"Happy Birthday America!"

Amber and I as kids run around the backyard with sparklers, chasing after one another. This childlike version of me is dainty in a little blue girlie dress with bows. She looks like a pageant child and her big blue eyes shine with her smile in such an easy way it makes my chest hurt.

Mom is bringing stuff inside the house and dad is sitting quietly in a chair looking blankly at nothing. The day is drawing to a close as the night starts to settle, making our sparklers glow. The humidity is thick in the air as everyone in the neighborhood is out and setting up chairs in their backyards as if they're preparing for a show.

"George, time to get inside. The fireworks are about to start!" Mom calls out to him.

Why would he go inside?

Dad gets up and stares at us girls as we have fun twirling our sparklers. He has a glum look with blank eyes and deep frown lines. It's a hollowed younger version of the dad I know.

He gets inside and mom comes out with some snacks. She's wearing a long white skirt and deep blue top tucked into it with her long hair curled to perfection.

She's beautiful.

A loud boom makes me jump and everyone cheers as the fireworks start. My heart starts skipping in nonrhythmic ways as I watch myself sneak into the house as mom and Amber clap at each firework.

My feet are cemented into the ground. My hands start shaking and there's a ringing in my ears. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, then follow after her. When I get into the kitchen I'm behind myself.

"Daddy? Are you okay?"

I look to where seven-year-old me is staring and see my dad hunched under the table like he's hiding from something. He brings his finger to his lips.

"Shhh, Georgie. They're coming."

"Who is, daddy?"

A loud firework roars sounding like a cannon and dad lunges toward us. It's slow and then in a burst all those shadowed vines that have haunted my mind my whole life manifest all around, coming at me, just like how my dad's big body comes after myself as a child.

He slams into me hard and it's horrifying to see someone so big hit someone so small. My little head kicks back and strikes the corner of the counter and I hear it, loud and clear.

It's the same noise my fractures make.

The same noise of bones breaking. The sound of a head injury that should've caused instantaneous death. It echoes in my head until my ears start to ring that piercing sine wave taking over all physical sound. Sudden blistering pain detonates in my brain and my hands immediately dig into my curls at the back of my head and I screech in pain.

It's in the exact spot where my fractures start.

I scream and the vines stop followed by a rumbling then an eruption. They explode all around the kitchen and surround me in the ashes of my memories.

Each tiny particle... a memory.

Me as a child smiling, laughing, playing tea with my sister, rushing to dad hugging him wherever he would come home, him teaching me to ride a bike, mom brushing my hair and singing to me as I played with a stuffed bunny. I was sweet, bright and... normal.

They still like a projector screen pausing.

Tears slide down my cheeks.

There's so much blood and I watch through the stilled soot as dad picks up my little body, causing my curls to get stuck in the linoleum. It rips off the counter as he maneuvers so I'm in his lap and his Goliath body surrounds me protectively.

Blood soaks his shirt but he has no idea.

"I've got you, Georgie. I won't let anything happen to you."

But something did.

I watch as the color starts draining from my face.

"What have you done?" My mother shrieks as the fireworks continue in the backyard where Amber sits unknowingly.

"Get back." Dad barks.

Mom tries to grab me but dad gets up and darts away with me.

"George, please let her go! Let my baby go!"

Dad gets more frantic and mom starts sobbing uncontrollably. "Please, please tell me that's not blood! Please tell me you didn't kill her!"

His body stills and he looks down and once he registers what's happened his eyes widen in horror. The sound of him breathing in a deep anguished sob as he wails, makes me cry more.

As soon as she sees its safe mom yanks me from him and runs to the phone dialing 911. Her voice becomes muddled as the memory starts to disappear from the thickness of the hovering ashes.

"It's not over." I look behind me and see my child self. She's sad as she stands with perfect posture and wearing that blue summer dress with bows.

"Who are you?" I ask as darkness takes over and the ashes now resemble grey snow hovering around us.

"I'm you," she says absently. "I'm the you that was. The one that was lost."

"What happened?" I ask. "I should've died."

She doesn't answer and stands there eerily. Tilting her head, as if she heard something coming from above us, she says, "Times up."

She fades away and soon the ashes slowly circle around me. Wind picks up and soon I'm caught in a tornado of soot. I try yelling but my voice is lost in the shrieks of the wind. The smoke lifts and then crashes down, billowing everywhere and soon I'm standing on something light.

