Deb walked down the stairs, while toweling her hair. When she entered the living room, she found Mrs. Weston still sitting on the couch.
“Oh, you’re still here” Deb noted sheepish.
“Is that a problem?” Mrs. Weston asked haughty.
“No” Deb replied quietly. “Where’s Mike?”
“He left” There was something malicious about the way Mrs. Weston detto it, and the corners of her mouth moved slightly upward.
Deb unwrapped the towel off her hair and started to dry her hair, mainly to have her hands occupied.
“And I told Richard to take a walk” Mrs. Weston continued as she kept her...

Mike woke up first, and when he noticed Deb was still sleeping like a baby, he decided not to wake her. He put on his dressing-gown, and walked to the door. As he opened it, he heard loud, familiar voices from downstairs, and his eyes widened when he realized who they belonged to.
He hurried out of the bedroom, and downstairs, to find his parents sitting in the living room. “Mom. Dad” he remarked a little stunned. “What are te doing here?”
“That is no way to say hello to your parents, Michael” Mrs. Weston reproached him. “Fortunately your girlfriend is much politer”
“My girlfriend?”...

Ryan was about to tell Mike that he wasn’t allowed anywhere near the case, when his phone buzzed.
“You didn’t hear it from me” Deirdre started, when Ryan had picked up. “but te need to turn on your television”
Ryan did what she said, and his eyebrows became a curved unity, when he saw Donovan on the news. “What the hell is he doing?” Ryan mumbled and he increased the volume.
“So, te think agent Debra Parker is behind the murder of her own sister, Beth Parker?” a reporter asked.
“All I know,” Nick started, carefully weighing his words, “is that agent Parker could be an...

A few weeks later Debra was put in yet another foster family. This time she didn’t even try to be nice, but she wasn’t rebellious either. It would only be a matter of time before they would have enough of her, so however horrible this family, with its five children, was, Deb would just take it and not complain about it.
The first issue came on the night she arrived. Deb could hear a girl scream from inside, but her new foster father, Mr. Morgan, told her to wait da the car, while he would take a look at what was going on.
But it was cold outside and so five minuti later Deb snuck inside...

Not wasting any time Abigail walked upstairs and opened the closet. She pulled out a suitcase and zipped it open.
She heard someone ring the bell, but since she wasn’t expecting anyone, she didn’t pay much attention to it. She turned back to the closet and took a few sweaters, blouses, T-shirts and pants. She closed the closet and walked to the drawer successivo to her bed.
“Good afternoon, sir” a woman detto downstairs. She seemed a little nervous. Her eyes were red as if she’d been crying.
“Can I help te with something?” Wayne asked suspicious, while the woman searched her purse....

Debra had no sense of time when she walked into the kitchen, listless, like a dead girl walking. Her eyes were thick and bloodshot. There were stains from erba and earth on her clothes and in her hair, that fell down her shoulders in tangles.
She heard someone call her name, but she was so far gone in her own mind, it sounded like it came from a bad adjusted radio. She started when two hands grabbed her shoulders.
“Debra!” Abigail called concerned.
Debra blinked, the only response she was prepared to give. Abigail sighed and let go. “Go get yourself cleaned up. te look like a mess. Lunch...

A strong hand grabbed her wrist as Deb aimed for the woman again. She turned her head to face an older man. He looked furious.
“If te hit my wife one più time…” he detto threatening. “Let her go, Wayne” the woman appealed. “She’s just upset” Wayne’s grip on Deb loosened and she liberated herself. She looked from Wayne to his wife and back.
“Who are you? What have te done to my baby?” she cried quietly.
The woman pulled Debra closer and caressed her hair. “Poor child, you’ve had to endure way too much pain for your age” she said. She looked up at her husband. “Could...

A week had passed when Debra had ran out of bread. She was hungry and dirty. She had considered going back to her parents, but that would also mean going back to Dale and that was just not an option. They would probably put her back into that cage.
She still got sick in the mornings. People walked past her, curling their noses. But once the morning had passed she felt her stomach protest against the lack of food.
As she stopped at a supermercato she considered what she was about to do. One of the ten commandments crossed her mind. Thou shall not steal. But she wasn’t going to steal anything....

Voices. And flashes. Debra’s eyes moved behind her eyelids while she heard people talking. What were they talking about? They detto something about being molested. A strange sound escaped her throat and she tried to open her eyes.
“She’s waking up” a woman detto fast.
Debra opened her eyes and lifted her hands to protect them from the light shining above her.
“Good morning” a man in a white suit detto friendly. Debra pulled back and glanced suspiciously. “You had quite a fall” He looked at his files. “A minor concussion and some bruises. te were lucky” He looked up from the...

