Loretta walks back over to me and I tense up. She smiles with an evil glint in her eye and it sends a shiver down my spine.

“Now to have a little fun,” she says with a chuckle and I open my eyes wide.

What the fuck does that mean?

“Loretta, you don’t have to do anything to me. My parents will gladly pay the money, you know that.”

She chuckles. “Oh, I know they’ll pay me, honey. For some reason, which I am yet to figure out, they love you and would do anything for you. I don’t get it, but doing something to you will make me feel better and break Lia’s soft little heart in the process.”

“Loretta, if you hurt me they won’t pay you!” I yell, trying to get her to stop.

She smiles and shakes her head. “I call bullshit! They’ll pay me no matter what,” she replies and I shudder knowing she’s right.

“Still, there must be some part of you that looks at me like the child you created. Surely there’s something in you that doesn’t want to hurt me?”

She frowns and brings her hand up and backhands me across the face for the third time. This time it hurts so much more and the metallic tang of blood seeps into my mouth while my bottom lip aches.

“I don’t care about you at all, you insignificant little weed. As I said, you ruined my life, so now I want to destroy yours!” She steps behind me and grabs my left thumb pulling it back as far as she can. I scream out in pain as I feel the crunch and an overwhelming burning sensation radiates through my hand. I feel like I want to be sick, and the bile starts to rise in my throat as I breathe in and out of my mouth fast trying to keep myself together.

Loretta laughs and walks back in front of me. I clench my eyes tight to try and stop the tears from falling. I do not want her to see me cry, I don’t want to show signs of weakness.

“How will you play your precious guitar now, with a broken thumb, hey?” she asks and I open my eyes and glare at her as range overtakes my pain.

“Fuck you!” I yell and she smiles and shakes her head.

“I read somewhere that you’re afraid of spiders?” she says and I tense up as I’m deathly afraid of them. “Meet my little friend Bertha. She is only small but can pack a punch,” she says and walks over to a box sitting on the table where her laptop is located.

I start to shake as she comes over. If there is one thing in this world I hate more than anything, it’s spiders, and even though it sounds like it’s a small one it still terrifies me. She opens the box and I see a leg climb out and holy fuck it’s huge. I straighten up in the chair and start to breathe so fast I think I’m hyperventilating as she puts her hand in the box and pulls out a Tarantula. I open my eyes wide and I can’t stop the tears now. My skin prickles with fear as it grips me. This thing is huge, black and hairy, and right now she has it in her hand. How she can stand to touch it is beyond me. She brings her hand close to my face and I pull back away from her. She grins at me and its creepy legs start to move. If I could scream in fear, I would, but I’m paralyzed right now as the spider is in line with my eyes.

“So Acacia, where should we let Bertha crawl, hey? Maybe on your naked legs?” she asks and I inadvertently shake my head as I breathe so fast trying to block out the pain in my thumb.

“No? Not the legs? Okay then, the legs it is,” she says and leans down putting Bertha on my naked flesh. I squirm and little terrified noises are escaping me while Loretta laughs. This is torture. I feel disgusting that this thing is crawling on me and as it slowly moves up my leg the hair from it tickles my skin. My heart is pounding ferociously as it makes its way up my left leg and then onto my shirt heading upward toward my chest.

I’m breathing sharp, shallow fast breaths while the tears fall down my face. “Loretta please take it off,” I murmur. I don’t want to talk too loud in case it makes the spider move quicker.

“Oh, no way. I want to see Bertha crawl all over your face,” she says and I tense up as the spider reaches my chest and is inching closer to my neck.

I cry harder now and my entire body is shaking as Bertha eases up my neck. I start to make small petrified noises as she climbs up my neck and over my cheek. I clench my eyes shut and wish I had the strength in me to shake my head, but I’m completely paralyzed with fear. Her hairy legs stick into my face as she climbs over it. I feel dirty and as I squirm, I hear Loretta laughing. I’m concentrating on keeping my mouth and eyes firmly closed. Bertha climbs up and onto the top of my head and I can’t feel her anymore and that’s even scarier than knowing where she is.

“This is hilarious,” Loretta says through a fit of laughter and I really hope Dad follows through on his threat to hurt her right now. I badly want to open my eyes to see if I can see where the spider is, but I’m so scared that when I do it will crawl back down my face.

“Open your eyes, Acacia,” Loretta says and I shake my head and keep my eyes and mouth firmly closed.