I look down to see black water then fall in. It's like I'm flung back into my body and I stand, watching Adonis pummel his dad who's still laughing hysterically with a gurgle as his own blood tries to drown him.

I look around and realize I never fainted.

My eyes go to my painting and it's exactly the same with the figure staying where it should. I touch the back of my head and feel something rubbery against my skin. A scar I never knew was there before...

Or didn't want to remember was there.

I glance around and see Ducky and Amber looking at each other not knowing what to do. If they should stop Adonis or not. Bones, Dana and Nova are nowhere to be seen, which is probably a good thing given Bones' condition. My guess is that Nova and Dana are keeping him out of this for his own good.

My ears ring and my vision goes in and out. I close my eyes and will myself back. I take deep breaths and push what just happened to me aside and focus on Adonis.

Both men are panting as Adonis's dad throws a mean punch in Adonis's face laughing while bending over and spitting out some blood. "That all you've got?"

Before his dad can utter another word Adonis swiftly maneuvers around him and locks his arm around his dad's neck in a choke hold. Everyone straightens and his dad starts doing everything he can to get Adonis off but he can't. Even smashing Adonis into a wall does nothing.

I see Adonis shake and I see his struggle. He's losing himself and allowing something to take over him. Visions of my episodes and of the darkness lurking inside of me flash before my eyes.

How stupid of me to think it's only me who suffers.

Adonis's eyes are exactly what mine look like after one of my episodes. Glazed over and numb. He has to shut himself off and it's killing him. If his dad dies by his hands, so does the Adonis I know. All the moments we've shared would be gone. My walls fall and my defenses shatter when I realize what I'm about to lose.

"Stop!" I yell and push forward running until my chest hits his back and my arms squeeze between his dad's back and his stomach, hurting my wrist in the process.

Adonis stills and his powerful heartbeat pulsates through his tense back. His arms don't let go of his dad's neck and I cling to him tightly until there's no space between us.

"Don't do this." I beg, digging my face into the back of his cut causing his patch to scratch me a little. "Please."

I wait.

Adonis drops his dad and takes deep unstable breaths. Coughing, his dad stands up massaging his neck with his hand. "You're a disappointment."

I don't move and keep holding Adonis, not letting go. I give everything I have into this embrace, all my unspoken feelings and unfulfilled needs only he can give to me.

Adonis doesn't say anything. He stands in my hold, not moving and looking at the ground with his face hidden from everyone. It's forever until Adonis put his hands on my cast and gently unlatches me from him. He walks up to his dad. "Let's go have a talk."

"I'm coming with you," Ducky says, taking a step.

"No, Duck. You stay back," he orders.

Ducky doesn't like this just as much as me.

Adonis's dad cocks a brow, but follows him, nonetheless. Adonis doesn't even spare me a glance as he and his dad walk out the back door and vanish along with the rest of the Silencers.

Awareness settles in my bones. Something isn't right. Ducky and Amber don't say anything as I stand there helpless and worn out.

Is he going to come back?

Are they going to kill him?

"Georgie." Amber comes next to me and embraces me from the side. "He'll come back."

I'm fidgeting as I don't tear my eyes away from the back door. My body is crying in agony not knowing what's happening. I stare at the doorknob.

Please turn, please, please turn.

I wait and hold my breath.

The knob turns and Adonis comes walking in shutting it behind him and looking at everyone but me. "It's over."

Ducky goes to say something and Adonis gives him a hard stare. "It's over."

He strides over to the door going into the house and I watch as he goes inside and the door clicks shut behind him. Bones is shouting but can't make any of it out because everything is muffled.

I leave Amber's warmth and slide inside the house. Adonis still won't look at me. Bones along with Dana and Nova are yelling at him. I go up the stairs and shut myself in my bathroom. As soon as the door clicks I let out a sob and slide down the door.

My cries are quiet, but the worst I've ever experienced. My heart shreds into ribbons and my chest heaves as a give out a silent wail that claws at me cruelly. I whimper and choke such ugly sounds when I let them out.

My ears ring again and start to itch. Getting up I grab for a q tip and try to give myself some relief from whatever is building up in my ears. Hopefully, it's wax. I push my hair out of my sticky face and try to get rid of that muffled sound. Turning, I face the door and clean my ear. I pull out the Q-tip and throw it in the garbage then push my curls away. My fingers trace around my ear and something warm runs down. I bring my hand back and see blood.

I don't even care.

My head rests against the door and I let my tears fall down my face. I stay locked in the bathroom, knowing the next time I come out...

My world is going to change.