*****

"NO! , NO ! PLEASE , DONT !" He screamed while running around the house , blood poured out from the open wounds on his arm . "I'M SORRY ."
"BLAKE GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE ! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU !" holding a beer in one hand and a broken piece of wood in the other, his dad chased him around the shelter they called home . Blake skidded around the corner of the hall and tripped over a useless piece of furniture . His father close behind , Blake crawled into a room trying to find some kind of hiding place . His father came in the room with a irritated expression on his face . He looked around the area trying to find his little boy . Blake was settled in between a bookshelf and a chair . Of course it was easy to spot him , that boy was never good at hide and go seek . His drunken dad ran over to the boy , grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out from the tight corner . He threw him onto the bed and began to strike the piece of wood at his little 9 year old boy . Through Blake's screams of ache , his father could hear a dim sound of sirens gradually getting louder .
Blake could not move at all , he tried and tried , but just could not move a bone in his little weak body . He just laid there in a puddle of his own blood waiting to be saved , but of course he never gets saved from this nightmare he calls his life . His eyes were closed , because he could not bear the sight of his father's face . He noticed the sharp strikes of pain stopped , so he leisurely opened his eyes to see why his daddy has stopped beating him to the point where you could not see his skin . His dad was standing there with a frightened look upon his face . Blake did not know what was going on he could barely see , let alone hear anything . "What's going on , why did you stop beating the shit out of me !?" Blake said loud enough so his dad can hear .
"SHUT UP YOU PIECE OF CRAP! DID I TELL YOU TO TALK ?! His dad could tell there was cops coming so he darted out the room as fast as he could . Leaving his son behind . Blake stared at the space that once was where his father stood . He was still so puzzled he did not even notice the door that was slammed shut not moments ago was reopened and cops poured in the little room . The next thing he knows strangers were placing his fragile body on a stretcher . There was wires and braces being placed all over his body . All he could see was a crowd of people swarming above him . All he could hear was people talking about how bad of a condition he was in and faint beeps . All he could feel was things being attached to him and pain coming from all over his body . All he could taste was his own fresh blood and oxygen that was being mechanically put into him . All he could smell was air , because they had annoying tubes up his nose . He gradually started to lose all his senses and then fell fast asleep .
*****

Blake awoke in a strange place . He had no idea where he was or what had happened . All he remembered was he was being saved from his never ending nightmare and then he wakes up in this place . He thought maybe its heaven ? The room was all white and neat , but then he looked to his left slightly and saw a monitor and a few machines . Oh great , I'm in a hospital , he thought to himself . The last time I was in a hospital I found out my mother died . Maybe I'll find out I'm going to die too ! Happy day happy day . He rolled his eyes . "Ow !" He screeched . Why did that hurt ...? Now that I think about it my whole body is hurting ? He lifted up his neck to look down at his body . His legs where in a big white cast thing . His arms and chest where all stitched up . The only thing that he could really move was his neck . He started to freak out , He squirmed , screamed and also cried a little . Two nurse came in a few seconds later with cheerless expressions planted on their faces .
"Please stop moving , you're going to hurt yourself even more if you stir" The one on the left said while softly putting his arms down and she began to wipe the tears off of his pale face . The one on the right began to untangle all the wires he twisted up when he threw his little fit . "Blake , we have some good news and some bad news . I'm going to tell you the good news first .
"Your dad has been caught and is being put in jail for child abuse ," The one on the right interrupted ."But you have lost the use of your left leg , your right leg is just broken . " He stared at the two nurses in confusion . He could not believe what they just told him . Tears started to swell up in his eyes .
"But... How can I lose the use of one of my legs ?! " He asked in panic . "This can't be true ! " He stated bawling out crying right in front of the nurses . He wanted to ask more questions , but he could not talk he was weeping too hard to say anything .
"You're going to be okay , honey ." The nurse on the left said while hugging the boy tight in her arms . "We are going to fix you up and we are going to find you a new home and you can go back to living your life . " She said hoping it will make the situation better.
"Where am I going to go ?! I don't have any family , my mom's dead and my dad is in jail !! The rest of my family does not even know who I am?!" Blake chocked out .
" You're going to go to and adoption center and they are going to find you an excellent home . " Blake stared at the nurse with watery eyes . The nurses left the room without saying anything else , they already beleaguered the boy with the few data they gave him . They did not want to make the boy even more overwhelmed , so they left the room . Leaving the crying nine year old in the room .

