort. As I pulled her out of the wreckage, she opens her eyes and weakly smiles up at me. "T-thank y-you." Katrina coughs before passing out again.

I regretted doing this, but after saving her life and the car exploding, I left Katrina on the side of the road and ran off before the police could arrive. I remember turning on the news the second after returning to my lair, I just had to know if the girl survived. It turned out that Katrina was the only one who had survived the crash and thankfully, the public thought a faulty seat belt was the reason for her survival, not me. Through my sources I made sure to keep the public unknown to the savior of Katrina. I only let the officials figure out how she survived through the park's camera feed. After all was said and done with the accident, the only thing I had to worry about was Katrina turning into her wicked mother and forgetting about me.

Sure it's only been a year since the accident, but I still somehow managed to backfire on my worries and forget about Katrina and Becky all together. I had somehow managed to get so tied up in my research that I couldn't even recognize the little girl who I met in that park awhile back. It seems though that I'm not the only one who forgot about that distant day. Just as I had worried, Katrina doesn't even remember that I saved her, and she doesn't even seem to recognize me. Which in a way, hurt to know that, but it also hurt to know that she has been experiencing the same fate as her mother and myself had.

"Maybe this is a good thing." I thought, "Well not the memory part, but that Becky is out of the picture. Without Becky's influence in her life, she won't end up like her mother. And now since she is trapped here, I can help her remember her lost memories and steer her in the right direction towards handling her bullies." I quickly shut her file as I begin to hear a familiar cry radiate from the basement. It was Katrina no doubt. Slowly, I made my way to the basement door and listened. "I'm s-sorry, I'm s-sorry for l-lying." Katrina sobbed. I felt a smile appear on my lips to her cry, she was dreaming about me. "Oh don't you worry Katrina, the worst is yet to come." I silent chuckle before heading off to bed.

~Present~

I planned the next morning to move Katrina upstairs in the spare room upstairs, so that I could monitor her more closely. When I asked Gabriel to retrieve her, he questioned my motive. I avoiding the truth and came up with a pathetic excuse like, "I heard the children trying to influence her into escaping just like Ben." I remember seeing a flash of anger seethe through his eyes to my lie before he nodded and went to retrieved her. If only I known that he would take that anger out on her.

Now, after that solving that fight Gabriel started, I was able to get Katrina to willingly come upstairs again with us again, which caught me off guard. Even though she was willing to follow, she seemed to hesitate as she climbed the stairs. I brush off the thought and place a hand on her left shoulder to usher her faster. She flinches at my touch, but obeys and walks up the rest of the way at my side. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, I have Gabriel lock the basement door and the exit before dismissing him to guard duty.

Once Gabriel was gone, I could feel the muscles in her shoulders seem to relax a bit, but tense back up again when I began to usher her towards my lab table. She fought back my hand on her shoulder and stepped away from me. I turn and glare at her in frustration and confusion before approaching her again. "P-please, I-I don't w-want anymore f-fear toxin." Katrina begs while holding her hands up in surrender. I corner her and crouch down to her level again to appear less scary to her. She was covering her face with her hair and closing her eyes to avoid my gaze, too bad that don't make me invisible like children are led to believe. "P-please." Katrina begs. I brush the hair away from her eyes and look at the mark Gabriel made on her cheek, it was deep and very vulnerable to infection. "I'm not going to test on you today, I already told you that I have something different planned." I explain.

Her blue eyes open and she stares into my own with confusion. "I-I know that, b-but what is it?" She stutters. I smile at her curiosity. "Well for starters, your cheek needs mending. That's why I was taking you to my lab table. It contains the supplies I need to fix that." I explain. Her eyes dart to the lab table and then back to me quickly as if she was debating to trust me or not. "H-how do I know, t-that your not l-lying? And this is j-just an evil t-trick?" Katrina whimpers. I chuckle at her worries, she definitely has trust issues and I don't blame her. "I didn't trick you yesterday did I?" I ask. She hesitantly looks to the ground before shaking her head.

"So what makes today any different?" I ask. She shrugs her shoulders before replying, "Y-you stabbed me yesterday for l-lying about my fears, who's to s-say that you won't do t-that again." "Yesterday, you lied, I injected you a second time as a punishment, that wasn't a trick." I seethe. Katrina cowards towards my anger and begins to shake again. "Now, come on. Let's fix that cheek of yours." I demand while guiding her again with hand on her shoulder. Katrina, whether she wanted to or not, obeyed and followed me back to the lab table.

I direct her to the testing chair and grab a medic kit. It took a few tries, but Katrina is able to climb in the chair and wait patiently for me. I grab a large band-aid, alcohol wipes, and some antibiotic ointment before heading back to Katrina. Somehow, I startled her, and she scoots to the back of the chair as I approach her. "Really?" I ask slightly irritated. She stays frozen in her position and stares at me fearfully. I let out a heavy sigh before reaching out and pulling her gently closer to the edge of the chair. She begins to resist, but since she's so small, it wasn't much of a problem to get her closer. "Now hold still, this will sting a bit." I explain before applying the alcohol wipe to her cheek.

Katrina yelps at the sudden pain and slaps my hand away from her cheek. I glare at her in response with seething anger. She was beginning to test my patience. Katrina quickly notices my glare and cowards, "S-sorry." I sigh and shake my head in frustration before reapplying the cloth to her cheek. She hisses in pain to the wipe, and turns her head away from me. "Shh, it's okay. I'm just disinfecting the wound." I hush. Katrina gives a nodding of understanding and allows me to finish cleaning the cut. Once the cut is disinfected, I retrieve the antibiotics, and apply the paste to her cheek. She looks at me in confusion as I applied it.

