Prologue: The Wish Your Heart Makes

Dreams.

Someone once said... that dreams are windows to the past... windows to the future as well.

They're full of infinite possibilities.

People reach for them.

People fall into them.

Some people even live their whole lives in them.

However, among the millions of people born on this beautiful little dream-filled planet... there was one little girl who's dreams were crushed out of her before they even had a chance to develop. A little girl who grew up so unhappy that she found herself completely unable to raise her eyes to the stars at night... or laugh... or smile. A little girl who grew up in a small town called Quahog, in Rhode Island.

But I'm getting ahead of myself... now, where should I begin?

Ah... yes.

Once upon a time... there was a very wealthy man and woman who had everything that money could buy.

They had all the latest furniture, technology, and a lovely family home: it was everything they could have wanted for their future together. However, the couple was missing something... and it was something that no amount of money could buy. You see, this man and woman desperately wanted to have a son to call their own. The two of them had tried for many years to conceive a child to satisfy this one wish for happiness, but no matter what they did, their attempts were in vain.

A life without children slowly seemed to be growing with each passing month... but then, on the night that the couple had finally lost all hope for children, the young woman was visited by an angel. Whether or not it was a dream... she didn't know... but dream or not, God had heard their prayers and chosen to send an Angel to make a deal with the woman. Alarmed... but not afraid, she had simply looked at him when he'd asked for a small lock of her fiery red hair.

"If you let me have just one simple lock," the angel had told her, "I shall fulfill your wish, and more: I shall triple the reward."

"I'll do anything you want, if only you'll let me have a son!" the woman had told him, cutting a small portion of her tresses and handing it to the angel with an earnest expression; the messenger took the gift and spread his wings as a golden light rained down upon the woman and her sleeping husband, bathing them in otherworldly radiance for several moments.

"I have heard your prayers," the angel spoke, thunderous voice resonating throughout the room. "Cherish the gifts you have been given, Lois Griffin, for there will never be another quite like it in all the world. Promise me that you will cherish everything you are given."

"I promise," the woman told the angel. "I'll cherish him with everything I have!"

The angel smiled down at her and spread his wings once again, causing her to fall into an extremely deep slumber.

When she'd awoke the next morning, she'd thought her encounter had been nothing but an incredible dream... and she'd forgotten about it.

Until her body began to change: after realizing she had morning sickness, she'd gone to the market and taken a test to sate her nagging suspicions... but to her amazement and utter joy, the woman had discovered that she was pregnant with a child. Elated, she'd raced home to tell her husband the joyous news, and the man had actually wept, overcome as he'd been with emotion.

"A son! Our boy!" he'd cried, grinning so widely that his face seemed to be splitting. "We did it! We have a son on the way!"

They'd told everyone about it... everyone.

Joy had followed them wherever they'd gone, for their happiness had spread to others.

Nine months later, however, the happy couple had been hit with shocking news... because, not only did they discover that they'd been given a daughter instead of a son... they'd discovered that the father hadn't actually been the woman's husband. It had been someone else.

And in that instant, the image of a picture perfect family had shattered into a million pieces, for once someone cheats in a relationship... the trust between them is never the same. In that woman's arms, there had been a beautiful baby girl... but instead of being grateful... instead of cherishing her... the happiness of the then-young Griffin family, wonderful as it had been, had gone out like a candle.

Darkness had fallen across their hearts.

The mother hated her for exposing her own infidelity, and the father hated her for not being his offspring.

For an entire year... they'd tried to get rid of her, taking their hate and fury out on the baby that had revealed such a home-wrecking secret. From leaving her at a fire station... throwing her in a lake... down a well... they'd even gone as far as purposely crashing their car, dropping her down the stairs of their home, and dumping her into a plastic bag for hours and hours and hours. But nothing worked: with each incident, blessed as she was, she'd somehow gotten out of every single situation without a single scratch on her.

Miraculously, every time.

With the well, her blanket had gotten snagged on a hook, and her crying had alerted someone later.

With the lake, her blanket had gotten stuck on a floating piece of driftwood... and instead of sinking and drowning, like any other child should have, she'd merely ended up floating across the water to the other shoreline. Wet and crying, but completely unharmed, she'd been found the next day.

With the car accident... her mother had purposely let go, watching as she'd flown through the windshield... but instead of being smashed and broken, her lucky blanket had softened the impact with the glass, and she'd hit a tomato stand, cushioned by the vegetables.