|||||FOUR MONTHS LATER|||||
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"August 21 , the day I was born . Why did I have to be put into this world , just to be in pain for the rest of my life" Autumn thought while they began singing happy birthday .
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR AUTUMN , HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!" The friends and family cheerfully sang out of tune. "Now make a wish , sunshine ," Autumn's mother whispered in Autumn's ear . "I wish I could stop all the pain." She slowly blew out the ten candles that where spread out on the chocolate cake . Autumn looked around the hospital room she was in , her mother tried so hard to make this birthday the best she could . A happy birthday banner hanging by the door , orange and purple balloons in the corner of the room , confetti placed out on the table where the cake and chips laid out . She even tried booking a clown , but she came to her senses and thought that was kind of babyish .
"Mom , thanks for trying to make this a good birthday party , but I feel sick again . So can I go to sleep ?" Autumn said while looking in her mom's eyes . They were filled with pain and grief .
"Oh... Sure honey . I'll try and get all the people out of here so you can rest peacefully." Megan lightly kissed her daughters head and began to gather all the people to tell them they had to leave . Soon her mother got all the people to go home . So she gently closed her eyes and began to drift into a place where there was no pain .
Autumn was awoken by a sharp pain in her body . It only lasted a couple of seconds , so Autumn just thought it was nothing . So she began to drift back to her dreams . Then the pain came back ,even harder. She clinched her fist and shut her eyes tight , trying to embrace the random bursts of pain in her body . She did not want to awake her tired mother , so she kept in the screams of agonizing pain . She could not hold in her shrieks anymore . She let out this horrible screech , after that she could not stop them . She kept on screaming and squirming around in the bed .
"Oh my gawed , Autumn! " Her mother gasped at the same time as running towards the button on the side of the bed to signal a nurse . A nurse came running in the room after a few seconds . She hovered over the child trying to see what's wrong . She looked back at the monitors and could not see anything wrong . The worried nurse pressed a button on the side of the bed and not many seconds later three other nurses came into the room .
"My side , It hurts !" Autumn said in-between screams . One of the nurses pulled the blanket off of her and lifted up the little white cloth she had on . The nurse stared at the little girls hip , the whole left side of her was red and patches of skin where peeling off , leaving raw flesh open . She was losing blood fast , so the nurses paged Doctor Williams . Two of the three nurses wheeled the bed out of the room and into a operation room . The third nurse turned to the little girl's mother who was standing in a corner , with horrified eyes .
"Your daughter is going to be okay Miss. Richardson , I promise . They are just going to run some more test and find out what just happened . Then they are going to find some kind of treatment to make sure that never happens again " The nurse said acting like she knew what just happened . Megan stared at her and tears fell down her pale cheeks . The nurse left the room quietly , supposing Megan wanted to be alone for a bit . Megan started thinking about all the pain her daughter is going through , wishing she could have been diagnosed with cancer not her little baby . She still stood in that lonely little corner weeping . She cried and cried until her troubled eyes could not let anymore water fall down her cheeks . She slowly crouched down in the corner and began to cry again . She was so tired she fell fast asleep in that crook with tears still falling down her cheek bones .
----------