Debra ran through the hallway and Dale opened the door of his bedroom. “Debra! Come back!” he shouted while he pressed his hand against his bleeding neck.
Other doors opened as well and soon everyone was looking for Debra.
Debra ran to the front door when someone grabbed her from behind. She started to scream when a hand covered her mouth. A boy, about her age, looked at her and ordered her to be quiet.
“The front door is too obvious” he whispered. “I know a better way” He took her hand and pulled her to the basement. He turned the light on and quickly walked downstairs. They ignored...

Dale pulled himself of off Debra, who was staring ahead of her, completely in shock.
“If te want to te can clean yourself up” Dale suggested and he pointed at a door. “There’s the bathroom”
As in slow motion Debra put the toga, abito back on and climbed out of bed. Shaking on her legs she walked to the bathroom. She pushed the latch down and entered the room. She closed the door and locked it.
She turned the doccia on and undressed. When she got in the doccia the water was painfully hot, but she didn’t care. She looked down and saw blood mixing with the water.
Still feeling dirty Debra...

6am, the successivo morning.
The basement door opened and someone walked downstairs. They were carrying a bucket with water. They walked to the cage, opened it and poured the ice cold water over Debra’s sleeping body. Debra woke up screaming and turned on her back.
Agnes smiled at her, the bucket in her right hand. “Wake up, sleepy head. We have a lot of work to do”
Debra tried to get up, which was difficult, because she hadn’t stand up since she was put here. Agnes Lost her patience and grabbed the girl’s arm. With a violent gesture she pulled her up. “Now, come on. Breakfast is ready”...

Mike walked through the hospital aisle to Debra’s room. The door was open and the doctor was just leaving. Debra smiled when she saw Mike standing in the doorway.
“My hero” she smirked and signaled with her hand, giving him permission to enter.
“How are te feeling?” Mike asked softly.
“Dirty” Debra replied grumpy. “I just want to go home and get cleaned up…But that’s not going to happen. We still have a bunch of killers on the loose” she added. “Did te hear from Ryan yet?”
“Eh, yeah. He’s on his way back” Mike answered.
“Well, then there’s no time to waste”...

Rob parked his car across the ‘Dahlia Dancers’, tapping the steering wheel anxiously. A police furgone, van was parked right in front of the club.
His phone rang in his pocket, and he pulled it out quickly.
“What’s going on?” he asked nervously.
“You don’t want to come in here” Claudia replied vaguely. Then she elaborated: “One of the girls talked. The feds are all over the place. They want to talk to you”
“I’ll talk to them, alright?” Rob promised. “I just need to get something first. Can te buy me some time?”
“What about tonight? We’re supposed to open in an hour” Christina...

“I really don’t know what else I could tell you” Rob was sitting opposite two investigators, who had brought him in for questioning. “Why would Deb say she didn’t kill that man, if she didn’t do it?”
The investigators traded a glance, and then one of them, Cookson, opened a folder and pulled out a piece of paper. He put it down on the tavolo and shoved it towards Rob.
“Do te recognize the handwriting?” Cookson asked.
Rob picked it up, and glared at it. “Sure” he muttered, and then looked up at Cookson. “That’s Deb’s handwriting”
“That, Mr. Lively, is the statement...

As the years passed, Deb began to lose hope of ever being released. If not for Susan, Deb would’ve gone full depression mode.
But Susan would wake her up every morning, her eyes sparkling, and if Deb would refuse to open her eyes, Susan would tickle her until she heard that laugh she had grown to love.
“I made te something” Susan mentioned, once Deb was fully awake and up.
Deb frowned, worried. “Did I miss something? I mean, it’s not some kind of anniversary today, is it?”
“No, no, no, no” Susan hastily reassured her. “I just got bored , while te were having hot dreams about...

A anno and a half later…
Deb was staring at the white envelope that had just been delivered. It was sent da the Academy for Young Adults.
“Aren’t te going to open it?” Susan asked, curiously.
Deb turned the envelope round and round in her hands. “What if it says I’m not smart enough?” she panicked. “I totally screwed up with math. And geography was a joke. Sure, history went pretty well, but then again, I pretty much lived in a biblioteca for some time”
Susan jerked the envelope out of Deb’s hands, before the latter could babble even more. She ripped it open and read the letter...