Down the stairs... every time, she'd somehow managed to have SOMETHING cushion her fall.

And the bag, the most lethal of all their attempts... she'd ended up surviving since several holes had been torn open by a pin that had gotten stuck on her blanket.

Impossible situations made possible by the aura of good fortune around her.

However, her parents refused to stop trying... all year, they'd attempted to abandon her, to get rid of her... to kill her.

Again and again and again.

But as hard as they'd tried, they couldn't... and by the end of the first year, they'd given up.

For the next year, they'd instead neglected their daughter completely... hating her more and more with each passing day, since she was nothing but a reminder of the trust they'd lost in each other. The little girl said her first words at only a year old... the words that had been screamed at her whenever she'd started crying like any other infant. But then again... when she'd said them, nobody had been around to hear it.

"Shut... up... Meg..."

Those words... her first words... would follow her everywhere, for the rest of her life.

Silencing her dreams before they could begin.

Destroying her smile before the concept of emotion was even fully recognized within her.

Unlike other babies... not a single smile touched her lips.

At the end of her second year of life, however, her mother had become pregnant again... but this time, they didn't want a child anymore.

The thought of having two unwanted daughters was too much to handle.

So, once they'd found out... her mother had gone to get an abortion, but upon discovering that the child was a boy, had changed her mind. And so, the second child of the family had been born. By that point, she'd been old enough to talk... to comprehend... but that's what had made things so confusing to her. After her brother had been born, instead of being ignored... he'd been showered with love and attention.

Like always, they'd continued ignoring her... and had instead focused solely on the boy that they had so longed for.

Day by day, the way they'd treated their daughter started warping, becoming more hostile.

The more she talked, the more hate she gained.

And those words continued to follow her.

"Shut up, Meg!"

But that was okay... by the time she was three, she'd known her parents hadn't loved her, so she'd detached her heart from them and had instead loved her little brother... his blonde hair, big blue eyes, and goofy smile. She'd played with him, showered him with attention whenever her parents weren't around... loved him.

She'd thought he'd loved her, too, until the day of her fourth birthday.

"Daddy," she'd chirped, walking up to her father and pulling on his shirt. "I turned four years old today..."

In that moment, it had happened.

"Shut up, Meg!" Chris had laughed, flinging his peas at her. "Shut up, Meg!"

Those had been his very first words.

Her family had instantly gone nuts with delight... to the point where her Dad had knocked her to the ground in his haste to pick up her little brother and spin him around. Her mother, crying with joy and laughter... and she... four years old, realizing for the first time that she was alone. Ever since that day, Christopher had become a competitive monster in order to get attention from her parents: if she even tried to speak to them, he would show off to take their eyes off her.

And every time, he would grin in triumph when their parents ignored her in favor of praising him.

As they got older, the one-sided competitiveness grew worse.

If Meg aced a test, Christopher would learn something new and show it off immediately afterwards. If she got the lead role in a play, he outshined her with his acting as a secondary role in the same play. But for some reason, he seemed to become frustrated... frustrated with her lack of motivation, lack of reaction, so he started pushing harder.

Attempting to kill her light before it could begin to shine.

But it never worked, because there had never been any light to kill in the first place.

Her faint smiles and gentle sisterly love had been snuffed out the day he'd spoken for the first time in his life.

At some point, when Meg was six years old, she did go through a phase where she'd been desperate to see her mother smile at her. Lois had always been upset around her, so... she'd tried her hardest to make her mom smile... if only once. Despite her family's negative attitude towards her, she'd tried to change things and spent every single day with them individually during that phase: she'd felt lonely, seeing all the other little kids in school with their wonderful mothers and fathers... and she'd wished for the affection between them.

So, she'd tried her hardest... making them presents... talking to them, despite being told to shut up... she'd really tried.

However, that phase had ended with an abrupt jolt, only three months before she turned seven.

"Mommy, look!" she'd cried, running inside the house; she'd just come home from elementary with a drawn picture clutched in her arms. A picture of her, Peter, Chris, and Lois all holding hands. Grinning, she'd held it up. "Look! Look! I made this for you!"

Her mother hadn't even glanced up from the table.

"Go to your room," she'd growled. "Right now, Meg."

"But Mommy," she'd complained, walking over and putting the picture on the table, "look! I made this just for you!"

"Go to your room, Megan!" she'd barked, making the child jump. "Right now!"

"W-why? What did I do?"

The woman's eyes turned cold.

"Never mind," Lois had muttered, taking a swig of her beer. "You're useless."

