Heartbroken

Chapter 1: Allegra

A trickle of blood rolled down my arm, a long sliver of wood buried under the skin of my right forearm. The tweezers shook in my hand as I gently grabbed the wood piece, slowly and carefully pulling the sliver out. I winced as the wood snapped, leaving half of itself still in my arm. I muttered under my breath as I prodded the area of purplish skin. Ignoring the pain I dug the tweezers in and grabbed hold of the wood again, this time pulling quick and fast. Thankfully, it came out with little resistance, but more blood started to run down and into the sink.

I dabbed the blood away with some toilet paper, keeping pressure on the wound. I lifted my head to look in the mirror, not surprised by what I saw. My usually blond hair had turned unruly and disheveled, like I had been living in dirt my whole life, and it had lost its golden sheen. It hung, depressed, out of the rubber band that was loosely keeping it close to my head. My eyes were devoid of life, and the dark bags under them and the purple bruise blossoming on my cheek made me feel like a zombie that had risen from the dead. I felt like it too. I looked down at my shaking hands: they always did that. No matter how hard I tried, they would always shake at least a little.

Life had not been kind to me. And neither has my uncle.

I quietly opened the bathroom door, sneaking out into the hallway, careful not to disturb my aunt and uncle. I scowled at the words.

All my aunt and uncle had ever done to me was beat me and ruin my life, and the piece of chair leg in my arm was also their fault. Or should I say his fault.

I crept over to my room, and the door squeaked. I stopped, dead-silent, afraid of what might happen if my relatives woke up. My heart pounded in my chest as it pumped blood to my throbbing arm, and I slipped inside the door, closing it and falling down onto the bed.

I glanced at Mercy in the dark, her chest rising and falling to the rhythm of her breathing, her blankets in disarray. I placed my hand on her small forehead, smiling sadly. I wish that I could give her more. I stood up, pulling on a tank top and pajama bottoms. The floor creaked somewhere in the house, and I froze, the fear filling me again.

The heavy feet got closer as they made their way through the hall, and my heart beat faster, threatening to pound out of my chest. The feet stopped somewhere in the kitchen before going back to where they had began. The house fell silent again. I sighed, relieved, and collapsed onto my bed.

* *

"Mommy!" the little girl yelled, running circles around her mother. Her mom laughed, her arms hugging her large stomach, her long blond hair waving in the wind. "Look at what I can do!" the girl hopped from one foot to the other, flapping her arms, a big grin filled her face. Her mother's smile matched her daughters, her green eyes lighting up. The girl stopped in front of her mom, patting her bulging stomach. She rested her head against it, listening to the tiny heartbeat of her little sister.

"Do you think that she will like me?"

"Of course, honey. She's your sister!" the mother's smile stretched into a grin.

"I have a sister, I have a sister!" the girl chanted as she continued to hop around her mother. "Papa, I have a sister!" a man opened the back door, his face void of any features, just a surface of skin. His skin began to melt, dripping onto the back patio. The girl screamed and ran to hug her mother; she wasn't there. The man walked forward with a slight limp, dripping molten skin, his face changing into that of her uncle. The girl fell backward, scrambling to get away from the monstrosity. His blue eyes spun inside their sockets, what little hair he had on his head was falling off, stubble sticking to his chin like magnets. He smiled, bearing his few teeth, pulling a beer bottle from out of nowhere and chugging the contents.