Irrational

I pressed my back against the farthest wall in my closet; buried deep amongst clothes and a few hidden knives. I heard the crashing of my father’s footsteps and the familiar creak of the heavy wooden door opening into my room.

“Thalia, where are you?” My father’s normally harsh voice was soft and dangerous. My breath caught in my throat, I pressed my hands to my lips and clamped my lips together.

I heard his footsteps getting closer and closer to the closet. I tensed when his footsteps paused. Then the closet door was flung open and my father stood in front of me.

His hand darted out and slapped me across the face, my cheek tingled and a pained tear formed in my eye. I shoved him backwards and sprinted out of the closet and down the hallway of our small home. I heard steps behind me and screamed when my father picked me up, restraining my arms so I couldn’t scratch him.

“Found you.” He hissed in my ear. Shudders reverberated through my body. I struggled against his grip but it was futile, he was stronger than me. He dragged me downstairs into his office. He placed me in a chair and cuffed me down.

My father is District 2’s electrician, he has different kinds of electrical appliances, gadgets he calls them, I call them instruments of torture.

My father was never this bad, he was happy and carefree but he lost his brother in an accident and hasn’t been the same since. He started out small; he would set traps for mice and rats and use them as testers. But before long that wasn’t enough for him, he moved on to cats and wild dogs. He would pump them full of electricity, time and time again until their bodies couldn’t stand it and gave up. Their pain tolerance wasn’t enough for him.

He turned to me, in his hands were wires, he pulled the back of my shirt up. The cold metal of the wires were pressed to my skin and taped down. There was one at the bottom of my back in the center, right over my spine. Then he placed one on my spine at the base of my neck, his cold hands fluttered lightly over my skin. Another was taped to my left shoulder blade, the tape pulled on my skin. My father came around to my front, holding five wires. One was quickly attached to my right index finger; a cool, steely anger filled my body.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I demanded as my father placed one on my right lower, inner thigh. I twitch when he touched me.

“Because it’s very important to my research.” He replied icily, one pressed to my left hip.

“Is that the same lie you tell mum?” I quip with a smirk. My father slapped me again. I hissed at the pain but continued smiling, “Just imagine her shock when she hears my screams.”

I feel the cool pressure of a wire being taped below my left ear.

“We’ll see how long you last, you pathetic, worthless little girl.” My father hissed at me. The final wire was pressed over my heart.

My father walked over to his ‘gadget’ and turned a few knobs. An unpleasant tingling started in my body. My father looked at me.

“That’s how much it takes to kill a rat.” He spat at me. Then he turned one of the knobs farther. My body tensed with pain, the tingling had become a jolt that coursed through my body.

“That’s how much it takes to kill a dog.” My father shouted at me. Fear coursed through my veins along with the electricity. My father was going to kill me, and he didn’t even care.

The knob was twisted. I felt like I was on fire. Every part of me was burning up. My body arced painfully and a shrill scream filled the air. It took me a moment to realize, that was my scream.

Then everything got muffled. I could faintly hear my father shouting at me. My screams dimmed. And my world went black.

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What did you think? -CT