“Get out.”
I froze.
He pointed toward the dark street outside. “Don’t you dare come back until you become someone worth feeding.”
I thought they would eventually stop me.
They didn’t.
That night, I slept behind a grocery store, using cardboard boxes as blankets while rain soaked through my clothes.
I was twelve.
For the next six years, survival became my entire world. Shelters. Cheap motels. Construction jobs. Night shifts washing dishes. I lied about my age over and over just so I could eat.
And somewhere between exhaustion and rage…
I became obsessed with one thing.