“Open your eyes, or I’ll open them for you,” she demands and I slowly open one eye and then the other looking all around me to see if I can see it anywhere.

I can’t.

I start to bellow out loud sobs and Loretta laughs looking at me.

“Oh Acacia, that was worth it. Now let me think of what else I can do to you,” she says bringing her finger up and taping her lips. “Oh, I know, let’s have matching thumbs,” she says and I shake my head and breathe faster.

“No Loretta, please don’t,” I beg and she nods.

“Okay, no matching thumbs. I’ll let you sit for a while wondering where Bertha is.That should be torment enough for you, for now,” she says and I look around to see if I can see the disgusting arachnid. I can’t see it anywhere.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I ask through a sob and she grins.

“You had your chance for this not to happen, Acacia. I asked you nicely for money and you turned me down flat. You brought this on yourself, you stupid bitch,” she says and looks me in the eyes and smirks.

“I’m sorry I ruined your life, Loretta, but I didn’t choose to be born.”

“Well, I didn’t want you to be either. I tried everything to get rid of you and then when you were born. I tried to get rid of you for the next six months, but the bloody system made me try and take care of you. When they saw I was starving you and the severe nappy rash you had from me not changing your diapers, well that’s when they finally intervened. Thank God they did because those six months were the worst of my life. I got fat because of you. My cunt was never the same so no man would look at me as they did before you. You ruined everything and when you were so close to death it made me jump for joy. That’s when they came and took you away from me. I couldn’t have been happier.”

“If you hated me so much, why did you come looking for me?”

“After they took you, the agency I mean, I sucked off the manager to find out who had adopted you. I wanted to find you, so I could rid the world of your evil. But then a couple of weeks later in the papers, Colt and Lia announced their brand new baby girl and where they got her from. I looked at the photographs and saw you, and I knew it was you from the freckle on your right shoulder. I resolved at that moment to let you live your life and that my day would come where I could find out for sure if it was you. Then I knew I’d be able to take advantage if your situation as I needed it. Times were tough, but I knew Colt was teaching you music and there was a chance you would turn into a superstar yourself. I patiently waited twenty years until you finally made it big enough that I knew my payday would be massive. And now my time has finally come,” she says and laughs. I shake my head and she walks over to the desk and opens a small bag placing some white powder on the table. I tense up and watch as she sorts the drugs into a line and uses a straw to snort it up her nose. I cringe and shake my head at her. Something catches my sight and I see Bertha crawling across the floor away from me and I relax a little.

“I think it’s time you get reacquainted with your old best friend,” she says and I furrow my brows wondering what the hell she’s on about. She puts her finger into the bag and scoops out some more white powder. I’m assuming it’s cocaine or something along those lines. I tense my body as she walks over and places her hand over my mouth tightly, so I can’t breathe.

“You’re going to have to breathe through your nose if you want air, won’t you honey?” she asks and then raises her finger with the power right up under my nose. I try to shake my head away from her, but she holds onto me tightly. I hold my breath for as long as I can.

“C’mon Acacia, the quicker you take it in, the better,” she says and I struggle to hold my breath. My lungs are burning and I really need some oxygen. I can’t hold it any longer, so I sniff up through my nose trying to get any air I can and the powder invades my nostrils. I close my eyes tight, screaming in my head for Aston to find me.

“Good girl. Now you can feel what it was like when you were born, having cocaine in your system like you’re meant to,” she says and releases her hand from my mouth and chuckles to herself.

I open my eyes and they roll around in my head. I can feel the effects of the drug instantly and I don’t like it one bit. My body is shaking, and I’m not sure if it’s from the fear, from the drug, from my broken finger or from the fact that I’m trapped and tied to a chair in Loretta’s basement.

This is fucked!

The metallic tang of blood is back in my mouth and I’m pretty sure Loretta opened up my lip wound again when she had her hand squishing my mouth tightly shut. I spit the blood out onto the floor and she looks at me and smirks.

“Did I make you bleed again, honey?” she asks gently like she’s trying to put on a motherly voice.

I don’t reply with anything and shift slightly in my seat.

“Oh Acacia, don’t be silent, it’s unnerving.”

“What do you want me to say?”

She smiles and tilts her head. “Good question. Maybe I’m sorry for ruining your life. I’m sorry I’m a waste of space. I’m sorry I have a dickwad father and an arsehole for a mother, and I owe you so much money you won’t know what to spend it on first.”

