Chapter 1- Before Ayana

Her parents were never around on account that when her mother passed away due to an unknown illness, her father had abused her physically, emotionally, mentally, and sexually and eventually kicked her out when she turned 18. Her mother had mysteriously fallen ill when she was 8 when she was playing with her mother and all of a sudden, her mother couldn’t stand up. Ever since then she had been bed ridden. Then when she was 11, her mother passed away and her father, after a grief-stricken month-long period of non-stop , , and even infidelity with women half his age, started hitting Sara and blaming Sara for everything that her father was going through. Then when they were about to be evicted, at the age of 15 Sara had gotten a job at a local restaurant to provide for her and her father. Even her church noticed that Sara was being abused. So, one day, one of her church members called CPS and had Sara removed from the home and had her father arrested. Then when her father got out on good behavior, she found Sara at her foster home which Sara hated and took her back home and immediately started hitting her before she had to go to work. It stayed like that for 3 years before Sara left and was kicked out at the same time.

That night Sara took a suitcase, packed her clothes inside it, put it in her car, and then put all of her material possessions in her car. Then when her father came out drunkenly, he yelled, “Get back here bitch and serve me dinner.”

“No! You are a grown man at 50 years old and you still expect your 18-year-old daughter to cook you dinner. You know in other families, the parents do the cooking and the kids play and do whatever they need to do. You are a disgrace!” Sara yelled back as she got in her car.

Her father stepped down from the steps of the house and went to the car and started banging on the window. “Get out NOW!”

“Go away! I don’t ever want to see you again. I love you but I’m not staying here for another second! Cook yourself dinner and I hope you are happy without me because I am never ever coming back here!” Sara screamed back as she rolled the window up and drove off. About five miles up the road, she slowed her car to a steady stop as she started to cry. “I miss you mom. I miss you so much. I need you now more than anytime in my life and dad has gotten so violent to the point I don’t even know who he is anymore.”

She stayed like that for a good hour and a half when someone noticed her gold car and stopped to see if she was okay. It was her friend from church, Abby. “Hey Sara, are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine.” Sara said unsure of whose voice that was. Then after a minute of flickering her eyes open and closed, she saw Abby, her best friend from church and hugged her. “Hey Abby. What are you doing out here?”

“Um you’re kind of outside my house. My mom saw a gold car out here and asked me to come out and see if you’re okay.” Abby replied in a concerned tone of voice.

After looking around her surroundings for a minute, Sara noticed Abby’s house and Abby’s family. “Oh. I’m so sorry for worrying you. I’ll be on my way then.”

“No. My parents want you to come in and eat dinner and so we can get a feel of where you are right now. We know that your dad isn’t much of any help and we just want you to have a good future.” Abby said as she stuck her hand in before Sara could close her car door. “Come on. Let’s go and eat. You can sleep ere too. We have an extra room that dad uses as his workout room, but we all know he never goes in there.”

After five minutes of sitting in her car, Sara turned her engine off, got her suitcase, and stepped out of the car. She and Abby went into the house together and Abby’s parents greeted Sara with a hug and told Abby to take Sara’s suitcase to the extra room and invited Sara to sit in the living room.

“So did you get kicked out?” Abby’s dad, Allen, asked.

“Yes, sir but I was already leaving so I don’t really know. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I can.” As Abby started to speak, she was trying to hold her tears back from spilling out. “He blamed me for everything bad that happened since mom’s . Was it my fault that he got drunk or became a druggie or even women half his age? I don’t think it was my fault, but he blamed me nonetheless and called me worthless even when I paid for the house and all of his drinking habits.”

Abby came downstairs and immediately embraced Sara as she was bawling her eyes out. Sara had trouble putting a sentence together as her words were jumbled by her tears so Abby told her parents to give Sara some time to herself so she can calm down and collect herself. Abby’s parents agreed and just went to the dining room to eat dinner.

“Tell Sara she’s free to join us whenever she wants to.” Allen told Abby as he sat down at the head of the table.

“Okay dad.” Abby said as she walked back to Sara to relay the message only to find that Sara had cried herself to sleep. Abby walked back to the dining room and told her parents of the developments. “She must have been exhausted. We’ll give her the night and then slowly ask her about what happened.

As the days went on, the questions went from big and disheartening to small and light. After Sara ran away and came to Abby’s house, Abby’s Mother, Allison, came in and asked Sara what had happened between Sara and her father.

“He was drunk when I was packing and then tried to me. When I kicked away from him, he attempted to run at me again but stumbled. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t come back. He kept asking me who was gonna cook him dinner and I said he can cook for himself because I am never ever going back there. He abused me for a number of years. At first, he would call me things like that girl or servant girl but then the got worse and went to and him hitting me endlessly for days on end.” Sara was screaming at first but then when she calmed down, she started to cry as she talked about the over the years.

“Thank you, Sara, for the information.” Allison said as she looked at Allen and Abby with grief and fear in her eyes. Then she turned to Abby and asked, “Don’t you and Sara have college interviews today?”

“Yeah mom, we do.” Abby said as she reached for Sara’s arms. “Come on Sara. We have to go. Mom and dad will take care of this. We can’t do anything else about this.”

Sara and Abby went up to Abby’s room to get ready for the interview while Allen and Allison went to the kitchen table to discuss what they would do about the information they were just given.

After about thirty minutes Sara and Abby came running downstairs heading for the front door and into Abby’s car to head out to the interview. It was by chance that the interviews were on the same day only an hour apart, so they made plans meet up at one of their houses and then go grab lunch together and go to the interviews together. An audible never hurt anyone and this audible was a better option for both people. When the two finished the interviews and came back home, they were greeted at the front door of Abby’s house with two detectives and two police officers.

“Sara, this is Detective Martins, and this is Detective Thomas. They want to ask you about the that your dad put you through for ten years. If you’re okay with it, they would like to ask you questions in our dining room. Abby, the officers need a statement on the state you found Sara in last night.” Allison said at the front door.

“Okay mom.” Abby said as she led the officers to the living room and sat down on the couch.

“Okay Ms. Francis.” Sara said as she led the detectives into the dining area.

The questioning went on for four hours as Sara and Abby answered the questions as honestly as possible. At the end of the four hours when the detectives and the officers had the answers they wanted, Sara was told that a lawyer would be in touch with her as she was the victim of to which Sara replied with a nod and left the room. The police officers and the detectives left a card containing their contact information behind and left.

Allison sat at the dining table and stared at the card as tears threatened to some out. She was saddened not by the police officers’ appearance. She was saddened by the that happened to Sara and wondered what was going to happen next to Sara. She knew that because Sara was 18, that she was no longer required to have parental guidance for anything. Sara had the option to choose whether she wanted help or she wanted to do it all alone. Little did Allison know that miles away, at the college, in one of the clubs was a spirit that threatened to infect Sara, and everything was going to change.

Sara could feel herself changing slowly as she was driving home. She could feel her anger subsiding slowly and her skin changing colors very slowly one inch per day. Ayana’s seed had taken Sara captive at the interview by way of the administrator.

“Soon, I will take over this body and then then the world!” Ayana said through Sara as Sara stripped off her clothes as she got ready for bed