A little girl was happily playing with her dolls when she heard a loud thump from the barn her cop father uses as an office. She looked at it for a minute then shrugged because she thought her father just dropped a book or something since she'd seen him in there with a stack of them. She started making fake food with grass and mud for her dolls. An hour later she went in for dinner. "Sapphire, have you seen your father?" Her mother asked.

Sapphire shook her head. "Not since he went into the barn, Mommy." She didn't mention the thump because she thought it was just nothing.

"Huh." Her mom stood. "I'll go get him." She left. Sapphire continued eating. Suddenly she heard a scream. She jumped up and ran to the barn. She'd never heard her mom scream before.

She peeked inside and saw her parents on the ground surrounded by blood. A monster with scales, claws, a tail with a sharp point, and red eyes was eating her mother. Sapphire screamed in terror and ran for her life. When she got inside she slammed the door closed and locked it. She then ran upstairs to her room, shut the door, locked it, and broke down crying. She knew she was never going to get that image out of her head.

A day later, there was a knock on her bedroom door. "Who's there?" She said fearfully.

"It's your neighbor, Sapphire," a female voice said.

"Mrs. O'Reilly?"

"Yes, dear. Come on out. I saw your parents in the barn. Do you know what happened?"

Sapphire opened the door. "A monster ate them," she said quietly knowing that the woman wouldn't believe her.

She was right. Mrs. O'Reilly's gaze hardened. "Sapphire, monsters don't exist."

"But they do I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Your mind is playing tricks on you. Come now. Let's find you a home." Mrs. O'Reilly led the way out and Sapphire kept her eyes away from the barn. O'Reilly took the little five-year-old to an orphanage. She knocked and a woman answered the door. "What do you want?" The woman snapped.

"Hello. I'm Mrs. O'Reilly. This is Sapphire Hemlock. Her parents just died and I was wondering if your orphanage will take her in?"

The woman looked at Sapphire. "Deal. I'm Dolores Slade. You will address me as Miss Slade, got it, girl?"

Sapphire gulped. "Yes, Miss Slade."

O'Reilly left and Miss Spade led Sapphire to a room that had many beds. "This will be your room. The lights get turned off at nine. You are not allowed out of the house unless someone adopts you or I bring all the girls out in the backyard which rarely happens. If you break the rules, you will be punished. Got it?"

After a moment, Sapphire nodded sadly as she resigned herself to being treated terribly. She doubted the other girls would like to be friends with her too.