hey we are back with the 4th chapter :)

The front door slams, and I get up from the couch, ready to make my excuse.

"Hey honey, how was school?" Dad says.

It's just dad and me. Mum died when I was little, from cancer. They said it was quick and painless, but dying is never quick. And no way in Hell is it painless.

Besides, how would they know? I don't see them having died. Them being doctors.

God, I really loathe doctors, they lie to you, to your parents. To everyone.

"School was school, ya know, the usual," I say ,"Speaking of school, I had a really really big lunch again, and I'm positively stuffed, so I'm not going to eat dinner."

"Oh, are you sure Pipes? You seem to have been skipping dinner a lot lately….. Is everything okay?" Dad says, his voice carrying traits of suspicion and concern.

"Yeah, dad , I'm fine." I say, trying to convince him, stressing on it.

He doesn't believe me. i can see it in his face, the way he purses his lips, the way his eyes narrow. These movements, only slight, tell me all I need to know.

And that pisses me off a bit, that he thinks I'm lying - which I am, but that's what TRUST is for! He doesn't trust me, I knew it!

"Is there something you're not telling me?" He says sternly, which really doesn't work. Him being stern, I mean. He never gives a shit about me, him being famous and all. And that pisses me off even more, him playing the concerned parent, when he obviously doesn't give a bootlace about me.

"I'm fine, dad, don't worry, forget it." My eyes flash when I say this, and my voice changes, probably becoming different with anger.

This time he believes me.

Everyone does. You've got to be a good liar when playing this game for as long as I have.

"Hi Pipes" Hazel calls to me, early in the morning at school.

Hazel is my best friend, and I have to be extra careful around her. I think she's suspicious ; she shoots me weird looks at lunch. I have to careful about how I act around her.

My strength has been slowly deteriorating.

I can't move around so fast anymore, and I can't find comfort. Everything is sore and painful. I have to keep going though. It is the only way I can be perfect.

The mirrors and windows show me things I don't want to see, a person that no one wants to see, someone not worth their time, someone useless, someone ugly, fat. Someone who should be left alone.

An old song comes into my head, from Snow White, but the words are different.

Mirror Mirror, on the Wall, I don't want to see you at all.

Mirror mirror, don't you see? What you show is killing me.

I smile at Hazel, but it doesn't reach my eyes.

She frowns at me slightly and raises an eyebrow.

I just shake my head.

She doesn't push it.

She knows my limits.

And at the moment? They're breaking.

The bell for lunch rings, I grab my books and head out, bumping into someone as I do.

"Sorry." I mumble, trying to push past them.

"Watch it, Fat ass!" Drew calls out. Her posse laughs as if she said the funniest thing in the world. But how is the truth funny?

"Wouldn't want ya to get stuck in the doorframe!" Another calls out, and they all move out of my way.

I can feel the hate, no, self loathing, rise in the pit of my stomach.

Rushing out of the classroom, eyes watering, I head to the bathroom.

Breathing heavily I put my hands on the sides on the sink, and slowly look up into the mirror.

I scream out in frustration, looking at the mirror as the ugly fat face copies everything I do.

That face?

It's mine.

Looking at my body, with it's fat thighs, fat arms, legs, face and hands.

Fat everything.

I close my eyes and look again at the mirror.

Still the same.

Then the image flickers and I see another person. One that looks sick to the bone, and throughly exhausted. Oh yeah, and she's a stick.

I take a breath in.

The image goes back to reality and I breathe out.

The voices in my head, my inner demons, conscience - whatever you call it.

They start whispering things, things that I don't want to hear, but the truth is the truth, so they are helping me realise that.

Why would they call you those things, if they weren't true?

FAT, WORTHLESS, UGLY.

We're only trying to help, honey..

"I know," I whisper, "Oh I know.."

I catch the bus home, and head straight to the bathroom. I look at the ugly face in the mirror and I feel strange. A burning sensation fills my empty stomach.

I am stationary. ...

It is too sore to move.

It hurts.

Everything hurts.

The feeling has been getting worse all day. It has been too long since I had food, and it hurts.

I can't move without falling, but I have to. If I lay down for a bit, I will be fine in a bit.

I move my foot an inch to the left to start the trudge back to my room, but I can't. It hurts too much and I fall.

The impact knocks all of the small amount of wind I had in me, out of me. I wheeze and cough on the ground. Bile rises in my throat. As I swallow it down I grapple with my coat pocket, and final find my phone.

I search for Hazel's phone number. She is the only person I trust to tell, and besides. She already knows, I'm certain of it.

I press on her number, and silently beg her to pick up.

Pick up.

Pick up.

Pick up.

She picks up, and I can hear her voice, as if from a long way away. Of course on a phone, she isn't exactly next to me, but you can usually hear people as if they're near you.

But Hazel, she sounded like she was a million miles away.

"Yeah, hello"

"…Hazel, help m-me" I murmur.

"WHAT? Piper, are you okay? What happened?" Hazel voice carries a desperate and panic struck tone.

"I-I I just fell, a-and it hurts."

"What hurts? Where are you?!" Hazel screams.

"I'm a-a-at home, i-in the bathr-room."

"Okay, I'm gonna call for help."

"NO! No, please don't." I can't let anyone know. Hazel knows, and one person, is one too many.

"Okay. Now more precise directions if you please. WHERE ARE YOU?"

"At home, in the upstairs b-bathro-om."

"Okay. I'll be right over. Keep your phone on." Relief courses through me, Hazel will be here soon, and I'll fine then. No-one has to know.

"B-b-ye."

A loud, strong voice echoes through the house, "Piper, Are you here? Where are you?"

Hmm…..that doesn't sound like Hazel.

She must have called someone, but the pain is too great for me to care.

Unfamiliar faces blur in front of me, telling me everything will be alright.

That I'll be okay.

I start to freak out, hyperventilating.

Where's Hazel? Where is she?

Suddenly her face appears in front of me.

I breathe a big sigh or relief, and find that I can't breathe, theres something in my throat.

I cough it up, and look down.

Red.

It's red.

I'm coughing up blood.

Thats not a good sign. Is it?

It's a side affect of being fat, my inner demons, voices, say

My head starts spinning and I can feel myself slipping into darkness.

Hazel starts shrieking and I don't even have the strength to ask if she's okay, or what's happening.

The voices tell me, right before the darkness overcomes me,

We will break you.

But, what they don't realise?

I'm already broken.