Angel's Broken Silence

Chapter 1

  "Angela!" she heard before sighing. The girl looked at herself in the mirror again and once again sighed.

  She inspected the bruises and cuts that were running up and down her arms and legs as well as her body. Red lines with black-blue-purple coloured bruising covered most of her skin, as she wondered how was she going to cover it up. By now, she grew quite familiar with those colours.

  Tears began gathering up in her cold eyes so she turned away from the mirror, before they could spill. Quietly but fast, she walked to the door and down the stairs, before she would get another beating for not being there fast enough. Her life has been like this since she could remember.

  Her stepmother was already standing there waiting for her. She yanked her hair and brought her to the kitchen, where she threw her on the floor. After 9 years of her life like this, she still hasn't gotten used to it.

  Her stepmother kicked her in her stomach a few times before she started insulting her: 'ničvredna', 'grda', 'neumna', 'debela' ['worthless', 'ugly', 'stupid', 'fat'] and more other insults flew out of her stepmother's mouth. But that wasn't true. Angela wasn't any of those things. Her stepmother and stepfather didn't give her much food so she was skinny like a toothpick. She was also the most intelligent person you would meet at her age. But she didn't point that out though. She wasn't shy. Far from that. She just didn't want to brag.

  The words hurt her, but she knew better than to cry. She just emotionalessly watched the person she had to call her stepmother, while on the inside, she was in pain. She wanted to die. She didn't understand, what she did to the people that take car of her, to hate her so much. She wanted nothing less than to die.

  The only thing that kept her alive was a boy that lived a few kilometres away from her. He was her best friend. Him and his family knew what was happening to Angela and they helped her more than anyone else. Mostly him and his three brothers. They were so protective over her and she thought that they were the only ones keeping her sane.

  A lot of times, she would sneak out of the house. She would spend the night at their house, and be back at home, before anyone could notice that she way gone. If she can even call it a home.

  "Zakaj se kar ne ubiješ? Vsem bi naredila uslugo." ["Why don't you just kill yourself? You'd be doing everyone a favour."] Angela just waited for those words. After her stepmother allowed her to go, she said:"Naslednji teden dobimo zelo vpliven obisk. Od tebe pričakujem, da se obnašaš lepo in spoštljivo..." ["Next week we are getting a very influential and important visit. I expect of you to be on your best behaviour..."] than she lowered her voice to a whisper:"če ne, si boš pa želela, da se nikoli nisi niti rodila, jasno?" ["if not, you are going to wish, you have never even been born, got it?"] Angela just nodded her head before going up stairs.

  Her life was never full of roses,  and it only seems to be getting worse. The people who she lived with, weren't her parents. Honestly, she felt as though they were complete strangers to her. They are her stepmother and stepfather.  They act like she is their slave. But also the story of her 'family' is actually quite complicated.

  The people that she started living with, when she was really just a baby, were very abusive. Mother, a bit more than father. Father was actually quite fond of her. When she was four years old, he died. She had always assumed that mother killed him. Poisoned him, perhaps. Their names we're Janez and Lara Mlakar. After father died, she was really sad. Also things have gotten way worse. The same year, mother re-married. The new husband, or her new stepfather looked as though he wouldn't harm her. But she thought wrong. He was real-life Lucifer. He was the Devil himself. He abused her even more. The mother watched and just laughed. She even  helped sometimes. When Angela was eight, the mother died. She didn't really feel sad, cause she somehow and in someway closed up her feelings. The stepfather re-married and the new wife was really just as bad as he was. She was the She-Devil. Angela's life was now really hell and she has to live like that until she is 18 years old.

  Little did she know that the 'father' and 'mother' weren't her real parents. And these people now, are just a blip in her lifetime, for something really different is going to happen to her...