Claws to the Heart

Amelie stood in the doorway, having been arguing with her father over something. The disgust and rage she saw in his eyes cut her to her core. Her body burned with her rage and the betrayal that she felt towards him. All her life, her father was hard on her and not in the ‘I’m hard on you to teach a lesson’ hard, but the ‘I despise your very existence and I want to punish you’ kind of way. “You are a disgrace to this family and I feel sick just looking at you.,’ her father started as he raised to his full height of 6’, “I no longer claim you as my daughter and I hope you rot in hell for the choices you have made.” he finally finished, his face turned a dark red as his anger only grew and grew. “You don’t mean that dad, take it back, please. It’s not my fault it happened, my choice was taken away from me. Don’t you care about that at all or is your opinion so low of me that you are blinded to the truth?” Amelie said, her voice raising ever so slightly in fear and desperation to get her father to hear her words. All of a sudden, Amelie was shoved back into the screen door, hard enough that it was forced open. Amelie stumbled as she fought to get a grip on the door frame so she wouldn’t fall out of the door and onto the ground. After regaining balance, she looked up at her father in shock. Yeah sure he had hit her plenty growing up as punishment for her wrongdoings but he had stopped after she turned 18. “Get out of my house, I never want to see your face again. You do not belong here anymore; if I find you on this property again I will have you arrested for trespassing.” Her father said and with each word, it was like a knife plunged into her heart. At this very moment, her mother had been on her way down the stairs, having heard the whole thing after being awoken by the sounds of the yelling. “What's going on here?!” her mother yelled, taking in the scene as she walked up to them, trying to get her husband to back up so her daughter could right herself instead of hanging out the door. “It doesn’t matter, my love, go back to sleep. I will be up there soon to get ready for work.” her husband said lovingly, completely flipping a switch on his emotions to address his wife before turning back to Amelie and going back to being royally pissed off, shrugging off his wife's touch. “Mom, don't listen to him, please, I need help.” Amelie pleaded with her mother, who looked at her with only a flicker of remorse. “Amelie, I heard everything that was said between the two of you when you so rudely woke me up from my nap. You know better than to be yelling in the house, let alone at your father. I’m sure you are just exaggerating what you said to make the situation more favorable for you. I’m sure whatever happened was a misunderstanding and later we get it all worked out and have you formally apologize for accusing those poor boys of doing such a heinous thing to you. If you had listened to me and stopped wearing such revealing clothes then the boys wouldn’t have felt so enthralled by you.” her mother said, finally finishing her rant as she plunged the final knife into Amelie's heart. Amelie felt numb, her hearing started going fuzzy, and black dots started to cloud her vision as she blinked back tears at her mother's words. "Momma...why would you say that to me? I'm your daughter, you know I don't wear provocative clothing. I haven't even had a boyfriend yet, why would you say it's my fault?" Amelie says as she whimpers softly, tears welling in her eyes. "Oh for the love of god, I can't do this anymore. Listen here you little ungrateful little s**t, I am NOT your mother. He is NOT your father, you were given to us as a baby and told to raise and protect you like one of our own. We agreed because we weren't able to have kids of our own, but then three years later, we had Nixon. We were so happy to finally have a child of our own but whenever we looked at you, knowing you weren't ours. It reminded us of those bad times and we hated you. Now that you are 18, we finally get to be rid of you and those reminders of the past. So goodbye, you no longer live here." her mother said and Amelie stared at her in shock, her heart shattering. “You heard her, now get out of here and never return. We no longer want a slut like you as our daughter.” her father said, before lifting his booted foot and kicking her dead square in her core and sending her flying out the door. She flew over their grill and hit a flower pot stand, before falling to the ground behind it and rolling down the embankment, hitting trees, rocks, and thorns on her way down, straight towards the road. When she finally stopped, she hit her head against a big rock that lay in the ditch. Amelie passed out after that, lost in a sea of blackness and void, with nothing but silence for her to drown in as her suffering continued. A soft voice deep within her subconscious soothing her and trying to take the brunt of the pain she held inside. Once the voice began to slowly fade away, Amelie let the darkness take her, eager to be free from the pain, heartbreak, and betrayal she had just suffered.