❝ wandering down a path with no clear destination, alex struggles to hold onto the sobriety she found before everything fell apart. a history of neglect and mistreatment has left her feeling ostracized from society, and throughout her travels, she has continued to fill that role; she’s created a self-fulfilling prophecy that brings her only loneliness.❞
░ THE FORGOTTEN░ Alexandria Caverly
age: 30 pronouns: she/her class: afflicted faceclaim: tatiana maslany
▻ THEN
Everyone had heard the stories of kids slipping through the cracks, being left behind and forgotten, and growing up to be a burden on society. Alex had; she hadn’t expected it to happen to her, but it did.
She spent her elementary years with parents living in a drug-induced reality where she didn’t exist. Most days, she went hungry except for school lunches, and at age nine, she thought those days were behind her. She was taken from her parents and placed in a home with other children. The adults promised her it’d be a time of friendship and personal growth, but those were lies. The only things she learned in that house were how to keep others out of her belongings and which sleep position was most comfortable to lie in with bruises covering her thighs and backside.
The scenery continued to change, but the story remained the same. Each home provided the bare necessities for a growing girl but lacked the emotional attachment required for her to develop a healthy mind. In her older years, she sought after her fix for attention and found it in a small group of like-minded individuals that occasionally reminded Alex of her parents. Needles were passed from vein to vein without a thought. Nights of drinking and persuasive words turned her to into a criminal; they left paint and shattered glass in their wake. A late night with some new friends and some new candy turned ugly when sirens were heard from down the road. Ditched and forgotten, Alex came out of the bathroom to only moments later be caught with a white nose. A plea deal secured her two weeks in jail, but when she was released, all of her friends were gone and the two people she spoke ratted out to the police fled the city. Time passed before she found any of them again; her friends turned the backs and ignored her presence. Again, she was no one.
Most of her twenties were a blur. The years were muddled and the memories in pieces; there was little interest in stitching them together. The panic of visiting clinics faded with experience. Money was made by any means necessary, and names changed with the phases of the moon.
At twenty-nine, she thought she found a home. There was a man she loved and a warm bed they shared. When her period didn’t come, she felt something new; she smiled when she told him, and she found a note the next day. A week later, she was on the street. But the feeling about what was growing inside her hadn’t changed despite her situation. Part of her was wanting this, and she gave in. Visiting her clinic for a new reason gave her hope for the future. Her happiness lasted for a month before being ripped away. Dependency on drugs increased the chances of a failed pregnancy, and Alex had fallen victim to both.
She couldn’t remember anything she had done for some time after the bleeding had ceased. Waking up attached to a medical needle she hadn’t inserted herself was alarming, but the nurse was able to calm her down. She had been found on the street around three in the morning without being able to respond, and she was lucky someone had bothered to call. A counselor spoke with her and held her hand as tears escaped the corners of her eyes. Given options for facilities, she soon chose a rehabilitation center to visit and later enroll.
▻ NOW
Alex had been clean for six months before the world began to tear apart at the seams. Living a solitary life, she had no one to lose when others were losing everything, but she also had no one to live for but herself. She could hold her own against most, but sometimes she couldn’t find interest in trying. The desire to fade away and escape her reality returned with a vengeance, but she kept herself from drowning again. But there were some days where she wanted nothing else than a quick fix. Choosing to ignore those desires, Alex wandered the wasteland to find something else to keep her going.
▻ CONNECTIONS
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