The Sins of Our Fathers

III Devil in the Mirror

Frozen and statue like I stood there barely moving as I gulped. His gaze pinned me there like a predator to his prey. I had seen that look too many times in on my father as he went from the caring man I knew to the ultimate hunter who felt nothing. Sometimes I wondered how he could live with the guilt bearing down on him each second of the day, how could someone do something so awful then a second later by his daughter an ice cream cone? Early in our relationship it had bothered me, but after awhile I grew used to it; my father loved me and that was all that mattered. Eventually I had grown numb to the violence and death that seemed to trail my father.
Once I had seen him force a man to his knees in the middle of the streets at gunpoint, a knife in his other hand. I watched the man beg for mercy, for forgiveness, but he never received it. My father had reached out and drew a line across his throat. Blood poured from the wound littering the snowy pavement. The man gagged and cough until he crumpled to the street where my father shot him. All the while people had watched in horror all wanting to save the man, but knowing the consequences if they did. I had watched the same event they had, but while their faces were masks of disgust and horror mine was blank. I looked back at the man and stared into his lifeless emerald green eyes and felt nothing.
Later I had asked my father what the man had done to deserve that.
"He disappointed me." He had answered. I had vowed to never fail my father that day, and I hadn't up until the day he died.
I couldn't help, but wonder what my father had done to Zachariah to make him so angry. Who had he taken from him? Very little could motivate someone to go to such lengths for revenge except the loss of a loved one. After all if cancer hadn't taken my Mother then I would hunt down her killer and make them pay, but even my father couldn't kill a disease.
"Come with me dear." The woman smiled and motioned for me to follow her up the stairs. Cautiously I followed, vigilantly watching Zachariah, who made no move to follow.
"Later." He mouthed and I turned without another glance.
•••
The red head had showed me to a bathroom and introduced herself as Anastasia Vladimir, but told me to call her Anna. After pointing out all the items in the bathroom and explaining how they worked she left me. She seemed so kind and motherly, the exact opposite of her son. Anna hadn't asked who I was or why I was outside in a storm like that and for that I was glad.
Immediately after she left I rushed to the shower and turned it on, watching in awe as streams of water shot out of the sterling silver fixture on the wall. Hurriedly I rushed to the counter to grab soap and hair products from the luxurious vanity.
The entire bathroom was gorgeous with cream walls that had intricate gold swirls hand painted on them, with a matching gold moulding running around the room where the ceiling met the wall. My breathe caught as I saw the ceiling. Angels faces each other in a sea of clouds sounding two curled golden horns. The mural was one of the most beautiful I'd ever seen. My gaze roamed around the room taking in all the other extravagant fixtures, finally stopping on a small disheveled figure in the large gold framed mirror above the marble counter. I hadn't seen myself in years, but never had I imagined that I looked quite this bad.
My normally unruly wild curls were flat and stringy from weeks with out wash and oil practically oozed from my scalp onto the floor. My face was caked with so much dirt and blood it looked like I was wearing makeup that was much too dark for me. But it was my body that made me want to cry. Three years ago on my sixteenth birthday I'd been thin, but my body still held whispers of curves, with large hips and a small but portioned chest. Now my ribs stuck out of my skin so badly I could count each one, and any trace of curves I had was gone leaving me with nothing but the bones of my pelvis that threatened to break out of my skin. My green eyes seemed to bug out of their sockets due to the tightness of my skin being drawn across bone. My skin's pallor had even gotten worse fading to a white that shouldn't ever be natural. Biting my lip I turned away from my reflection and climbed into the shower.
The water massaged my tight muscles and I watched the first layer of dirt slither down the drain. Greedily I soaped up a wash cloth and set to work scrubbing every speck of dirt off of my body. The small sponge baths I'd take with Kalie obviously hadn't been enough. It seemed like every time I thought I was done another layer would fall and I was that much closer to the porcelain skin beneath.
White splotches began appearing and spreading, until they all bled into each other and the last of the dirt washed down the drain until no traces of my past remained.

(Hi guys! So sorry all my updates have been so slow coming! I've had major writers block that just decided to lift so woohoo! So hope you like it so far let me know what you think! And please spread the word and vote! Love y'all!)