"Why isn't my dress steamed yet?" Thea yelled at me as I swiftly stitched closed the final seam on her lime sister's dress.
"I'll get to it as soon as I'm finished, I promise," I quickly answer.
"It should've been done already. What've you been doing you hog?" She threw a pillow towards me. I let it smack into my shoulder.
"I'll say! Have you even wrapped a gift. It's a party, and we're required to bring a gift!" Nissa barged into the room, waltzing over to the mirror, admiring her reflection.
"Yes," I answer monotonously as I knot off the last bit if thread.
"Good, now you can steam my gown!" Thea announced, beginning the task of unrolling fat curlers from her thin hair.
"What time is it?" Nissa barked.
"7:42 pm." Thea enunciated. "We only have an hour till the limo is here."
"Good thing I'm naturally beautiful!" Nissa cackled.
"You truly are my precious daughter!" My stepmother made her entrance garbed in a deep purple that wrapped her like a Christmas present. "As are you Thea dear," she soothed in her snake-like voice.
I turned back to steaming the wrinkles out of Thea's yellow gown. This party was the largest event of the year. Everyone had been invited, and even though I had been told by my stepmother not to go, I had plans of attending anyway. It would be the best way to celebrate my freedom.
I finished the dress and ran to fulfill my captors next request. Gloves, jewels, ribbons, shawls, tights, and shoes. I cinched the bindings on their corsets tight in hopes it would cause them to suffocate. I placed pins in their hair harshly in hopes of stabbing the scalp. I looked to my family and saw the satisfaction of my work plastered on their faces, not that they'd ever acknowledge it. 8:28 read the clock. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and ran downstairs to the basement of my room.
From my broken wardrobe I pulled a soft blue gown. It fell to my ankles with so many layers of tulle it bulged in a most feminine manner. I removed my worn in pants and shirt, let my hair slip from its bun to the middle of my back. The dress slid up my body before zipping shut. With a warm washcloth, I rinsed the sweat and dirt from my face and delicately placed pearls onto my neck. I packed my small book bag. Some money, some letters from my father, a key to his cabin on the mountain.
I rushed upstairs, hoping my stepmother and sisters were gone. Delighted to find the house deserted I got to work. Turning on the gas stove, pouring any alcohol in the house to the floor and furniture. Saturating the beds and wardrobes in kerosene. The last thing I did was lock the front door, before striking a match and dropping it through the open window.