“I’ve said I’m sorry, Loretta.”

“Yes, but you didn’t mean it,” she says and I tense up waiting for her to hit me again. She walks across to me and raises her hand and then her mobile rings distracting her.

We both look over at the table and it seems to be moving. The legs have feet and it’s walking around the room. I giggle slightly and Loretta looks back at me.

“Are you high?” she asks, walking over to the phone and then I realise it’s not normal to see a walking table. So yes, I must be hallucinating. I shake my head as she answers the phone.

“Hello,” she says trying to sound sweet and innocent. It doesn’t fool me.

“Oh! Hi Colt. I’ll put you on speaker so Acacia can hear,” she says and then presses a button.

“Annie? Annie are you there?”

I straighten up hearing Dad’s voice and I start to cry. “I’m here, Dad.” My voice sounds angelic and then I giggle at it.

“Annie, are you okay? Why are you laughing?” he asks and I shake my head trying to focus.

“Because she is high, Colt. On cocaine… one of your favourite past times,” Loretta says with a chuckle and then there’s silence on the phone.

Eventually Dad speaks, “What do you want, Loretta?” His voice is hard.

“Money, I want a million dollars in my bank account and I will give Acacia back to you,” she says and I smirk, but I don’t know why.

“Done! How ‘bout we meet and I give it to you in cash? Then you’ll have the money and you can leave our lives and we never have to see each other again,” he says and Loretta smiles.

“Sounds good to me. Meet me in the park in fifteen minutes. If you bring the cops, I’ll slit her throat,” she says.

I tense up again, but can’t help the giggle that slips out of my throat as an image of Loretta slitting my throat and rainbow blood pouring out flashes through my brain.

“Annie, are you okay?” Dad asks and I nod my head.

“Yep, feeling quite good actually, Dad. The pain in my thumb hardly hurts at all now,” I say and giggle.

“What did she do to your thumb?” he demands and I wiggle it and pain rips through me making me moan out loud.

“Annie!” Dad calls out and Loretta laughs.

“Fifteen minutes, Colt. And don’t forget no cops or Annie’s cut throat will be on your head,” she says and then hangs up the phone.

“How are you feeling? Flying high with the birds yet?” Loretta asks and a bluebird flies around my head and sits on my shoulder chirping loudly. I giggle again and tilt my head caressing the bird with my cheek. “That’s a yes. C’mon let’s get you into the car,” she says and unties my ankles from the feet of the chair and stands me up. I wobble on the spot slightly and she catches me.

“Right! Walk!” she berates and as I take each step it’s like I’m stepping on soft liquid and it’s rushing up my legs. I chuckle watching the purple liquid slowly creep up my naked legs. We walk up the stairs and it’s hard to walk up stairs with your hands behind your back, but Loretta helps me and we make it to the top. She unlocks the door and we move out to the car. The purple is getting higher up my legs and it feels like silk. I love silk. The little bluebird is flying around me and I watch it as it chirps happily.

“In you get,” she says and opens the car door for me and I sit down with a thump on the seat. It’s uncomfortable having my hands behind me, but I don’t mind because the purple liquid is making me happy. She gets in the driver’s side and we start the drive.

“Would you actually slice my throat?” I ask and giggle.

Loretta looks at me and smirks. “Yes honey, I would do it without a second thought.”

“And would I bleed rainbows?”

“No honey, you would die,” she taunts and it shocks me. I sit up straight in my seat and look down at the purple and it starts to move differently. It’s separating and as I look closer I see thousands of tiny bugs running up my legs. I scream and shake in the chair trying to get them off me.

“What the fuck?” Loretta barks and I jump around trying to get the bugs off my legs.

“The bugs, get them off me!” I yell and Loretta laughs.

“It’s an illusion, Acacia. They’re not really there,” she says and I scream loudly as they start to burrow under my skin.

“They’re getting inside me, Loretta. Stop them!” I yell and she laughs loudly.

“The bug trips are the worst,” she tells me and I shake my legs trying to get them off, but it isn’t working. I scream loudly as they race up my body and toward my mouth.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop screaming,” Loretta says, but I can’t stop screaming. The bugs are under my skin and I can’t move my hands to get them off.

“Oh, fuck it!” Loretta then clenches her fist and smashes it into the side of my face. The pain rips through me and as the bugs invade every part of me I drift into unconsciousness.