Megan woke up in the same room , but somehow transported to the couch on the right wall. She wiped the dried tears off her exhausted face . She looked over to the bed that her daughter laid in . It looked like she had been crying too . Megan walked over to the side of the bed and lifted up her shirt to see if this was all a dream . Her stomach was wrapped up in bandages and you could see faint blood stains in some areas . Another tear fell from her gray eyes . "No be strong for her , you can't cry. Be strong." Her mother whispered , hoping it would give her inspiration . Her mother thought maybe she should go get some flowers for her brave little child. So when she awoke from her dreams she would be a little happy .
Megan walked out the hospital and begun to walk to her blue Infiniti . She drove for a couple minutes before she merged onto the interstate . Maybe I should go to the flower shop on abundance street, they have nice flowers ? Nah , the flower shop when you get off the intersection, have beautiful Cosmos bouquet's . I don't remember if I turn right or left when I get to that first red light though...I'll get there somehow . Megan thought while staring at the black road in front of her . She soon got to the little cute shop , after taking two wrong turns she was about to just give up , but then she saw the bright pink and red shop . After about ten minutes of deciding if she should get a bouquet or just a single Cosmos , she finally decided a single Cosmos would be perfect since it was her daughters favorite flower .
Megan merged into the interstate again , she decided she was going to attach a little note to the flower. She pulled out a small piece of paper and found some string in her purse to tie the note to the flower . With the note on the steering wheel , One hand on the wheel and the other one writing and her eyes looking at the note, not the road in front of her . A honk of a car behind her made her look up to see she was swerving to the other side of the road and a car was coming full speed and no intentions of slowing down . Megan jerked her steering wheel the other direction and managed to a line back up between the two yellow lines , with one hand. Megan put down the flower and focused on the road.
She slowly stopped at a red light and began to tie the green string around the flower and attached the note to it . A loud screeching sound of rubber tires contracting the asphalt road , made Megan quickly look up from tying the string . A black truck was soaring through the air and looked like it was about to land on her car . Megan tried moving, but she was so frightened she could not move a muscle . The only thing she did was scream on the top of her lungs until the black truck landed right on the hood of her vehicle . The air bags did nothing but make a cushion pillow for her bloody head to lay on. Shards of glass cut through her face , the steering wheel was two feet closer than it was before , and the worst part was a piece of sharp metal from the car that was on top of hers sliced straight through her stomach and went through the driver's seat . Horrified screams filled the air . Megan clinched the flower in her hand , a tear fell down her cheek . Her last thought was of Autumn and what her baby girl was going to do without her . Megan fell into a deep endless sleep and was never to be awoken from her dreams.
----------

A little light from the window made Autumn awake from her deep sleep . She looked over to the couch where her mother should have been sitting at . "She must be getting lunch or something" Autumn whispered to herself . She pressed the button to gesture a nurse to her room . A young lady came into the room wearing the white nurse outfit they where acquired to wear . "Hi " Autumn said in a cheery voice , trying to ignore the pain in her side . " I just wanted to have some lunch be sent to my room , please," Autumn had a big smile on her face , but the nurse did not .
"Um , sure . I'll go get it for you " The nurse mumbled in a unhappy voice .
"What's wrong ...?" Autumn had seen that face many times before on doctors and nurses faces . This nurse has brought bad news and she knew it.
"Well , Umm you see"
Autumn clinched her fist , her heart beating faster than it should have been , her eyes wide open and filled with horrible thoughts of what could have happened ."Your mother got into a terrible accident this morning and she did not live long enough for the ambulance to save her..." The nurse mumbled .
"What?! How could this happen?! I can't go through this torture without her! " Autumn's face quivered , trying to hold back the gallons of tears that were about to fall down her little cheeks . The nurse ran to her side to comfort her . Autumn fell into the nurses awaiting arms and cried until she fell asleep on the woman's shoulder . The nurse lightly pulled the girl off her shoulder and placed her gently on the white pillow . She kissed her on the forehead and left the room .

