Leonore sat up in her bed, not really sure what time it was. Her neighborhood was a quiet one at night, moreso for her as her house was the last on the street, built well away from the other houses with a receeding forest right next to it. But that wasn't why she didn't have any friends. It wasn't why she was so quiet most of the time. It wasn't why she would miss up to whole weeks of school, and it certainly wasn't why some people called her a freak. She just wasn't wired the same as the rest of the kids here. She was different.
She tried to hide it most of the time. To act normal, to sort of blend in. Her father had always told her that with time things would get better, and that she didn't need to be ashamed to be herself - That one day the world would come to embrace her for who she was. That's when he was still around anyway.
He'd gotten on a plane one day and never came back. They simply said in the news that there was a plane crash and that there were no survivors. Uncle Reyen had been her father's associate for as long as she could remember, and it was all seriousness and businesslike whenever he was around. He and her father were more like brothers than partners, and they worked together really well. The funeral was a small one, Rayen hadn't come, and that night Leonore sat on her bed, waiting for her father to come and kiss her on the forehead and tell her a lot of things like he always did. He didn't.
When someone knocked on their door the night after, Leonore had watched from the Kitchen doorway. Heather opened it. It was Reyen, dressed in his usual black overcoat and top hat, Leonore knew it was him, but he was alone. All he had on him was her fathers coat, pressed, folded and repressed, and when he came in, " Im sorry. " was all he said. It was the last time they saw him. Leonore was only three at the time, and she didn't really understand the message back then. That night, she watched her mother break down in tears. Reyens visit had drawn a certain finality for Heather that Leonore couldn't quite explain, even till now. It wasn't the same for her though. She waited for her father every night since for years. How could he have died in a simple plane crash? He'd always tell her that he would never leave them. That he would always be there for her.
It wasn't until Heather remarried and they resettled that she realized that he'd broken his promise the day be decided to die on that plane.
The years that followed had not been easy. Her stepfather, Nick, turned out to be an abusive drunk, and he had already sent her to the hospital once. Heather hadn't found any real happiness either, so to speak, and these thays they barely managed to make ends meet. Nick wasn't any help, with his collapsed rental business and all the fruitless trips to neighboring towns, everything was generally more bearable when he was
away than when he was not, given all the ruckus he made when he was around.
Leonore could not bring herself to understand why Heather remained married to this man; why she would wordlessly bear living under the same roof with him. She knew Nick didn't deserve her mother. She was also sure Heather was not happy
with him, and that on the contrary, her mother had grown to resent him as much as she did.
The thought was sent scurrying when a noise from downstairs broke
the stillness, followed shortly by the sound of something like glass falling down and breaking. Leonore got out of bed warily. She pulled a dark pajama top over the camisole and shorts she had on and headed out to go check what it was. As she got to the stairs she saw it was just Nick, sitting cross legged on the couch, and that he'd broken a beer bottle over the table. The dim light cast shadows on his face, and he clutched yet another bottle in his hand. Leonore didn't know what to make of it. She just bit down on the anger building up inside her and turned to head back to her room. She couldn't believe she was even surprised at all. With Nick, it just got worse and worse.
" Leonore. " He called her.
She kept going, not even turning to look at him.
"Leonore. " He called again, this time with a tone of harshness. " Get down here
