Interacting with: N/A Mentioning: N/A Date: 07/29/25

Word Count: 983

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Avery wasn’t in a great place. The events of the day were creeping up on her quickly. The answers to all of her questions were carefully laid before her yet she couldn’t see or think about them. She didn’t know what to think. Everything was too much. She hadn’t even told anyone about what had happened. She couldn’t. Not yet. It hurt her to think about it. To know what her mother had done and why she had been stripped away from her life. She couldn’t stand it. Pain shifted to anger at her mother. How could her own mother do this to her? How could she ruin her one and only daughter’s life? A daughter that she was supposed to love? Summer camp had been amazing. It was a breath of fresh air in a world constantly trying to destroy her. Those memories were keeping her grounded and reminding her that she was loved. Or was she? Was she loved or did people just feel sorry for her because she had a terrible life and a terrible family? Avery’s head spun. She had to get out of this place. She needed to be free, or she would explode. She couldn’t burn another bridge. Not when she had already thought things that she wanted to say to her mother that would destroy their already broken relationship. She felt hot, angry tears well into her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She couldn’t show anyone she was hurting. She didn’t want people to feel sorry for her and only listen because of that. She wanted to be known as someone strong. Not someone that was broken down and lost. Avery had run out of the living room and disappeared into her room after hearing the truth about what had happened that fateful day when she was eight. She couldn’t just sit there in shock. She had to be alone. Had to think about it for herself without anyone else. No one probably cared anyway. Her mother seemed to not, at least. She wanted to write to Mikey, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to add him to her problems. He had enough of his own that he probably had to deal with. Adding hers to his would just overwhelm him. Avery flopped onto her bed. The blankets soft beneath her since they had just been freshly washed. She sank into them. Unable to breathe. This time it wasn’t from running. This time it was from how much pain and betrayal she was feeling. Ever since she was little, Avery thought she knew who she was. Who her family was. But the news that she had just received changed everything. Especially about her mother. How could she have done the things she did? Why did she do it if she loved her daughter? Did she even love her daughter anymore? Obviously no because she didn’t even care to tell her goodbye on her birthday as she left for Hogwarts. Only her father and cared then. He had actually left work to take her to the station and hug her goodbye. Avery stood suddenly. Unable to sit still, she walked over to her desk set across from her bed. There was a mirror hanging on the wall behind it. The mirror held pictures of her childhood. Pictures of what she thought was a happy family. She ripped a picture of her and her mother standing together and smiling off the mirror and threw it to the floor. She didn’t even watch as it slowly drifted down until it settled on the floor. Avery slapped her hands against the sides of her head and groaned silently as if in pain. She had to get out of there. It was as if the walls were closing in on her. She couldn’t go through the front door. She would be stopped before she was even out the door. That left only one other option. The window. Avery stared at it before she unlatched the window and let fresh air flow through. She breathed it in before climbing out and landing on the soft grass beneath it. She stood there for a moment and let the fresh air and warm sun soothe her, but it didn’t work long. She ran knowing it was a bad idea. Even though she had been healed, she still couldn’t run without losing air quickly. She has made it after tripping and jumping over old fallen trees and logs. She collapsed there against that old rotted log. Breathing heavily as dark spots crept into her vision. She blinked them away and focused on her breathing. In and out. In and out. Steadily. She couldn’t pass out. No here. Not again. She was lucky there was someone there to catch her last time. This time she was alone and not so lucky. Once her breathing was under control, she sagged deeper into her already relaxed position. She was exhausted and upset. All she ever wanted and asked for was a family that cared and loved her, but was that just too much? She didn’t even know who she was anymore. It was as if she was a shell of nothing as her old self died and her new self was stuck there also dying slowly. That’s when the tears came and there was no stopping them. How could her mother have done this to her? How could she say she loved her when the truth was far from that? Avery stayed there the rest of the day. Her heart and head heavy. Her eyelids closed eventually after her tears ran dry and she fell asleep there. That evening, Dylan found her lying there. He gently picked her up and took her home. Tucking her into the covers of her bed once she was safely home. Another long day ended and another waiting to begin.

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