Dit is een deel van het verhaal (in het engels) van een moedig meisje die niet meer wil zwijgen over wat ze heeft meegemaakt, maar die de waarheid wil vertellen. Want ze herinnert het zich en ze wil anderen helpen te weten dat ze niet alleen zijn.

This is part of the story of a very brave girl, who does not want to be silent anymore about what happened to her, but wants to tell the truth. Because she remembers and she wants to help others to know they are not alone.

BJ's Story

"We came to the room. There was a bad smell. Like my mom's funny cigarettes. There was a circle on the floor, with a star inside. There are ten of us. We sit around the circle. Two kids on each point of the star. There is a person, with a robe on, standing behind each pair of kids. They start by saying the oath. I don't remember the words now. Then, they give us a drink. Something sweet. Tastes funny. THis is not the first time we are here. After we drink, we make a cut on our wrists, to make blood. So we know everybody will keep the oath. Tonight, we are all going to spend the night. We are staying all weekend.

I wrote a story at school. I pretended it was all make believe. I told about what we do in the circle. One of the other kidds told THEM (THEM is the people in the robes).

They got mad. They made me lay in the circle and they made me hold a rabbit. They killed the rabbit with a knife. There was blood all over me. Lots of blood. The other kids had to put their hands in it and smear it all over me. WHen they were all done, the bad people put me in a tub of cold water. Very cold. They put some pills in my mouth and made me swallow them. I was very afraid. And very cold. Soon after they gave me the pills, I couldn't stand up. I couldn't move. The bad people carried me across the hall and put me on a bed. (They had taken my clothes off after the cold bath.)
They tied me to the bed. My hands and feet were tied up. My hands were over my head and my feet were apart. They started touching me. All over.
They gave me shots. The shots made me sleepy and they made my head hurt. They kept touching me. The man with the beard put his thing in my mouth. I was choking. I threw up on him.
The woman put a curling iron in me. HOT. It burned me very bad.

They told me it was all a bad dream. They said us kids played and had fun all night. But the rabbit was not the same rabbit that was there before. And my friends had the same dream.
THEY were lying. I remember. I won't forget! No matter what happens to me.

BJ.