"It's okay, Jo. I'm still here." Celia's friend deserved all the help those at the health clinic could give him. The nightmares were getting worse and Celia didn't know what to do besides comforting him after he woke up terrified. It was sad to see her friends be impacted by health issues, whether physical or mental. "It was just a bad dream."

Jo recalled being plunged into the rampant violence of his latest nightmare, where a cloaked being devoid of human form infiltrated his family home in the depths of night. By using its sickle through telekinesis, his brothers and sisters were massacred with its featureless face taking in the gruesome scene.

It then proceeded towards his parents, who used whatever junk around them to put up a solid fight, but were slain in the end by the cloaked being. The figure had no problem zipping through the air to catch Jo alone in his room and stopping inches from his forehead. Its sickle floated slowly into its cloak and out came the sight that drove him awake: the decapitated head of Celia with her eyes sealed shut, streams of blood down her face and a sewn-up mouth.

Having calmed him, it was clear he needed her more than ever. In doing this, Celia would make sure to be beside him with her love. Through her quaint words, Celia convinced him out of his unwillingness to go outside so they could meet Danabel before going to Avorie's house.

Them bringing Mr. Tim wouldn't make sense since he told them he was spending the entire Sunday, like other Sundays and weekends in general, to work on the herbal remedy for Jo. Therefore, they had to go without him.

After three lefts and two rights through the streets of the trailer park, they arrived at Danabel's home. Her house was quite rectangular and bathed in off-white paint with windows that could be opened sideways with the twist of a handle and a push. And at the far ends of the trailer, each was divergent in direction. The one to the left had gone upward before bending horizontally away from the trailer, while the other side was solely vertical.

They didn't bother knocking on her door for she had stormed out with her hands clenched, her eyes enraged, and her lips curled into a scowl.

"Danabel, where are you going?!" Her dentures-wearing grandmother, who was in a pale nightgown, did what she could to keep her anger in check.

"I'm going out with my friends, grandma! And you can't stop me!"

"Fine, go with them if you want! But remember that those kids will lead you down a bad path if you're not careful!" She shook her finger with condemnation from within the trailer home.

"I'm more than careful, grandma! Me being alive is proof of that. If you still dislike them after that fact, then go screw yourself!"

Celia and Jo were stunned as she led the way to Avorie's trailer with the same repulsion across her body.

"You know... I just wanted to say sorry for that whole scene."

The two became attentive as she continued.

"My grandparents are rather strict. They were happy I had no friends to speak of, but when I told them about you two and Avorie, they wanted me to end it."

They were quick to disapprove of her grandparents' stance. The two saw themselves as rather good people, so to be seen as the opposite had upset them. To them, it was obvious that having Danabel not interact with others harmed her social development.

"The thing is that I understand why they feel that way, but I'm becoming an adult. This world has always been terrible and they can't protect me from that reality forever. If I did listen to them, then I wouldn't have met great friends like you."

Now they were a bit conflicted. They understood the importance of socialising, but there was no doubt their existence was horrible. To have someone that would do anything to block the many evils of the trailer park would have been worth it to preserve as much of their innocence for as long as possible.

"They're already so old anyway. Who knows how much longer they could stop me?" Danabel had barely looked at them the entire time and they were fumbling their very tongues to reply.

As a group, they walked for thirty more minutes through dusty streets to the edge of District A—one of the six districts created by the government many years ago. Avorie lived in this area between districts with many trailers full of contaminated condoms and needles. Rats had long infested these places, making them their only occupants.

They went up to her trailer that was the size of three trailers in one, had all sixteen of its wheels remaining, some buckets and large bowls that were on and around the trailer that they never bothered to take up in the event rain fell, and awnings above every possible opening. This was a more than decent home compared to what some in Bale would experience and her parents had let them in for a feel of such a space.

As they were guided to her room, they noted the multiple radios and the fairly big television. This was rather unusual, indicating their higher income bracket alongside wearing coloured clothes and the quality of the furniture, to things like the maroon curtains that had varying shades of red, brown and light yellow triangles near each of their upper regions with their incredible ability to block the sun. For them to be designated a part of the small middle class in Bale was an accurate label of their wealth due to their many hours of overtime.

"Are you okay, Avorie?" Celia took her time to go to her with open arms.

"I'm good." She shifted her head further up her pillow in her room filled with colourful and aesthetically wonderful fabrics, stuffed animals from the trash, and stickers of cartoon characters in a great mood. "The doctor gave me this bottle of syrup to drink in order to replenish my iron levels."

It was great to learn she was fine due to some rest and taking the medication as recommended. The syrup was quite thick in its composition, so much so that one could hear the sloshing by moving its contents around, whether in its pasty white box with dark text stating its name and purpose or when taken out to show the orange-hued bottle with a wrap-around label with the same standard information. However, what she was about to reveal was simultaneously expected yet unexpected.

"When my supervisor saw the blood stain between my white pants, she assumed it was fake and shamed me for it. I told her that my cycle became really heavy and she did not want to hear what I had to say."

Danabel was livid. Her fingers were digging into her flesh at the thought of something so unkind and her friends were comparable in their reactions. Any questioning of why Celia hadn't given the actual details of what her sickness truly was never came up with such shocking news.

"What do you expect from the people that call us animals?" Avorie's mom walked in with her blonde hair, blue eyes, and nice cheekbones with her arms folded while her toned father with minimal facial hair stayed at the door. "When they didn't believe her, the woman who was her boss got a pair of gloves from the clinic and pulled down her pants to see that my little girl wasn't lying."

Avorie hated how embarrassed and helpless she felt as her own people mocked her as blood flowed down her legs. In what was her weakest moment, she struggled to keep faith in those descended from Hesklo, the ancestral origin of everyone in Bale. "Mom, she told me how I was unclean and careless for letting it happen. She made it seem like everything was my fault. How can that be, mom? How can that be?!"

Her parents and friends were there to hold her as she cried with cracks in her voice and her arms resting on her blanket of red hearts.

Celia couldn't handle this barrage of turmoil. Basically all her friends were at their most vulnerable and there was nothing she could do but pray.

God, if you are hearing this, I just want you to help us in our darkest moments. I know I haven't spoken to you in a long time, but I have no one else to turn to. All of my friends are the worst I have ever seen them and I don't know what to do. So if you can give us a miracle, that would truly be a blessing. In your most holy name, Aimen.

She could feel something change in the air. Was this a sign that Jaholven, the name of their god, was listening or watching? Celia didn't know, but she would permit time for the Lord to work in mysterious ways.