*****

"Okay , It's a lot easier than you think . Just slowly put one foot in front of the other and hold on to the railings." Doctor smith said while putting his hand on the eleven year olds back . "There you go your gettin it . "
"It feels like I'm going to fall when I put weight on my left leg ." Blake said in concern , while trying to walk with this stupid fake leg .
"It's going to feel like that for a little while , but you will get the hang of it soon . I promise ." He smiled at the bold boy . "Okay that's enough walking for the day" The doctor helped guide Blake's body to his wheel chair . He wheeled the boy to his desk and he sat down on the other side of the brown desk . "So how's it going at the adoption center ? Had any appointments lately ?
"The same old , same old . I wake up and people make fun of me for having a fake leg . Then I go to homeschooling where people still make fun of my leg . Then I go to sleep and I wake up and I starts all over again . And , no . No one wants a boy with a fake leg and is stuck in-between being a little kid and a "Big Kid" Blake sarcastically said with a smile on his face .
"Well I can see it's getting better " The doctor chuckled with a smile . "Just ignore the kids who are teasing you and don't think just because you have a replica of a leg , that no one wants you .
"Okay , can I go back to the waiting room or something for a little while ? I really don't feel like talking today ."
"Sure , but don't run over any kids with your wheel chair again " The doctor smiled and opened the door for the boy .
*****

Blake wheeled himself in the hospitals waiting room for regular patients. He still goes to the kid side though , because the adult side is to quiet and awkward . He watched all the happy kids play with some toys that the waiting room has . Blake pulled out a comic and started to read to pass sometime before he has to go back to that "hell hole."

----------

"I can't take it anymore in this stupid room ! " Autumn said to herself. She pulled all the wires that where connected all over her and took off that stupid finger thing she has to wear all the time . She pulled the blanket off of her and stormed out the room . The same nurse that told her the bad news came and stopped her . "Get out of my way ! " Autumn said a little louder than she should have .
"You have to go back in your room , please !" The nurse said knowing the little girl was angry .
"No! I don't want to go back there ever again ! " and with that Autumn walked away from the nurse . The nurse did not run after Autumn . She thought a little time away from her room won't hurt anything .
Autumn walked into the kids waiting room , thinking no one will notice her with screaming kids all around her . She sat in the last chair in the corner and curled up into a ball and cried some more.

*****

Blake was interrupted when an angry girl barged through the door and grumpily said in a chair in the corner of the room . He noticed she was wearing a hospital robe and still had a little wire hanging from out her shirt . It looked like she had been crying a lot about something . He began to get curious about what was wrong with her . He quietly rolled his black and blue wheel chair over to the corner . He stopped right in front of her and just sat there waiting for her to notice . She never did so he tapped her on the shoulder . She slowly lifted her head and stared at the boy . She had long pretty brown hair , a few freckles were visible over her flushed face , She had big green eyes that were felled with so much hurt . "Are you okay ?" wait ? well duh, she's not okay ?! She's freaking crying ! Stupid Stupid.
"Yeah , I'm okay" The crying girl whispered with a tear slowly falling down her cheek .
"What's wrong ?" Blake asked still curious why she was crying .
"I just found out my mother died ," the girl started silently weeping again . Hugging her knees and tucking her head into her chest , so that no one would see her cry .
"It's okay . I'm sure she's in heaven right now and does not want you to be sad . She's properly looking down at you right now and wishing you would stop crying over her." She looked up from her little hiding place. The tears stopped flowing down her face . "She probably wants you to be brave and go on with your life ."
"You really think so ? " A hint of hope twinkled in her eyes .
"I know so." Blake said with a strong supporting voice . A faint smile appeared on her face and she uncurled herself from her ball. "Hi , I'm Blake ," Blake said while holding out his hand towards her .
"I'm Autumn" She stretched out her arm towards his and they shook hands .
"Why are you at the hospital ?" Blake said still a little curios about her .
"Oh... Well I have cancer ," She said while her faint smile disappeared.
"Oh , I'm sorry for asking . I should not have said any-"
"It's okay , I'm not going to hide that I have cancer?" She sarcastically said with a chuckle . Blake started to get to have a small crush on this girl , she was funny , and kind of knows what he's going through and she was pretty. He started to blush a little while looking at her sweet eyes.
"There you are Autumn ! " A nurse came in the waiting room with a relived face . "I'm sorry but you have to go back to your room , the doctor wants to run some more test on you ."
"Ugh... Well I guess I have to go , so bye Blake " She said with a small wave .
" Bye , Autumn ," Blake replied back to her . He watched her leave the room and then he went back to reading his comic .

