14th October, 20XX

The roots scraping against the window cut into her sleep. The room where Jiya slept was a small cottage situated in the back of the vast, luxurious manor. The broken, cracked windowpanes rattled due to the strong wind blowing outside, and soon after, water drops started pouring out of the rooftop. Jiya sat upright as her bed made a squeaking sound.

It was past midnight, it was dark, without a single speck of light.

She was wearing a very thin tattered shirt and a skirt with stitches visible here and there and walked her way out towards an old wooden cupboard. She pulled out a candle lit it up with a matchstick and looked outside through the crack in the windowpane, it was raining outside. The sky was screaming as if to commemorate someone's despair. The wind blew past her through the broken windowpane and the candle lit off.

She shivered, it was cold. Jiya hugged herself to feel her warmth and crouched down against the old cupboard. The rattling of the window panes, the dripping sound of water drops, the creaking of the rooftop, and the thunderous noise of the sky pierced through her ears.

"Again.." she mumbled with a blank look on her face. Another sleepless night she thought. However, this was nothing new to her, after all, she had spent 14 years of her life living here. She came here when she was 10, this house was the one which protected her from heat, cold and rain, it was the one which never took anything in return for its kindness, the one which gave her something unconditionally, the one which never left her side. But now, even this was going to be taken away from her.

Hot tears formed in her eyes but she resisted them from falling. She shouldn't cry, she is not weak, she is strong, she has to be, she repeated to herself. Who was she trying to prove? no one was there, not a single soul but she could still feel their presence.

"Mom...Dad.." her voice was as low as a whisper. She could still feel their warmth, the way they hugged her, loved her. Nonetheless, it was in the distant past, now she was alone, and she had only herself to rely on.

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' Jiya, be strong ', her mother said.

' Jiya, you should never give up ', her father encouraged.

Their voice echoed in her head. She never once cried in the past 14 years, but today was different. She couldn't resist.

She lit up the candle once again and pulled out a small chest from the old cupboard. It was a wooden box with a golden lining and a small hole in the rear.

Click.

Emily opened the chest with the small key attached to the chain around her neck. Inside the chest was an oval-shaped pendant, around the size of a pigeon's egg.

Drip.

The girl who tried her best to not shed tears until a moment ago now couldn't do so. Tears flowed from her eyes ceaselessly. She squeezed the pendant with both of her hands and fell on her knees, but in the thundering storm, no one heard her cries, her screams, her agony. There was no one to look for her, no one to care for her. But it had always been like this, no one heard her, no one cared for her, no one loved her...

14 years ago a harsh decision was made for her and the history was going to be repeated. 14th October, she hated this unfateful day, she despised it. She hoped this day would never come, the day she lost everything. The day she can't forget how desperately she crawled towards the wet mud, like a madman she was digging in the ground, just to get a glimpse of the people she loved. It was the same back then, the sky howled along with her but no one cared. Just a few hours ago she was holding their hands, smiling brightly as if she had all the happiness in the world, but the next moment she knew, everything turned into a devastating nightmare.

A ten-year-old alone in the graveyard next to hundreds of corpses buried. She was just desperately trying to meet the ones she loved, least she knew they were dead, they were no more. Getting wet in the rain she fainted at a point and found herself in a hospital. She was still in a state of shock, living alone was like hell to her but decisions were predetermined for her...she was adopted by her uncle. A ten-year-old Jiya lived all by herself in a small cottage, which was located behind the large manor where she once lived. Dusting the house she used to live in, craving the meals she used to have once, envious of her little sister (daughter of her uncle) for having what she didn't have -' Love '. She never regretted how she was always taken advantage of, be it in school or college. It was as if it didn't matter as she knew that she didn't have a choice, to begin with.

" Once again...once more" she screamed, her voice now hoarse from all the shouting. She was now being sold off to a man who hated her, who despised her, and today, 14th October was her wedding day the very day her parents left the world leaving her all alone.