The Angel with the Sword

Chapter 1: No Escape

I sprinted back into my room and shut the door before she could reach me again. Upon locking it and barricading it with my body, I heard her own body slam against the other side, desperately trying to wrench it open with her own hands. "You fucking whore, open this door right now!" I pressed all of my weight against the door, desperately trying to keep her out.

Of course, it was to no avail.

She caught me off guard and managed to beat the door open. I was knocked backwards onto the floor of my bedroom, scrambling backwards until my back met the wall. Her looming threats and constant name-calling were drowned out by my screams of terror as she trudged towards me. Fingers enclosing around my neck, breath escaping from my throat, the feeling all too familiar. As I tried to pry her fingers off of my neck, she laughed, "Oh Leila, why do you disobey your mother so? Have you any idea regarding how much I love you? This is for your own good, you know."

"F-fuck....y-y-you....," was all I managed to choke out. She then snarled with disgust, dropping me to the floor. Eyes wide and chest heaving, I pressed my hand to my chest to catch my breath. She waited until the perfect moment to kick me in the side with the toe of her boot, making me cough up extremely unsettling amounts of blood.

"Worthless little shit, breaking my favorite vase while cleaning. You will stay in here and think about the malice behind your deed." She then lowered herself to the floor where she was inches from my face. Voice lowered, she continued, "You have no self-worth. You are insignificant, just like your worthless brother was." Slamming the door behind her, my mother condemned me to this hellhole once more, just as she always does.

It didn't always used to be this way.

Before my older brother Daniel died, he would fight back for me. Life was hard, but he made it manageable. Danny gave me hope. In fact, he was the light of hope in my life. We did everything together. He was my best friend, as I was his. I loved him, and he loved me.

But all of that changed after the... incident. Knowing that Danny's eighteenth birthday was coming up, my mother knew that he would try and become my legal guardian, and we would get an apartment far away from her. We had both diligently saved our money for this day. Danny would whisper little tidbits of this plan when my mother was not present, but she still found out somehow. She always does.

One day, my mother and Danny got in her car. I was told it was a simple trip to the store, only that Danny didn't come back with my mother. On October 17th, 2010, my brother Daniel had died in a car accident after colliding with a drunk driver. My mother was only severely injured. The funeral was horrible, everyone giving my mother and me their condolences, telling me how lucky I was that at least my mother survived. My mother acted so sad and forlorn, but even at my incredibly young age, I knew it was bullshit. She didn't give a damn about him. Apparently, she also knew that I knew how she really felt about Danny, because she always glared at me whenever I spoke at the funeral.

Where is my father you ask? You tell me, because I sure as hell don't know.

I was only ten years old at the time. Seven years have passed since that black day.

When I was sure she was gone, I heaved myself onto my bed, hugging the Fluttershy plushie that Danny had given me before his passing. Dampening my pillowcase, I silently cried myself to sleep.

When I awoke (or at least I thought I awoke), I saw a young man with blue hair and a sword rush at another man with black hair, unhealthy-looking skin, and long, dark purple robes. When the blue-haired man brought his sword down upon the other man, he blocked the blue-haired man's sword with what looked like lightning bolts coming from a spell book. They danced back and forth with their weapons, both desperate to stop the other. Suddenly the blue-haired man pointed to me and gestured to the ceiling above. "Up there!" he exclaimed. When I looked up, I saw the man in dark purple robes charge up a large quantity of magic before bringing it down upon the floor below. My body reacting entirely on its own, I leaped backwards and shot my own bolt of lightning at the spot where the man with the dark purple robes had once been. Apparently I missed, because my magic hit nothing but air as to where the dark sorcerer had once been. "You fool!" he yelled. I whipped my head around to see the blue-haired man be hit by another shock of the dark sorcerer's magic. "Argh!" he shouted, clearly in great pain. I watched him stagger to get back up. The man in dark purple robes charged up an extremely large bolt of magic, laughing ominously. "DIE!" The large bolt of magic rushed at the blue-haired man with an unbelievable amount of speed. My body reacting on it's own once more, I shot my own bolt of magic at the sorcerer's bolt to shield the blue-haired man. Once he was saved, he rushed at the dark sorcerer to deal the finishing blow. A light purple haze began to emanate from the man as he fell to his knees. The blue-haired man turned to me and smiled an adorable lop-sided smile. I was about to smile back when I heard the purple-robed man answer, "This isn't over... Damn you BOTH!" Even though I'd just met this man with the blue hair, after fighting alongside him he became very important to me and I wanted to do everything I could to protect him. As the man with the dark purple robes shot all of his remaining magic at us, I pushed the man with the blue hair out of the way, taking the blow myself. My vision became very white, and as it cleared, I became very weak, feeling myself collapse to the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man with the blue hair sprint towards me and drop to his knees. I felt a warm blush rise to my cheeks as he put his hand on my back, helping me rise to my feet. "Are you all right?" he asked, smiling another smile that filled me with so much warmth. "That's the end of him," he continued. I turned to the side to see the man with the purple robes disintegrate, the purple haze surrounding him eventually fading as well. The blue-haired man turned back to me, still smiling. "Thanks to you we carried the day." Me? What did I do? All that time my body just acted on its own. "We can rest easy now." Suddenly, pulses of red hot pain exploded across my face. The blue-haired man's voice became muffled and distant. "At long last..." More red hot pulses. I felt my face contort with pain with what felt like migraines. I remained conscious, but I began to lose all feeling in my limbs. I could hear the my heartbeat echoing through my head and the blood roaring in my ears. What was happening to me? Concern spread across the blue-haired man's face. "...What's wrong?" he asked. He began to rush towards me. No, get back... I thought. "Hey! Hang on- argh!" he exclaimed, letting go of me and staggering backwards. I looked down to see that a lightning bolt in the shape of a dagger had been plunged through his stomach. No... did I do this? The pulses ceased, and the blood roaring and heartbeat stopped echoing through my head. I looked at my hand. Little pulses of electricity with the same color as the dagger in the man's stomach traveled across my right hand. The man looked me in the eye with what seemed to be confusion, sadness, and anger all on his face. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and onto his cheeks. "This is not your- your fault... Promise me you'll escape from this place... Please, go..." At that moment I stood there, watching his eyes go wide, the color draining from his face, he collapsed to the ground. I backed away, ominous laughter echoing through my head.