9. Nia pt. 2

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TW: child abuse & neglect, religious themes, suicide, panic attacks

!!!There will be a warning (using this ⚠️ emoji to signal a potentially triggering scene beginning and this 🟢 emoji to signal the end of the scene) provided before particularly violent scenes. Please pause or stop reading if you become too uncomfortable. Your mental health is important. Seriously, it gets bad. Let me know if I should move warnings further up or down.

The day Nia was gifted her wish bracelet, she wished only for one thing and one thing only: her mother's love.

In her young, 10 year-old mind, her mother was akin to the very God they worshipped every Sunday, on hands and knees. Every mistake, every sin, made to beg for forgiveness, for a chance to be cleansed of all She deemed as unrighteousness. But mercy was by the loving, and for Nia, god-fearing and undeserving, such mercy was incapable. Her mother did not love her, that was made to be sure.

"Nian-Zhen," She called her daughter with a smile, her voice high-pitched and sweet in her native tongue, "I'm home!"

Three days. Three whole days her mother was gone, leaving her all alone.

As her mother stumbled in with a withdrawn smile, behind her was a man she didn't recognize. The young girl frowned. When Mother was happy with a man—

"Fuck off outside, or something. Go play," same saccharine tone and smile spoken in Mandarin, leaving those unfamiliar with the language none the wiser to her cruel words.

That meant she had to go play outside all night. There was no arguing back. She learned that the hard way from another incident, when her mother brought another man home:

"Heyy," her mother had slurred, face uncoordinated and oddly contorted, acting particularly funny that day (she acted funny almost everyday, but sometimes it got really bad like this— so bad it was scary), "theeere's my lil' girl!"

In with her mother came another unknown man, who had her arm slung around his shoulder and was helping her inside. He glanced at the child for a moment and back to the woman wrapped around him. He scoffed.

"You have a kid?" he questioned, unimpressed as he lugged her onto the ratty couch.

"Is that," she suppressed a hiccup, "an issue?"

The man looked back at Nia once more, who stared into his soul with apprehension, before shrugging.

"Nian-Zhen, get... your ass out of here," she waved off the child, speaking in the language only they knew, "Mmm... you're g'nna scare 'im off. Creepy bitch, y'ur weird fuckin' eyes..."

I'm hungry. Im tired. It's cold outside. Please don't make me leave, mama. Nia's tiny fists clenched, an overwhelming burning sensation in her eyes. She took a sharp breath in—

"Nnh— no..."

"Hm? Sorry, Nian-Zhen. I can't hear you, honey, come closer."

⚠️

Nia obeyed.

"傻屄!" slap.

It hurt. It hurt so bad.

"仔细听," slap.

Please, mama, it hurts.

"如果我告诉你做某事, 你就去做. 明白了吗?" SLAP.

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry—

🟢

A hand caught the woman's wrist, "Fucking christ, woman, what the hell is wrong with you?!" the stranger looked down at the scene, at the sobbing child with tears rushing down her bruised cheeks and at the blank faced woman with a red palm, with disgust.

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