A STORY FOR ANOTHER DAY

The Scars She Hid From The World

REGINA MCBRIDE

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

Modern Revenge Scheming

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At Mia's orphanage.

Mia's troubles seemed to be endless as she went from one issue to the other. Lakshmi dropped her off at the orphanage and waved her by when Mia began to perceive smoke.

She looked at the orphanage and it didn't seem to be on fire, she went in and found some kids playing as usual.

But something didn't settle well with her, when one of the staff went into the kitchen to prepare a meal for the kids, she turned on the electric cooker.

Some kids were playing and they ran towards her in the kitchen.

"You can't catch me now" the little girl hugged the lady's waist as the boy she was playing with tried to go around the lady to get to the little girl.

There was an electric problem and the first thing to catch fire was the curtain that covered the kitchen window. The lady tried to put it out by pointing water she got from the sink but that only made it worse and the fire began to spread.

They tried to escape but the fire had spread quickly, surrounding them on all four sides. There was no escape for them.

Everyone in the orphanage began to panic and they called the fire department but as usual it would take time for them to get to the scene. Mia was the only person that didn't panic while everyone was screaming.

Their screams were very disturbing to Mia and all she wanted to do was to get away from them.

"Stop!" She shouted at the top of her lungs as she covered her ears with her palms. She was feeling very dizzy and their noise only made her condition worse, she knelt down on the floor and rolled herself into a ball, with her palms still covering her ears.

"Stand up Mia, you have to go. I said get up!" She heard her father's voice scream into her ear. It was as if he was scolding her for her behavior.

She sprung up from the floor and went to the sand box outside. Using the sand bucket the kids used to play with to pack sand, she tried to go close to the fire but some staff stopped her. They were holding her back.

"Mia, are you stupid? Do you want to kill yourself" one of the lady was dragging her back and the sand she had fetched from outside had spilled all over the kitchen's door mouth.

"Leave me!" She kept on struggling with the ladies who held both of her arms very tightly.

Mia was in a fix, she started using her legs to hit the door, she was trying to push it down and she succeeded.

Seeing this the ladies tried to pull her out of there since she was too close to the fire but Mia was very stubborn, she kept on kicking her legs, trying to spread the sand in the fire.

The fire was gradually subsiding but she was out of sand. The little girl who she made a kite for earlier picked up the sand bucket to fetch sand from the sandbox, she wanted to help Mia save her friends because she noticed that was what Mia was trying to do all this while but the ladies kept on preventing her.

She poured the sand inside the kitchen, quenching a huge part of the fire but it was already too late for that.

Lakshmi's POV

At Lakshmi's house

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