"It's a pain killer." I explain. "I-I know, my mom g-gave me some w-whenever I got h-hurt. B-but that isn't w-what I'm confused about." Katrina replies. "Oh, then what are you confused about?" I asked curious. "W-why are you h-helping me?" Katrina asks. I instantly stop applying the antibiotics to her face at her question, I really had no explanation to that. "I, can't have my test subjects getting sick, it'll effect my research." I lie while grabbing the bandage. "Oh, o-okay then. Thank y-you." Katrina smiles. "Yeah, don't mention it." I sigh while applying the bandage, "There, that should keep you safe from infections." "Will I have another scar doctor?" Katrina giggles.

I chuckle at the name she gave me, but compose myself when I realized she said 'another'. "Well yes, but what do you mean another?" I questioned. Shock flashes across her face to my question, before quickly turning into seriousness. "N-nothing, it's nothing." Katrina lies. I detect her lie easily and narrow my eyes at her. "Katrina, you're lying again." I sneer. Fear rests upon her features as she tries to avoid my narrowing eyes, she was hiding something big. "Six, what are you hiding?" I demand. She backs herself against the chair and darts her eyes around the room, she was looking for an escape.

Before I can reach out and grab her, she jumps out of the chair and runs down the hallway towards the kitchen. "Damn it." I curse while running after her. I follow her down the hall and as I chased her, I rearmed my weapon just in case she attacked. As I chase her through the kitchen, she turns around and screams when she sees me following. I attempt to tackle her at the front entrance, but she turns too quickly to the right and runs up the stairs towards the spare rooms. "Seriously? Now you're just corner yourself." I silently laugh. I race to the top of the stairs and find the hallway empty of life, but I knew for a fact that she was up here.

"Katrina, come out, come out wherever you are." I taunt. I get no response like I wanted, and decide to begin my search. Out of the three rooms on the second floor of the house, the bathroom and a spare bedroom door's were open. While the spare empty room on the left, which is Katrina's new cell, was shut. "Hmmm, I wonder where she went." I thought with sarcasm. With this new lead, I quietly approach the shut door before creaking it open. I hear a faint squeak of Katrina in the room once I enter. With a quick look around, I could only see one potential hiding spot she could hide in and that was the closet.

I walk up to the closet and force open the doors. I peek in and find no one in there. Puzzled, I try to figure out where else she could've hid, when I hear behind me the sound of the door move. I quickly turn around, and see Katrina trying to sneak out behind the door. She was hiding behind there the whole time! Before she can even make a run for it, I grab her and pin her to the nearest wall. "P-please, d-don't hurt m-me." She quivers. As a precaution, I place the syringes from my weapon against her neck, now I knew she wasn't going anywhere. "I won't if you explain what you're hiding." I demand.

"I-I can't, you'll just h-hurt me l-like everyone else." Katrina sobs. I press the syringes through a layer of flesh in response as a warning. "I'll hurt you much worst than they ever did to you if you don't show me, now!" I yell. Katrina lets out a cry of fear to my warning and begins to sob uncontrollably. "F-fine, I'll s-show you, b-but I need y-you to remove your w-weapon from my neck first, p-please." Katrina begs. I shake my head to plea and keep the weapon against her skin, there was no way I was risking her running away again. Slowly, in the corner of my right eye, I see her left hand reach up and gently grab my right arm. Thinking she was trying something, I sink the needles deeper into her neck.

Katrina lets out a yelp to the pain, and grabs her neck with her raised hand in response to my anger. "I'm warning you-" I can't even finish my sentence before Katrina interrupts me by pulling back the collar on her shirt a few inches, to reveal a nasty scar the size of my hand on the left side of her collarbone. I feel myself release her instantly at the sight and stumble back in surprise. She covers it immediately when she feels me release her, and through her eyes, I could see that I have crossed another emotional barrier. "How did you get that?" I ask astonished while reproaching her. She remains silent to my question before lifting the bottom right corner of her shirt to reveal a second hand print sized scar on her abdomen.

My eyes widened at the sight while she covered it back up, how had she received such damaging wounds and when?! "What-" "I-I got these after my p-parent's lost their lives!" Katrina interrupts through tears. I remain silent to her outburst, I just couldn't seem to comprehend how she got those scars from the wreckage after I had saved her. "What did that to you?" I ask. "S-shrapnel, shrapnel from the a-accident." Katrina sputters, "It w-went through me in those two p-places, and a f-few small pieces of the car was embedded in my u-upper body." Silently, I try to reach out to her to comfort her, "Look, I'm sorry I asked." Katrina looks at me disgusted and pushes me away, "You're not s-sorry, you're just l-like them. L-like my bullies."

I am deadly quiet as she walks away from me and over to the corner's room before sitting down to face it. As I remained quiet, a thought crosses my mind and I dart my eyes over to the chains and start debating if I should chain her or not. I quickly decide to not, and turn to leave. Once I exited the room, I take one more look at Katrina. She was still in the corner crying, but now she was rocking herself and humming the song "Hush Little Baby". As I lock the door to her new cell, I couldn't help but ponder a new concern of mine, "Have I turned into a bully?"