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Aiden

Past

We will always be together You’re the reason I’m alive, Aiden

My mother’s voice drifts in my head like warmth in the middle of the cold

The shackle rattles and protests as I pullfloor sends icy bursts through y to stand up

My toes are numb The welts on my back burn The red marks left by my ankle cuff have deepened to purple

I think that’s bad

What seey to stand up, let alone take a closer look at round smells like the stables at my father’s friend’s house

My teeth chatter and I biteto stop it

“Mum…” I whisper in the pitch-black room

She said we have a special mother-son bond, and she can feel my pain My mother knows the day I’ll fall sick before I even wake up She

I don’t like it when Mum cries, but I want her to find me

This place isn’t like any I’ve been in before This place hurts

My storowls like an animal

I press , it turns louder and higher as if taunting me

I lick my dry, cracked lips and stare at the e I’ve had since being separated from Xander and Cole