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Prologue

Callie

I want to breathe

I want to feel alive again

I don’t want to feel the pain

I want it all back, but it’s gone

I hear every sound, every laugh, every cry People move around the roolass doors There’s a violent storainst the concrete, dirt, and dry leaves Lights flash as alow reflects off the rain on the ground, red, like blood Like Kayden’s blood Like Kayden’s blood all over the floor So much blood

My sto I can’t move

"Callie," Seth says "Callie, look at aze off the door and stare into his brown eyes filled orry "Huh?"

He takes

"He’s going to be okay"

I stare at hi

"Okay"

He lets out a sigh and pats o see if he can have visitors yet It’s been almost a damn week You’d think they’d let hiets up fro rooht

He has to be

But in ht Sure, his wounds and broken boneswill take longer, and I wonder what Kayden will be like when I see hi to the receptionist behind the counter, but she barely gives him the time of day as she multitasks between phone calls and the coh I knohat she’ll say--the sa That he can’t have visitors, except for family His family, the people who hurt him He doesn’t need his family

"Callie" Maci Owens’s voice rips me out of my daze I blink up at Kayden’s mother with a frown on my face She’s dressed in a pinstripe pencil skirt, her nails are done, and her hair is curled up into a huge bun on the top of her head "Why are you here?" she asks

I al "I came here to see Kayden"

I sit up in the seat

"Callie, honey" She speaks like I’ as she stares down at o"

"But I have to go back to school soon," I say, gripping onto the aro"

She shakes her head and sits down in the chair next toto be possible"

"Why not?" My voice colances around, worried I’ a scene "Please keep your voice down, honey"

"I’m sorry, but I need to know that he’s okay," I say There’s so ry before and I don’t like it "And I need to knohat happened"

"What happened is that Kayden’s sick," she responds quietly and then starts to get up

"Wait" I get up with her "What do you mean he’s sick?"

She slants her head to the side and gives me her best sad face, but all I can think about is how this is the woet beaten by his father for all those years "Honey, I don’t kno to tell you this, but Kayden injured himself"

I shake my head as I back away frorows sadder and she looks like a plastic doll with glassy eyes and a painted-on s for a very long tiuess rong"

"No, he doesn’t!" I scream Actually scream I’m shocked

She’s shocked Everyone in the croaiting room is shocked

"And my name is Callie, not honey"

Seth hurries up to me, his eyes wide and full of concern

"Callie, are you okay?"

I glance at hione quiet and they’re staring atwith lass doors, bu h I keep running until I find a cluster of bushes around the back of the hospital, and then I fall on my knees and throw up all over theat my eyes When my stomach is empty, I fall back on my heels and sit down in the wet dirt