The Weakened One [GOTG Fanfiction]

1 > Earth - 1984

Valerie

What happened that day was a mystery. I think everyone would like to get straight to the point and move on, but the rest of my story blatantly depends on this piece. So, I'll tell you straight from the beginning:

I was a happy child, born into the new era of pop culture known as the '80s. With a smile on almost everyone's faces, one might think that this was one of the happiest times in United States history. I won't go into detail of any sorts but everyone should understand why.

Anyway, I was just a five year old girl at the time, mind you, and had no care in the world. Me and my mother just moved into a new town and I was almost able to go to school, which got me really excited. I had heard about so many fun things that we would get to do in Kindergarten and I was always on the edge of my seat, waiting impatiently for a perfect year that was never to come.

Over the summer, my mother kept getting anonymous calls and of course she would always answer the phone.

"It could be an emergency," she would tell me, "or the call could be one of our close family members or friends."

So being my five year old self, I was so naive and vulnerable. I could have been repeatedly run over by a stampede of wildebeests and still would have not understood what was going on. I believed every, single word that my mother, older kids, or the elderly said. But, boy, was I wrong to trust anyone. Even my own mother. I went along with whatever she told me. Mother always knows best and I looked up to her as my hero. But I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have trusted her or anyone else.

They would always tell these myths, these lies, these fables. Like there was a monster under the bed or in the closet. If I was missing something, they would tell me a troll took it away for a good reason. Even if it was food they took from me. They would tell me that the moving lights in the nighttime sky were UFOs from aliens, not airplanes. But they were all wrong. And they did this to make us 'stronger.' But in turn, I'm pretty sure they all came back only to bite us in the butt.

But one day, some of those fairy tales changed.

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"Mama!" I yell, my shrill voice echoing off of the plain walls in our new home.

"What is it?" She comes running into the front room by the front door. "What happened? Is everything okay?" Her face looks worried and grief-stricken, like I had done something wrong. Her hands are roughly holding a kitchen towel, some water droplets on her forearms.

I look outside the window and down the road, seeing several cars drive past our home and another that pulls into the driveway of the house next door. After I'm done sightseeing, I turn to face my mother. I jump off of the spinning chair and walk to her, taking the towel from her hands and setting it on the desk next to us. I grab onto her soft, weathered hands and look at her colorful green eyes. She smells of dish soap and laundry detergent. Cleaning day.

"When is Daddy ever going to come back? How will he know where to find us now?" I wonder, thoughtfully.

She gives me a confused look but her eyes slowly redden and begin to water at the sound of my father. I spot a tear slip from her eye and roll down her cheek. She smiles down at me and squeezes my little hands lightly.

"He'll come back, sweetie," she says as her voice shakes and cracks. "Soon," she whispers and plants a kiss on the top of my head. She releases my hands and holds my face to look at her own.

"Where is he, Mama?" I ask. She drops her hands in despair and looks out of the window. She sniffs and rubs her nose.

"He's in a place that is much better than here, Ellie." The light that streams into the windows from the summer sun casts deep shadows on my mother's sad face when she looks to me.