CHAPTER 1

"Belle"

Who was that? I was walking in a lonely forest. I definitely did not expect to hear my name in the woody district. It was weird. Unless the hideous tree before me miraculously developed the ability to talk, that would probably be me hallucinating. Hallucinations were my most valuable escape from reality. Other people were terrified by them, I welcomed them. They were beauti-

"Chrystabel"

I jolted awake as realization sunk in, followed immediately by a searing pain in my ass. I'd been spanked. The culprit? Leona Lorenzo aka my mom. I called her Leona just in my head though. My grandma would probably hang me if she had access to my thoughts. But she didn't. Thank God for that. Ha, jokes on her.

"…. act like this, get off that bed right now. Are you even listening to me?"

Damn!!! Mom, you'd have to keep up with the times. Like I said before, I always wanted to escape from reality. Actually, run away from it. Half the time I was awake, I was not aware of my surroundings. Just swimming in my fantasy. Who said you couldn't build castles in the clouds? I had and it was a mighty ass castle by the way. It was trapped in my imagination so why wouldn't I love being there.

"…. driving yourself to school today cos I don't have all day. I had three cases to attend to and it's already noon. Wake up, Chrystabel. I'm leaving right now to warm the car for a bit and when I come back, you'd better be done. Any second later and you gon get left"

Slam!

And she was out, thank God. I had better things to do than listen to Leona's screams all day. Today I'd finally go to the university after two years of nothingness, boredom and emptiness. I was a straight A student, I could had easily gone when I was 18 but I was in a dark place at that time. No need to be glum anymore though, today was a really glorious day. For someone who was always complacent (I actually considered sleeping a hobby, that was how unconcerned I was about life in general), I was actually really excited. Excitement was so foreign an emotion, I was a little of my element at the moment. Well, it was time to get my move on.

"Ughhhhh."

I groaned as I fell off the bed. I was as uncoordinated as uncoordinated could ever be. I couldn't work in a jewellery shop to save my life, I'd be 50 years deep in debt after breaking all their shit. Wincing, I slowly got on my feet and looked around. Chaos was the understatement of the century. Boxes, cartons, bags, clothes strewn everywhere, not like I cared anyways. I usually slept naked so I just slipped into the bathroom and handled my business there. As I showered, I couldn't help but shudder a little at the sight of the scars. No amount of rehabilitation was enough to take away the scars. Smart people usually made the dumbest mistakes and those marks made sure I never forget. Almost like they were mocking me.

I quickly showered and got out of the bathroom. Holding my towel loosely at my chest, I used my finger to comb my hair. I recently dyed my locs. I dyed them brunette and made the tips dirty blonde. I put on the clothes I had prepared beforehand - an oversized black t-shirt, an oversized grey sweatpants and black & red AJ1's.

I stood before my mirror and stared. "I'm fine." That's what I told the girl in the mirror when I looked at her. "I'm fine, I'm doing just great, never been better." And every single time I chanted the mantra, she nodded, patted her cheeks and smiled. But her eyes? They told a different story. They stared into my depths and pinpointed my lie. They knew I was still as broken as I was yesterday, and as I was the day before that. They saw my struggle to fix my nonchalant façade. But she was too kind to tell me I was still a messed up, broken loner. A lone tear escaped from my eye. Bitch!

Well, I was always banking on Leona Lorenzo to disrupt my little self reflection. She barged in, probably feeling I'd defy her as usual and still be in bed. I did that everytime, she wouldn't be surprised. She was however surprised to see me shedding tears. She raised a brow in question, I shrug in response. She totally expected that as she nodded and wordlessly dragged one of my numerous boxes out of the room. I followed suit with another box in my hands and deposited it in her matte black G-Wagon. The next few minutes were spent with both of us monotonously filling the car with my belongings. Aside from occasional huffs and grunts, the minutes were otherwise eerily silent. Not like I was complaining, I'd welcome silence anyday over communication with Leona. We were finally done and I buckled myself in the backseat