"I'm... useless? But, Mommy..."

"There was no point in having you," she'd muttered, burying her face in her hands. "I can't stand this anymore."

"But we're a family, Mommy!" Meg had pressed, hurrying forward and holding out the picture. "See? We're all together!"

She hadn't been expecting it when it happened.

After all, how could she have?

This was her mother, the very woman who had brought her into the world, the first face she'd ever seen.

The one person from whom she craved love and affection from more than any other.

But before she'd been able to react, Lois Griffin had stood up and kicked her daughter in the chest, sending the little girl stumbling backwards so forcefully that she'd lost her balance and gone clean through the glass doors separating the kitchen from the backyard. Skidding across the wood of the patio and cutting her hands on the glass, a shard had sliced her across the forehead and caused a river of red to run down her face.

She had looked up at her mother in pain and shock when she'd angrily stepped forward.

Lois's bloodshot eyes had been so cold and merciless that hell could have been frozen solid.

"Shut up, Meg," she'd murmured in a quietly pleasant tone, glaring daggers. "You were a mistake. "

Then she'd quietly walked upstairs towards her room as if nothing had happened, completely ignoring her bleeding child.

Those words had pierced Meg's heart.

Even after she'd been taken to the hospital and had been given stitches... even after they'd been taken out, leaving behind nothing but a long, thin scar on her head... her eyes had been completely hollow from the inside out. Hollow, shattered, lacking any and all reflective sheen.

It had been a life-changing moment.

Lois's words had followed her everywhere she went.

She hadn't been able to forget that her own mother had said she'd been a mistake. She'd been completely alone in the world: none of the other kids at school had ever really wanted to play with her since she'd been a fairly quiet little girl, and after she'd been given the scar along her forehead, people had been so reluctant to talk to her that one of her teachers had actually given her a fairly cute pink beanie to hide that scar.

The woman had been worried about her lack of friends and desire to express herself, but despite the act of good nature, it hadn't helped.

Because of that, she'd had nobody to tell her that Lois had been wrong.

And as a direct result, she'd grown up thinking she was unlovable.

After all, if her own mother couldn't love her, how could she expect someone else to try?

The answer was simple: she couldn't.

But as always, things had only gotten worse after that.

By the time she'd turned thirteen years old, her whole family had turned her into a means for venting a frustration that would never leave. Would never fade. And it continued to intensify. She was used as a balm for dares, pranks... called ugly, fat, gross... disgusting... and even though, as each day passed, she physically grew further and further away from the insults being tossed at her... other people started saying things, too.

In Middle School, the typical mean girls and bullies that came along with being a kid began to say the same things she'd already heard for years on end.

And it was during that time that her mentality began to change, and she truly believed everything being said about her for the first time.

After that, when she looked in a mirror... she couldn't see herself as anything less than ugly.

She slowly came to loath her own existence, growing hollow on the inside.

When she turned fourteen, her mother became pregnant one more time... and it was then that they also got a dog named Brian. With the help of a machine on his collar, he was able to hold a conversation with them, since it translated his barks into actual sentences.

But it hadn't mattered.

Because even a dog... a dog...

"Shut up, Meg."

And by the time she hit her fifteenth birthday, she'd been completely numb to everything... not a single expression touched her eyes, even when her mouth smiled.

Until her new baby brother had said HIS first words a year later, cracking the pieces of her heart.

"Shut up, Meg."

Everywhere she went.

"Shut up, Meg."

Nobody said anything but that unless they had a new insult.

"Shut up, Meg."

And because of it, her heart finally shattered completely.

From that point on... she was lost in total darkness: hollow on the inside, and lacking what so many other people needed to live... to hope... to dream. All Megan Griffin could do was wait. Wait until the day she turned eighteen years old to become an adult. To escape on her own, and go somewhere... to hide, perhaps, in the mountains... or all alone on a beach. To her family, she was less than trash. Less than filth, even. To them... she was nothing. A waste of a life.

All alone... all alone in that cold grey world... alone, unloved, harassed... shattering like a mirror in the face of the world's hate.

A small, unloved little girl with memories that were cold and empty, flickering like a dying candle.

And every new memory only grew darker and darker.

This, my friends, is how the story of Meg Griffin began.

Through a broken promise, and a broken heart.

However, when Meg finally did shut up... nobody was expecting it to happen the way it did.

Only three months after she turned eighteen years old... everything in the Griffin Household changed.

Forever.