I look at the mirror in astonishment.

I've really turned into a child. Is this one of those things that only happen in books? Where am I? What's going on?

As I am contemplating these things, a woman in her early 20s walks into the room and picks me up while tearing up.

"Aww, our baby Shawna is so cute!"

She puts me back down as I smile at the woman. Then, it dawns on me.

If I am living a new life, maybe it will be better than the previous one. 

I notice that the woman is packing her things up in a hurry. I start to look around the room and see how old and dirty it is. Cracks in the wallpaper show the wood underneath. A cold breeze comes in from the window that has so much mold on it that it won't close. The dresser with holes in it has clothes hanging out that the woman soon grabbed.

I look at the woman again. The woman, who I assume to be my mother, is beautiful. She has curly dark brown hair with hazel brown eyes. Her dark skin is beautiful with vitiligo. She has more pale spots around her mouth, nose, and forehead. She is wearing a black hooded cloak that is covering her body.

She puts me in a basket with a blanket over my tiny body, grabs her belongings, and bolts out of the decaying house with me. After running for about 30 minutes, she begins to tell me that everything will be fine where we are going, but the talk is cut short as bullets start to fly. One of the bullets hits her and she falls with me.

I try to move my head to look at her and see that she is dying. She looks at me and mouths:

Shawna, you must live a happy life.

I begin to cry. Out of both of my lives, this woman was the first to treat me like a human. She closes her eyes with tears. I start to hear voices coming closer to us.

"It seems like we got her boys"

I hear cheering and hear a pause in the footsteps. The men start to murmur and move close to the basket that I am in.

It seems that they realized that I am here.

I hear the panicked men trying to figure out what to do to me. The majority of them want me to die, but some of them suggested taking me to Mary. I don't know who this Mary is, but at that moment I believed that going to her would be better than dying again. They all agreed and sent me to the prestige orphanage owned by a woman named Mary.

Little did I know how much worse Mary was going to be compared to the abusers of my previous life.

18 years passed with me at the orphanage. 

I learned that I was indeed in a new world residing in the Elixir Kingdom, where they had an Imperial family, a magic tower, and other wonders that were not in my previous life. Mary made me take care of the children as I got older. Whenever she threatened to beat a child, I volunteered to take the beating for them. I couldn't bare to see a child younger than myself getting beat hard enough to leave wounds. The scars on my body grew, but it was worth not seeing the children harmed. I didn't want them to have the life that I had.

I've tried to escape multiple times, sometimes even with the children to save them, but Mary has all of the townspeople wrapped around her fingers. The townspeople would tell Mary who then would bring us back. When we came, I would get whipped and get put in the timeout room. 

The timeout room is a room Mary created with no windows and only one door. The only way out was for Mary to decide that you behaved well enough to leave. Sometimes I would be there for days or weeks without food or water. Whenever I came out, I told her that I was sorry and then checked on the children to make sure that they had no wounds.

Today was adoption day, which means that I had to do my best to make sure that the children would get adopted. There was no hope for me as I am too old, but the children have a chance and I want them to live their best lives, even if I can't. We all started to line up from shortest to tallest to show off for the couple.

The couple appeared to be in their mid 40's. The woman had blonde hair with a youthful appearance. The man had brown hair and a light beard. We were told that they were Eve and Richard Roberts; the most powerful family after the Imperial family. They had two sons: one who was currently at academy and the other one was doing some business around the mansion. They looked at the children slowly, then they looked at me intensely. They started to whisper to each other. I knew they were talking about me, but I didn't care as long as one of the children had a new home.

The couple started talking to Mary. Mary looked at me and scowled. I was confused and soon realized that the couple was adopting me. I really didn't want to go, but who else would adopt someone as old as me?

Mary put on her fake smile and told me to pack my things. I started to pack my things wondering if this new family would be like my previous one.

As I left my room, Mary grabbed my arm and harshly whispered," If you say anything bad about this orphanage, the children will be in danger."

I look at her in fear, knowing that she keeps her promises. She always does.

"I won't say anything. Please don't hurt them."

She smiled at me.

"Now that's a good girl. Okay sweetheart I promise that I won't hurt them unless you say bad things about the orphanage."

I agreed and left with Mary toward the main hall. I started to say my goodbyes to the children. They started to cry as they didn't want me to leave, but I promised to visit them again.

I made my way with my bag to the carriage with the Roberts couple. I sat in the carriage across from the Ducal couple. I looked out the window of the carriage and awaited the new future that lay ahead of me in the Roberts family.