Chapter 2

I said nothing more than 'goodbye' to a girl from school, and my family sent me to a behavioral correction camp that very night. The place was a living hell. They were the ones who pushed me into the abyss with their own hands.

In a daze, Talia's hand accidentally brushed the back of mine. The warmth of her touch hit me like a bolt of lightning. Every alarm in my head went off at once.

My body collapsed like a puppet on cut strings, and I dropped to the cold floor with a thud, arms over my head, curling into myself. The words tumbled out in a broken, senseless stream.

"I'm sorry, I won't do it again. I shouldn't have let her touch me, I'm sorry..."

The chill of the floor seeped through my thin pants and bit into my knees, but I could not stop. All I knew was to keep apologizing. It was the only way to avoid the instructors' fists and their shouting.

Mom, Dad, and Talia all froze where they stood, too stunned to move.

I felt Talia start toward me, but the second her foot shifted, I scrambled away on all fours like a cornered animal, crawling to the far corner of the living room. I faced the empty wall and began slamming my forehead against the floor, over and over.

Each impact sent a hollow thud through the room. The pain blurred my vision to black, but I did not dare stop. The instructors had made the rule clear. When you made a mistake, you kept going until they were satisfied.

"Tommy! What are you doing?" Dad was the first to react. He rushed over and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me up from the floor. His voice was thick with shock. "What's wrong? You're scaring me. Are you hurt somewhere?"

His embrace was warm, but all I felt was suffocation. I thrashed against him.

It was not until his voice broke through that I jolted out of the nightmare.

This was not the camp. This was home. There were no instructors here, no belts, no endless rounds of punishment and humiliation. I dug my nails into my own palms so hard the pain nearly brought tears, but I shook my head and could not force out a single word.

I did not dare speak. I would never dare again.

Before, at the camp, I had waited until the instructors were not looking and secretly called home. I cried and told them that the people inside were abusing me, that the instructors hit me, screamed at me, and degraded me. I begged them to come and take me back.

However, Mom screamed into the phone, accusing me of making up lies just to get out and calling me ungrateful. Dad went quiet for a long time before finally saying, "This is all for your own good."

Talia simply hung up without a single word of comfort.

The instructors overheard the call. The punishment that night was worse than anything before, grinding whatever was left of my dignity into dust beneath their feet.

After that, I understood. Telling anyone the truth about that place would only bring something worse. The fear of speaking, the fear of them, the fear of ever saying what really happened had carved itself into my bones.

I pulled free of Dad's hands, my voice raw and wrecked. "I need the bathroom."

I bolted for the bathroom, locked the door behind me, and slid down against it until I was sitting on the floor.

A metallic taste flooded my mouth, and blood surged up and spilled onto the cold tiles, a vivid, ugly red.

I raised my hand. My nails had broken the skin of my palm, and the blood beading there dripped down to mix with what was already on the floor.

I gripped the edge of the sink and pulled myself up to face the mirror.

The face staring back was chalk white, eyes threaded with red, expression so hollow it was unrecognizable. There was nothing left of who I used to be.

Tonight, it would all be over.

I pushed the door open and went back out. The table was set with steaming dishes. Dad smiled and waved me over to the seat beside him. The rims of his eyes were still faintly red.

I looked at him, nodded, and walked over numbly to sit down.

At the table, Dad kept piling food onto my plate until it was heaped full. He watched me, his voice bright with expectation. "Tommy, eat up. I've been learning some new recipes online. I'll make them for you soon. They're all your favorites."