Twisted

THE BEGINNING OF CHAOS

CHAPTER ONE: THE BEGINNING OF CHAOS

“Listen to me carefully, you disgusting w***e, if you don't go to that club and get me the money, do not ever in your miserable life consider me your mother and I will return you to the prison yard where w****s like you belong” My mother, Mrs Evelyn spat and you could literally hear the venom and disdain in her voice. I choked on my saliva and ran out of the house with no destination in mind. Sometimes I wonder if that woman is actually my birth mother or just someone who did plastic surgery to look like my mom.

I remember when Dad was still alive and his business was thriving. Mom was so sweet back then, Life was perfect until one day my Dad suddenly had a heart attack in his car on his way from work and he died on the spot. In the first few months of Dad's death, mom was quiet but still as loving but after three months she announced to me that she sold the house and my Father's company and that she had remarried. I was just seven years old at the time but I was smart enough to know that a woman does not just remarry three months after her husband's death. I felt like mom betrayed dad but I couldn't voice it out because mom wouldn't even look at me.

I later found out that the man she remarried was Dad's biggest competition and that made me feel really suspicious and hurt but the worst blow came a month later when mom told me she's expecting a baby. I didn't know what to say to her, so I just kept to myself. A few months later, the baby was born and it was a girl. My new stepdad called her Helen. My mom started ignoring me after the birth of her new child. She didn't care if I ate, if I did my homework, if I was sick, she even made me do all the house chores. She made sure I was treated as a servant and when Helen grew, she made things worse.

I remember one time I was eleven years old and Helen was four. I had just come back from school and I was tired because I had to walk all the way home. Mom had stopped sending a driver to pick me up claiming I was old enough to find my way home even though my school was halfway across town. I went straight to the kitchen to find myself something to eat when Helen came to me ordering me to go and clean her room. I was surprised. It was her room so why couldn't she clean it herself? But I was even more pissed than surprised when she grabbed the cereal I was about to eat and started chugging it down like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“I am not a slave here and you are eating my lunch. Its your room so you should clean it up yourself” I said and grabbed my bowl of cereal from her and just then my mom walked in carrying lots of shopping bags and Helen being the drama queen ran into my mother's arms crying.

“Mom, Elaine refused to clean my room and she took my lunch knowing fully well that I'm hungry” The little demon cried even more. My mom looked at me and anger flashed in her eyes but she said nothing. I was expecting her to scold me but she said nothing then she took one look at Helen's teary face and stomped upstairs. I was still in the kitchen wondering why she did not scold me when I saw her rushing down the stairs with a very long whip in her hands. Before I could think of anything the whip landed harshly on my back and I felt my skin break. She kept hitting me until I passed out on the kitchen floor. I woke up a few hours later in a dark room which I guessed would be the attic. I tried to find the light switch but the light was very dim. An hour later I heard footsteps then my mother's voice came.

“ You will stay in that attic for a week. I hope that is long enough for you to learn that you are to do whatever Helen tells you even if it means standing in the middle of the road in front of a moving truck.” Then she left. I was even more convinced then that she is not my mother. A maid brought me food and water once a day but the food was barely edible. I had no choice but to eat it in order not to die of starvation and dehydration.

At the end of the week, my mom came to the attic with a bucket of water and a mop tick. She looked at my frail and weak body with a look of disgust, but she didn't care. She gave me the bucket and mop stick and told me to clean the whole house, including the attic and the basement, which were very dusty. In order not to attract another dose of punishment, I took the items from her and set to work. I started with the attic before moving to the top of the three-storey mansion building.

While I was cleaning Helen's room, she walked in carrying a big bag of chips. My stomach growled loudly, reminding me that I had not had anything to eat since morning and it was already past 2. Helen laughed loudly and then emptied the whole bag of chips on the floor which I had just cleaned. I was extremely pissed but I could not say anything. I swallowed the tears that threatened to fall and cleaned the room once more.

I finally finished cleaning the whole house around 6pm, I was famished but I did not have the guts to ask for food. I sat by the pavement awaiting my mother's arrival. She came home twenty minutes past seven. She insisted on inspecting the whole house before she allowed me to bring any food.

The torture continued even when I went to university. My mother refused to get me an apartment off campus, knowing how terrible the housing conditions in the school hostel are. My mom refused to send me money for foodstuffs and sometimes even my tuition. I had to work my ass off to take care of myself. Even when I came to the house on holidays, my mother still treated me like a slave. Helen never failed to remind me that she had my mother's heart and Jeff, her father, just ignored me like I didn't exist.

But in all the torment, torture and humiliation, I kept fighting, I never gave up and I sure as hell won't give up now.