----------

Autumn laid back into the bed and let the nurse hook her wires back . "You know if you want to leave the room so much I can talk the doctor into letting you have some freedom ." Nurse Jenny said . That was the only nurse she was close to . All the other nurses only come and go so she never bothers to learn their names . On the other hand Jenny comes in everyday like three times .
"I would like that ." Autumn mumbled back and rolled her eyes .
"Oh .. and I'm sorry about your mother ," Jenny said with heartbreaking eyes .
"It's okay , That boy I was talking to in that room , made me realize that my mother would not want me to be sad ." Autumn said with hope .
"Well that's good . Speaking of that boy , he was pretty cute ,"She said with a wink . "And he's around your age , and he's cute . Did I mention he was cute ?!"
"Ewe , noo . I don't even know him ? "
"Well maybe I can fix that ," Jenny said with another wink . "Well , I'll talk to the doctor about letting you leave the room more and I'll talk to that boy too." Jenny said while skipping out the room singing Blake and Autumn sitting in a tree . Autumn watched her leave and giggled at her childless .
----------

"Autumn ! Autumn ! Wake up ! " Jenny shook Autumn until she opened her eyes .
"WHAT ?! I WAS SLEEPING ?!" Autumn was never a morning person . She stared at Jenny who was hiding something behind her back .
"Well , you know how your mom died a couple of days ago ... Before they got rid of your moms car they searched it for stuff the family might want . and they found this . She reviled a bright orange Cosmos with a little note attached to it with green string . The flower was a little out of shape and a few peddles were missing , but you could still see the beauty it carries inside of it .Autumn took the flower from her hand and began to read the note in her head .
She’s beauty, style, poise and grace,
At least she appears to be.
But no one knows the girl who hides
Behind the face they see.

Her self-esteem is all but gone,
Of her ego there’s barely a trace.
There’s so much pain behind the mask
She wears upon her face.

Depression has controlled her life
With far too many tears,
Her smile is fake; she’s good at it,
She’s been doing it for years.

The cover is what attracts us,
To the story within the book.
And she’s afraid that without the ruse,
No one would bother to look.

I just want you to know that I love you . Be strong .
Love , Mommy
A small tear fell from her green eyes . "I love you too mommy."
----------

" Ugh , I don't feel good ," Autumn said to Jenny with pain .
"Well , what's wrong ?" Jenny said with concern . Jenny walked over to Autumn who was laying in the bed .
"My head is throbbing and my stomach hurts really bad , and my heart is actually starting to hur- " Autumn could not even finish the sentence , before she hurled all over herself and the nice clean bed .
"Oh gawed ," Jenny mumbled . She held Autumn's hair , while trying to search the room for something she could puke in other than the bed . Autumn stopped throwing up before Jenny could find anything to use . "Okay , let's go to the bathroom before you decide to puke all over the place again ." Autumn got off the bed with puke all down her chest and followed Jenny into the small bathroom that was in her room . "I'll go get you some new clothes , you just try to wipe all the stuff off your face . I'll be right back . " Autumn stood in the bathroom still feeling sick , grabbed a towel and cleaned the puke off her face . Jenny came back into the bathroom a few minutes later .
"I still don't feel good ," Autumn complained .
"The best thing you can do right now is just take a nice warm bath and relax and then change into these clothes . While you take a bath I'll go talk to your doctor ." Jenny said while starting the water in the bathtub ." You know what to do if you need me ," Jenny smiled and walked out the petite bathroom .