Chapter 9. Echoes of the Past

Lotus’s POV

“Jeffery!” My mother’s voice wakes me from my sleep. “They are here.”

The panic in her voice forces me out of my bed. A tiny sliver of light is shining into my bedroom. Long gone are my unicorn bedsheets and decorations. They have been replaced with trucks and construction equipment. I hate them, but I was told I can’t like pink or unicorns anymore. They disappeared on the same day my mother cut my hair. I was told I can’t go by my name anymore, because now I am a boy.

I peek through the crack and see my father trying to barricade the front door. “I won’t let them have you.”

My mother is tugging on his shoulders, trying to pull him away. “Jeffery,” she begs him. “It is too late for me, but it isn’t too late for her.”

A string of curse words flies from my father’s mouth. “Why did you bring her here? You should have left her with her own kind.”

I press my face through the crack, trying to better hear what they are saying. I don’t