God's Mercy Hospital is a small hospital in the worst part of New Jersey.
The hospital has served the people of the small town of Camden for over fifty years.
Camden has the highest violent crime rate in New Jersey, and the people are plagued with poverty. There is barely anything to do for work, leaving most people unemployed, struggling from one day to another.
Gangs and drugs rule the streets, making Camden a truly bad place to raise a family.
Even with the people going through all this suffering and endless struggle, these people still remain loving towards each other, and the place was truly a community that could inspire one to be better by truly understanding the struggles of human life.
Amelia Rivera had grown up in this town. She had seen all sides of this town, and even though she did not hate the place, she still wanted to leave and find adventure elsewhere.
Amelia has fair brown skin, long black hair, and brown eyes. She is not a very beautiful young girl, but she has all the right curves, and these more than make up for any deficiencies.
Amelia had a single problem, and that was her family. She had lived a very happy childhood, but this all changed when she was around thirteen years old. Her mother had gotten pregnant—a miracle, since she was already fifty years old. After Amelia's younger sister came into the picture, everything changed.
Amelia was relegated to a second-class citizen in her family. She worked like any other maid, and she was blamed for everything that went wrong. Even when the wrong president was elected, Amelia's parents found a way to blame her for that. One had to remember that by then, she was only fifteen years old. She could not even vote.
Amelia passed through what could only be called child abuse of the highest order. Since the abuse began when she was only thirteen, her parents were able to convince her that this was normal.
She began believing that this was the way of life. The family was not poor, but they were barely surviving.
Her father worked in a small company at the edge of the town.
When the company was forced to close down due to the actions of one of the directors that had embezzled all its money, Amelia's father lost his job, and things went downhill after that. By then, Amelia had just become seventeen years old.
She was already suffering, but things became much worse.
Her younger sister, Charlotte, was only four years old by this point. After a few months, Amelia's father shot himself in the head.
Amelia was left to take care of the family, since their mother became depressed. She stopped caring about Amelia completely and only asked about Charlotte once in a while.
Things had truly gone downhill after this.
Right now, Amelia sat next to a hospital bed as she watched their mother breathe her last.
It had only been one year since she had gotten depression, but Amelia's mother had managed to drink so much alcohol that her liver had failed.
Right now, she was hooked onto so many machines that the small hospital room seemed even smaller.
Amelia looked at her mother, and she could not stop herself from crying. Even though she had been abused by this woman, she was still the mother that had brought her into this world.
"Take care of your sister. That is the only thing you are good for."
These were the last words Amelia heard from her mother.
She cried her lungs out. Amelia had still loved her parents. This was not to say that she did not hate them. It was simply because love and hate are one and the same, especially when it comes to family.
Amelia had just gotten her acceptance from the universities where she had applied.
She could have graduated from high school three years earlier, but due to her home situation, she had taken a few terms off to take care of her sister.
Still, she had finally graduated as the valedictorian.
Amelia had always been the best in her class, and even the universities that replied back to her application had offered her full scholarships.
She had truly achieved a lot in high school. She did not only focus on her grades but also on extracurricular activities. She was the captain of the soccer, debate, and tennis teams.
She was also in the robotics club, and she had won a bunch of competitions.
She was the perfect student and daughter.
This is why so many people wondered why her parents treated her so badly.
With her parents dead, Amelia was left to take care of her sister. Even though she wanted to go to university, she could not leave her sister. Most siblings had some bad blood between them, but this was not the case with Amelia and Charlotte. Even though their parents had only cared about Charlotte while ignoring Amelia, this had not affected the relationship between these sisters.
Charlotte was only seven years old, and their parents were already gone.
Amelia did not know what to do. She did not even have money for food.
Charlotte had already cried herself to sleep due to hunger.
Amelia had several part-time jobs, but she had just used all her money for the funeral, and even the hospital was still demanding her.
She was just beginning her adult life, and she was already in debt.
Things could not become any worse than this. This was what she thought and hoped, but life was cruel.
Even though it was already nighttime, Amelia decided to go to the corner restaurant where she worked as a waitress to get last week's payment so that she could buy something for Charlotte to eat.
"I will find a better solution tomorrow," she thought.
She made sure to lock the door to the house since she was leaving Charlotte behind. Even though the house was already falling apart, it still offered some level of protection.
The restaurant owner was very understanding, and he gave her the money without any excuses. Since he had known her since she was a child, he even gave her some extra money, knowing what she had to be going through.
Amelia left the restaurant with a slight smile. Even though things were still fire, she could at least stop her sister's hunger while thinking of what to do next.
"We will survive," she thought to herself.
She rushed back to her house, and to get back quicker, she decided to take a shortcut.
As though the heavens were mocking her hard work and optimism, she was struck over the head the moment she entered the first dark alley. In her excitement, she had forgotten about the facts of the town where she lived. This was Camden, and crime was rampant.
She fell to the ground, and blood began coming out of the back of her head.
She did not lose consciousness, and she was able to see her attackers. These two were her neighbors. They were two white boys that were addicted to meth.
They were part of some gang, but they had never been violent. Apart from the fact that they used drugs, Steve and Carl were very nice people.
She had never thought that she would end up in this kind of situation with them.
"It is Amy," Steve cried out in surprise. They had not targeted her personally. This was something they usually did. They were part of a gang, after all.
Still, they would have never done this if they had known that it was Amelia.
Carl looked at her with his eyes wide open. Panic was beginning to set in, but this panic was soon overtaken by something else.