Charlene awoke from complete darkness...to see nothing other than utter darkness.

"Where am I?" Charlene clumsily moved around the darkened room.

"OW!" Came a voice right next to her.

"That was MY HAND!!!" Screamed another voice.

"Sheesh, SORRY! Does the special emphasis in my voice show you THAT I DON"T CARE??" Said Charlene.

When Charlene's not in the mood to be nice, she isn't.

"Someone's a little grumpy." Came a female voice from the other side of the room.

As Charlene's sight adjusted to the darkness, she saw a small puddle where she once sat-where she got up from.

The two GUYS beside her that she just stepped on saw where her gaze was at.

"Yeah, that belongs to you." Came the first voice.

"I peed while I was sleeping? I never wet my bed-EVER!" Said Charlene.

"Gosh, it wasn't urine; it is blood.” the second guy said.

"Tell me I didn't get a period that big." Charlene said disgustingly. She didn't notice it as her tongue poked out from to indicate puking.

Everybody in the room laughed. And it was then that Charlene realized there were other people. At least 3 more people.

"You might want to take a look at your chest before you say that." a random voice said.

Charlene instantly looked down at her chest.

She was not stripped.

Charlene breathed a sigh of relief. Of all bad things that happen to woman, she hated the idea of being the most.

But her shirt was stained and still wet. There was blood all over her. Charlene didn't understand: how could blood be all over her yet no pain was being felt? How could all that blood belong to her? If she had bled that much, then she would have surely been dead by now.

Then Charlene noticed something. She held her breath in as she listened.

She had no heart beat.

Charlene clutched her heart, but where she used to feel vibrating beats, she now felt nothing...nothing at all. Not even a slight hum.

"My-my-my HEART!" Charlene screamed. Some of that was from the fact that she lost her heart, the others? From all the things she suffered so far. 

"Wow...I'm deaf, Arron." Said Jiro- the first guy-amazingly.

"Heh, you always said you wanted to not know all that happens," Said Arron.

"Heh." Charlene faked a laugh. "Are you nutcases done talking about I don't know what kind of useless ? Instead, have you noticed I HAVE NO FREAKIN' HEART???????" Charlene screamed.

Silence followed. They were used to this...every person brought in here has reacted greatly to their...gift. At least that's what they told them.

"Wait..."Charlene mumbled to herself. She hesitated as she thought for a single second. Then she ran up to Jiro and put her hand over where his heart should be.

There was no heart beat.

She could pretty much assume everybody else here didn't have a heart.

"Wow, open much?" Jiro said, trying to lighten up the environment. He was the first of all the others to recover from the astonishment. He was probably the happiest out of all of them.

Charlene's confused glare was not as powerful as it would have been if she wasn't so...well, confused.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE??????? I'M STUCK IN SOME CUCKOO, MENTAL WARD WITH A BUNCH OF HEARTLESS FREAKS!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Charlene screamed.

"Sheesh lay off on the mean comments!" the girl said.

"Yeah, we're deeply wounded." Jiro said sarcastically.

Charlene's head ached as she tried to think of a solution.

Then the idea came to her.

"There is no solution." She sighed. "This is all a nightmare, I'll wake up in my bed...or-or, this nightmare is all because the new people that moved in kicked me out, and I hit my head! Yeah, I'll just, I'll just close my eyes, and, I'll wake up with a beating heart. Yeah," Charlene whispered desperately to herself. She was trying so hard to make herself feel better.

Jiro's eyes met Arron's. The girl sighed, and then decided to move over to talk to the new girl-Charlene.

"Look, there's no lie here. It's all true. You have no heart, and we have no heart. But you're alive, isn't that what all people say?  'as long as I’m not dead' or whatever?" the girl said, herself trying to make Charlene feel better.

"No, no! All of you are just a work of my imagination. I'm just freaked out over my mom taking my money and leaving with HER GODDAMN BOYFRIEND!" Charlene screamed the last part out loud, as if it would clear all lies and make her wake up.

Arron sat back and gulped...This girl is different from the others he had met. Others just didn't want to be dead.

"Let me do it." Came another female voice from across the room.

"Ella..."The first girl warned.

"Look, I got it Hebe." Ella said matter-of-factly.

Ella stomped up to where Charlene sat, curled up with her arms hugging her legs. Ella stared at Charlene. "Miserable humans," Ella whispered.

Ella's right hand hit Charlene's left then right cheek continuously.
"What the hell?" Screamed Hebe. Hebe sat up abruptly and held Ella's arm away from Charlene. Arron and Jiro got up too, almost shielding Charlene from Ella.

"Are you okay? Does it hurt?" Jiro asked, his voice kind, different from his usual joking voice.

Tears filled Charlene's eyes. Her breathing slowed as she cried. "It's all real...IT'S ALL REAL! I-I can feel the slaps. No..." Charlene shrank onto the floor, her arms clutching her head in pain.

