<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #FF0000"><span style="font-style: italic">TW: Mental illness, Self-harm, Suicide attempt.</span></span><br/><br/>It had started out so simply. She was a nice child - a little quiet, but adorable anyway. She kept to herself and behaved well. The child every parent dreamed of. As she grew older, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan could forget Emma was even home. She was so quiet, even her footsteps fell silently. Nobody really worried too much. Most people outside the house attributed the girl’s quiet ways to being a child to a highly religious couple. They said her father was probably so strict she felt that she should be quiet all the time. <br/><br/>That wasn’t the truth, though. Mr. Duncan was a loving father, a man who cared deeply about his faith and his family. Mrs. Duncan was also a caring mother, who doted on her daughter without making her the center of her world. If Emma was asked, she would have said that she had a happy life and a happy childhood. Whatever was wrong with the child was within her.<br/><br/>As Emma grew up, she continued being very quiet, even though she would welcome interaction when she was in a good mood. Her mother was her role model, and Emma idolized her. She loved her father dearly as well, and would always try to please him, cooking his favorite meals, bringing his slippers when he got home, doing whatever she thought would make him happy.<br/><br/>There was the one thing that never changed about Emma. She had always felt the need to be pleasing someone, doing everything right. At church, at school, at home, it didn’t matter. She would be devastated if anything she did displeased anyone. <br/><br/>When Emma became a teenager, her parents started noticing that maybe  - just maybe - there was something actually wrong with her. She was too submissive, too… good. Even for a child who had been brought up properly. Every time she made a mistake, the girl would enter a spiral of despair. She started harming herself, but was pretty good at keeping it a secret.<br/><br/>Thinking she was only going through a phase, Emma’s parents left her alone. Little did they know that it only made things worse. The little voices in their daughter’s head told her that she was bad, dirty, that nobody loved her. And she believed them. When she did something wrong, the voices got angry, they said she was useless, that she didn’t deserve love. And she still believed them. Why would she deserve love? There was nothing good about her, if she couldn’t be perfect.<br/><br/>Her life was a living hell, but she kept it to herself. If she thought her life was bad, it was about to get worse. On the one day when she said she didn’t want to go grocery shopping with her mother, the woman had been hit by a car on the way home. She was dead when she got to the local hospital.<br/><br/>Emma was sure that it had been her fault. She had killed her mother. She had been lazy, and selfish. She should die too. She had to die too. It was the only way she could make things right. <br/><br/>And she tried. She did try to kill herself, but - as in everything else - she failed. The voices told her she was too incompetent, even to die. Stupid girl, can’t even kill yourself. You had the knife, all you had to do was cut on the right place.<br/><br/>Mr. Duncan was devastated. He had lost his wife, and now his daughter was spiraling out of control. She couldn’t be left alone without trying to hurt herself. He couldn’t deal with that. And he couldn’t put her into a hospital around the area, where someone could see her, recognize her. People would talk, would ask questions, would pry into their private lives. He didn’t want that.<br/><br/>After some research, Mr. Duncan found out about a facility in Hawaii. It was far enough away from home that nobody would know her. And it seemed like a peaceful place. It was expensive, but money wasn’t a problem. Maybe they could fix Emma. Maybe they could at least make her manageable again, and return her to him. He wanted his sweet little girl back.<br/><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/>Emma had been in the facility for around two days. The first two days were devoted to her getting settled, and her father talking to the people in charge. He had left very clear instructions, he had told them that he didn’t want her back, even for a visit, before she could behave again. And he had left.<br/><br/>Now that she had at least calmed down a little - the first days were always rough -, Emma was about to start therapy. It was the consensus that she would probably need medication, but for now, they just needed to know exactly what was wrong with her, and make sure she didn’t try to take her own life again.</div>