The Caught Luna novel Chapter 1

I guess I was never really normal.

My entire life wasn't really the ideal setting for any kind of story.

I was abandoned as a child, a baby actually. My life started out in Aldridge Orphanage. I was literally shipped there inside of a cardboard box at 2:30 in the morning.

Growing up, everyone told me my parents were most likely crazy or abusive because when I showed up at the orphanage around the age of five months, there was a code of some sort tattooed on my right collarbone, 81027GH. No one is really sure what it means.

That's one of the reasons behind my present day nickname.

Others include my appearance. Besides the tattoo, I was taller than the rest of the kids my age. My height caused others to think I was three or four years older than I actually was. I wasn't as petite as the other girls in the orphanage, either. I had more of a boyish figure, and I was much stockier.

My attitude towards others also may have effected it, as well. I was always on edge versus the other children. My cautious nature made it hard to make friends. I was stronger than the rest of the orphans. They didn't like to play with me because I was for too rough for just any five year old. I accidently broke a seven year old boy's jaw when I was four by backhanding him for taking my crayons. I don't really think I'll ever forget that because all of the kids would hold their hands over their mouths when they'd see me for nearly a year.

I got really violent around the age of twelve. Adults and children made sure to steer clear of me. I didn't sleep as well due to severe body aches and pains which caused me to be extremely moody. I stopped growing taller, but I no longer had a baby face like the rest of the children my age. I could have passed as a sixteen or seventeen year old by that time.

I had a much harder jawline than even some of the boys there. My strength doubled and so did my cautiousness. I was always on alert and nothing really ever got by me. I could hear, see, and even smell things ten times better than before. At first, it was annoying, and it drove me crazy, but I learned to control it after a while.

I truly believed that, by this time, no one even remembered my real name. I was only known as Lunatic by everyone besides the ladies from the orphanage.

I didn't really want to believe them, but I couldn't help but start to once I started hearing a voice in my head. It wasn't really a friendly voice. It was more violent than anything, but it cared about me in a way that no one had ever really did. The voice never wanted to hurt me, just other people.

That is how exactly one year later, I was finally acceptable to the public. I was no longer walking around feeling like the lunatic. I was Arden Aldridge, although deep inside I still knew I was insane, but I knew how to control it so that had to count for something.

"Please. I need this job. I can't-" then the door was slammed into my face, "afford to have another door slammed in my face again by another rude person like you!" I yelled loudly hoping she would hear, but failed. The only attention I managed to catch were random people on the street. They didn't say anything, but a few laughed quietly.

That's what I felt like, lately. A joke.

Everywhere I go, people seem to find enjoyment in my failure. No one gives me a chance. No one, but despite it all, I keep my mouth closed.

It has been difficult. I won't lie. I didn't expect it to be this way. In the movies, everything seems so much better. Everyone is so much friendlier and life is so much easier.