A figure walked slowly out from the darker shadows where Hebe and Ella had been staying- Selina-the calmest of the group. The wise and most mature one that never got sick of listening to other's problems.

All heads snapped up as calmness drifted throughout the room. Charlene didn't stop crying.

The awed silence lasted awkwardly. Everybody else felt so calm, how could Charlene continue to cry?

The truth was, Selina's wisdom always came to her advantage...she had a way of letting her wisdom touch others to the point in which they believe a solution is present.

"Charlene? Umm, don't you feel calm?" Hebe asked awkwardly.

Even Selina was staring at Charlene.

"Not really." Charlene answered; she had finally stopped crying...mostly because she never let other people see her cry. Charlene Choi didn't like the show weakness.

"I'm sensing a lot more than just a problem, even though I could calm one of those, it's almost impossible to solve all of them." Selina said calmly.

Finally, the crowd started to disperse. Charlene didn't want to talk, nor did she want to think. She just wanted to die right there right then.

The whole night passed by with not one person uttering a word. Not even the always joking Jiro. Charlene sat by herself and somehow, no one dared to come forward.

Ella couldn't stand it anymore. All this just because of that HUMAN Charlene Choi. 'She doesn't deserve everybody caring about her. She called us all freaks.' Thought Ella.

Ella walked purposely up to Charlene and spat out the statement, "All because of some stupid heart. What a waste of your time and ours."

The bitterness in Ella's words was not all because of Charlene. Charlene was basically something she used to take out her anger out on.

Charlene's reaction was not expected.

Charlene stood up to show her full height, she was taller than Ella.

"Why would what I do have anything to do with you?" Snapped Charlene. "I can cry my eyes out and you can't stop me."

"It's a stupid freaking' heart; it's something that has to do with me if I have to live in a closed room with someone cuckoo and obviously cocky person. Think you're better than us? Hate us because we have no heart. Oh, a little reminder-YOUDON’T HAVE A HEART EITHER!!" Screamed Ella.

Charlene's cold laugh was obviously fake as she looked into Ella's eyes. "What do you know about me? Or the heart that I had?" Said Charlene coldly.

"Oh, I know enough. You came in here and acted as if you are better than the rest of us. Everybody cares enough for you to try to calm you down and you go crazy over the stupid heart that has already been taken out of you." Said Ella, disgusted.

"At least I know I once had a heart, you? I'm not so sure about. It would be amazing if you're not some insane serial killer. With the way YOU treat other people, I wouldn't say you're the kindest person ever." Said Charlene, trying to tone down her temper. She didn't want to start a catfight right here. She didn't feel like it either.

Ella's hand came up to slap the side of Charlene's face. Charlene didn't even look at Ella's hand as she clasped it hard in her right hand.

"How can you judge me based on one thing? How can you say a heart is not important when you don't have the slightest idea where my heart came from? My brother ran in front of a truck so they could use his heart for me. So I would accept it. You don't know what it's like to be 3 and a half and have your brother, just 7, to do that for you. You don't know what it's like to go through your old stuff and find pictures with him and yourself smiling. I wouldn't be alive without him, and I’m not LIVING without him. He was a part of me before." Charlene said bitterly. Tears didn't fill her eyes this time.

She knew they couldn't have brought her here and taken out her heart to have fun. They were going to kill her soon enough. If there really was a heaven and hell, she wished to see her brother before going to hell.

"You don't know what it's like to have the boyfriend you love cheat on you, then come home and get you pregnant! I was only 16!" Screamed Ella.

"So that's why you are so bitter, but why to me? I'm only 17 now, and I can count things that so many other people are facing that you can't compare pain with. Little girls and boys, barely 6, are watching their own mother starve to death. Little boys and girls are working in carpet companies day and night, getting their fingers cut off by accident! Why don't you quit feeling sorry for yourself and see that everybody has problems." Charlene said, her voice cracked by the last sentence. She was thirsty, hungry and...mad. At herself? Charlene didn't think she was only caring for herself. She didn't think her problems were the biggest, but she couldn't and didn't want to part with her brother's heart, the only part of him she has left. And she remembers him swinging her a round in circles as they sung to the merry-go-round song.

Charlene sat down miserably and covered her forehead. It was then that she noticed her head was fire-hot. If you were to put an egg on her forehead, it would've been good to eat before you can say "egg".

Charlene just ignored it as she fell asleep.

The burning in woke her up. The pain in where her heart used to be came now, the pain was worse than any of those normal ones. A white light covered Charlene's eyes as she sat up.

"Maybe I'm already dead." Charlene said, almost happily.

"You wish." Came Jiro's voice.

"I guess not."Charlene said sarcastically. Maybe Jiro's happy personality was getting to her.

"Then...how come I can't see?" Asked Charlene.

"YOU CAN"T SEE?" Asked Arron.

"Didn't I just say that?" Charlene said.

"It's a gift." Selina said clearly from the other side of the room.

____________________

NEXT CHAPTER COMING SOON! 

~BLUE_STAR