My Golden Life

Chapter 5

The day that I had been dreading finally arrived. I was reading a book under a tall oak tree when Daniel came running to tell me he spotted dad walking up the pathway at the front of the house.

"Seriously? He's here already?"

Daniel nodded. "Yea I just saw him now, mum came out to meet him."

I sighed before placing a bookmark between the pages of my book. Daniel and I then made our way back to the house, not looking forward to seeing the man that damaged our lives, well, mainly mine. I pushed open the front door, and there he was. Dad looked a little different. Time hadn't been kind to him at all. Whenever he frowned or squinted you could see faint wrinkles pressing together by the side of his eyes, his hair had a few streaks of grey weaved into it which made him look a lot older than he actually did.

"Hello Daniel, Katie." his voice sounded a lot deeper than it did when we were younger. "I see you both are doing well."

"Yea, we are," I added, "Mum just needs you to look after us while she gets better."

"I know that Katie, she explained everything to me." I just rolled my eyes, not caring about what he said to me at that moment. I could feel him glaring at me, I don't think he was happy to see me again. Neither was i.

For the next three months, dad continued to stay at home. Daniel and I would mostly spend time talking to mum while she was in bed. I began to notice that he would give me angry looks from time to time. At first, I thought I was being paranoid, but then Daniel started to notice it too. At one point, he told me that he heard Dad talking to himself about how much he didn't want to be here.

"He really said that?" I asked.

"Yea," Daniel replied. "He was saying some nasty things about you as well?"

I remember turning to him in confusion, "W-what, do you mean?"

"Well... he was saying that he doesn't like you and that it's all your fault that his life has been miserable and a mess."

I couldn't believe what I had heard. How could my dad blame me for everything? It was his fault that his life was a mess, not mine. I didn't force him to teach me how to be a thief. It was all on him. I tried to keep telling myself that he didn't have these bad feelings about me; that he was just stressed about looking after mum. However, this view quickly changed when he took Daniel and me to the woods to get some firewood late one evening.

We had been walking for a few minutes, and I noticed my dad acting a bit strange; he was frequently looking over his shoulder and looking around the area as if he was searching for someone. Daniel and I asked him if there was something wrong, but he just told us to keep walking. Not long after that, we spotted in the distance what appeared to be two people standing by some sort of wagon. It looked quite rusty, and it smelled strange. When they approached my dad and shook his hand, I had a funny feeling something wasn't right.

"This the girl?" one of the men asked him. He stared at me with his cold dark eyes, and it frightened me a little.

"Yes, this is her. How much will she go for?" Dad asked.

I quickly turned to my brother, who was just as shocked as I was when he heard this. "What do you mean how much? Dad, what's going on?" Daniel yelled, clinging to me tightly.

"Lord Farquaad is looking for all the fairytale people, and your sister is one of them." A second man explained. I didn't understand what they meant, but then it hit me. As I was known as Goldilocks, I was now considered a person who was under the fairytale bracket.

"And your father here is handing your dear sister over to us, in return for some money."

I turned to my dad in shock, I couldn't believe what he was about to do. He was going to sell his only daughter for some money. My hatred for him was rising by the second, and I began to scream and hit him with all my might.

"Why are you doing this?" I yelled. "Please don't do this to me, I beg you" Dad's face, however, remained motionless.

"Just take her already," He groaned. "I haven't got all day."

Everything happened so quickly, I was grabbed by the waist and flung over someone's shoulder. I kicked and screamed as much as could, but they didn't let me go. I saw my dad holding back my brother, who was struggling to reach for me, but my dad kept pulling him away. I was then tossed into the wagon, and the door was locked shut.

"Katie, no!" Daniel cried. I tried to kick down the door, but it wouldn't budge.

There was a sudden jolt before I felt the wagon start to move. I begged the men to stop and let me go, but my cries fell on deaf ears. I continued to scream for Daniel, who was now nearly out of my sight as he was being dragged away by our dad. I collapsed to my knees and began to weep, not knowing if I would ever see him or even my mum again. I curled into a corner and continued to cry, not knowing what would become of me.