"Hold her down," the nurse from before orders another.

He has rather wide shoulders to match his thick, muscular arms. His skin is brown and I can see his dark brown eyes peering into mine from above the mask. Like everyone else, he wears a white cap, but unlike everyone else's, his is slightly dingy.

He's leaning over my stomach from the right side of my bed in a way that allows him to face me and keep my shoulders pinned. The stench of alcohol from his breath burns my nose hairs; a beverage that I know to be illegal.

The woman with the hunched back wobbles over with a tray of injectors.

"A real good friend of mine all but begged me to do a trial run on these." She holds one to the light. It contains a green mixture and fizzes after being shaken slightly, "Let's hope this works."

She gives me a bone-chilling smile before abruptly shoving the sharp needle into the crook of my arm, barely missing the guy's left elbow.

I scream out in burning pain, kicking my stiffening legs and thrashing underneath his stronghold. I push my head back with my eyes tightly shut and my teeth gnashing.

"Let her go," she orders him.

I can hear her putting the empty glass container back down on the tray as he slowly rises off of me. My breathing becomes forced since my lungs feel compacted.

"Let's let her sleep it off," she suggests in a manner just as cold as before.

I slowly open my eyes and watch as her foggy figure departs from the room with his close behind. I feel too weak to fight or move, so I stay put and stare up at the ceiling. Betty is gone thankfully, but in her place is someone far worse: My stepfather.

Just like her, he's stuck to the ceiling looking down at me with a sinister grin. Exhausted, I don't scream or let it scare me anymore.

Melody

"Here are your orders, ladies." A brown-haired boy with matching eyes and skin places our dishes in front of us. He has a pleasant attitude and his smile feels almost as welcoming as Pop Tate's. "One vanilla banana split, one of my dad's famous burgers, and two plain vanilla shakes."

He places the burger in front of me and it smells way better than the ones at the Asylum. It's a tad bit hotter as well, which leads me to believe that it's freshly cooked. I watch as he places Jenny and Austin's plain vanilla shakes in front of them, then Anna's banana split.

"Enjoy!" He gives us a warm smile before departing from the table.

"Wow, these look way better than how I remember them to be." Austin said while analyzing our treats with her eyes, she flashes him a bright smile, "Pop, you sure have been running this business straight to heaven."

He chuckles heartily. Pop is like a grandfather to all around these parts I suppose.

He's colored but has a left fading grey eye and a deep brown, right eye. His hair line is receding and the only hair that he has left is a groomed, grey curly puff around the back of his head.

His belly is extending over his brown leather belt and secured in place by his tucked-in, white shirt that's covered in red and yellow stains. His only facial hair is a bushy mustache and around his waist is a white apron with two pockets on each side.

"Thank you, Texas," he says with a weary sigh. "With this great depression, we have to make do with what we have."

She gives a melancholic nod and mutters, "I know what you mean."

"Well, I think that this place is rad," Anna says with a smile.

Her head is tilted back, and her eyes and smile are aimed right up at Pop. A little bit of her ice cream is on the point of her nose as well as on the area below her nose and above her full lips.

He takes a napkin from the left apron pocket, reaches over me, and swipes the residue from her face with a fatherly smile. "Thank you, pretty lady."

She giggles happily. I guess it's the first time that she's been complimented. He balls up the tissue and tucks it into his right pocket while looking at Jenny. "Cute kid you have here."

She looks at Anna who's sharing a confused glance, then at him with a comical laugh. "Oh, no. She's not my daughter."

He doesn't question it. He just simply nods and reaches across me again, playfully ruffling Anna's hair a little. "Well, either way, you're adorable."

"Pop, something's wrong with the machine." The baby-faced redhead from behind the counter says while pointing towards it.

Pop Tate looks over his right shoulder and gives him a nod before looking back at us. "Enjoy your dishes!"

With that, he walks off to help with the ice cream machine. Jenny and I look at Anna who's back to eating her banana and ice cream. Austin chuckles, "She does look like you a little."

Jenny and Anna exchange glances as if they're looking for the smallest resemblance but they're like apples and oranges.

"I don't see it," Jenny says through comical laughter.

"Me neither," Anna says with a mouthful of ice cream.

I begin eating my burger. I get the feeling that I know where this is going. Austin is gonna talk Jenny into adopting Anna, then forget about me completely. I love solitude, but I loathe abandonment.

Unsurprisingly, she does exactly what I suspected: suggests that Jenny adopt Anna. A twist though: she invited me. "Why don't we adopt them?" Austin insisted, "I've always wanted a little girl and so have you."

"I love that idea – Mom. Mommy!" Annabelle spoke ecstatically.

She seems to be taking this better than I am. I mean her parents died, so I get why she's so eager to move on, but mine are still alive and well as far as I know. I don't want another Mom.

"Um, I don't need another maternal figure." I spoke through awkward laughter, "Mine is just fine."

They exchanged sympathetic glances, Jenny and Austin, while Anna dove into her vanilla banana split.

"Didn't they tell you already?" Jenny asked and Austin nudged her, then shook her head.

"It's fine." she gave her a forced smile, clearly upset, "She has that right."

Tell me what? That my parents and brothers died in a car crash? Oh, yeah, everyone's been trying to feed me that horse shit for months. I know they're alive. I've seen them.

"Get on the ground!" a brash voice yells out.

Everyone averts their eyes towards the counter. Three men in all black, from head to toe, are standing with silver revolvers. Two aiming in opposite directions and the one who must've yelled out is aiming at the handsome boy from before.

"Oh, god." Austin mumbles.