I scream.

What’s happening?!

What appears to be a billion tiny cuts appear all over my arms and legs, right before my eyes. The stinging increases as each cut becomes longer, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it!

I grab my left arm, but that only makes the pain greater. When I remove my hand, it is covered in blood.

I scream again.

My face begins to burn, so I hesitantly look at myself in the mirror, and am horrified at what I see.

“Trinity!” Mrs. Johnson yells over the sound of my pounding heart. “Trinity, I’m coming!”

I continue to watch in horror as tens of bloody cuts appear on my face by the second. Before I even realize it, I’m grabbing my belly as sharp pains that are spread all over move quickly across it in zig-zags. I lift up my shirt and, my mouth agape, stare at the five gashes that cover my belly.

Claws…

The door handle jiggles and I’m completely distracted from the blood oozing out nearly every part of my body.

He’s coming!

“Trinity, unlock the door, sweetheart!”

I stay as quiet as I can, resisting the urge to scream as the cuts become much deeper and the pain intensifies.

Quickly climbing into the bathtub, I close the curtain, nearly pulling that and the rod down, then watch as my blood streams down the drain.

All of a sudden, the door flies open and the sound of his deep voice echoes throughout the bathroom.

“Trinity, where are you?!”

His signature sound of his heavy footsteps as they come toward me causes me to start shaking with anxiety.

Remembering that there’s a window behind me, I turn around, grab the string and pull it down, making the blinds go up. I then unlock the window, but struggle greatly to slide it up.

I’m trapped!

I don’t give up trying to lift it open, even though I know it simply won’t budge.

C’mon, open!

“Trinity, there you are.”

With a gasp, I turn around and see his face as he peeks around the curtain.

“No, no, no!” I shout, hoping that this is all just a dream I can wake up from at any moment. “Please!”

His grey eyes are glaring and his scowl turns into a smirk when he sees how afraid I am as I scoot to the far end of the bathtub.

“Trinity, come here,” he says. “I won’t hurt you.”

I’m not convinced. I shout again, asking, “How did you get in here?! How did you find me?!”

“Trinity, baby…” he says in a hushed voice as he slowly climbs into the bathtub with me.

I hug my knees and bury my face in them, beginning to sob. “Please leave me alone…”

“Shhh,” he says, wrapping his arms around my shaking body and holding me close. He strokes my hair and I pray silently for all of this to go away.

“Please, please….” I whisper.

“Trinity, come with me to take your meds. I know you hate them, but they help sometimes. Don’t they?” I lift my head and Mrs. Johnson’s eyes meet mine. Her voice is gentle as she speaks. “Come on, I won’t leave you here. Do you want to take the immediate stress reliever… the Rescue Remedy now and take your prescriptions later? Or do you want to take the prescriptions now? They make you sleepy, right? Maybe it would be good to get some rest.”

Unable to answer, I instead throw my arms around her neck and cry into her shoulder, finding it hard to come down from where the anxiety had me.

It was just a hallucination…

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The second part of this content has been removed (you can find it in the published book), but you can continue on to Chapter Six. :)