Short Stories

Keep Living

She sat in her room terrified of what would happen next. Would he come in? Or was she just scared he would? What was she scared of? She couldn't remember. What was so bad about him? Did he do something to harm her? She can't remember, why can't she remember?

She heard footsteps. Quick. Do something. She busied herself with reading a book, but it wasn't enough. He came in, angry. He yelled at her, he yelled at her for being too lazy, about not helping around the house, about how she was failing at everything she tried to do. She remembers now, she remembers why she's scared. He was scary, he was always angry, he was always so violently angry. He couldn't afford to hit her though, so he just yelled and yelled.

Her mom always said, "Oh he's just tired," or "Oh he's just hungry." Her mother always defended that man, the man who had made her so miserable. More than once, she tried to commit suicide. If he had nothing better to do than tell her how worthless she was then maybe she was really worthless, maybe she didn't deserve to live anymore.

He was supposedly a godly man, so she hated god, she hated him for doing this to her. Why would someone following someone so 'great' be so awful? She hated him, yet she prayed almost every night, "Please take me out of my misery, either kill me or kill him. Please." 

She did this for years, but neither came to be, neither she nor he had died. She was devoted, right? She had spent all those years asking him for ONE thing, but he did nothing to answer her. Why did she have to be so stupid? She was trying so hard to be happy, but everything her father did was making her more and more dead.

She's tried everything, she's tried to do everything right. She tried to make everyone happy, and to do all the things that were expected of her. But it was never good enough for him, he was always angry. He always yelled. He was always so loud, and him being loud means him being angry. When he was angry, she always cried, whether she couldn't hold it back and cried in front of him or she cried in solitude. She was so scared all the time, her body couldn't handle all of it, she began to grow very ill. She thought, maybe god is finally answering my prayer. She was so happy, she was finally going to die.

Her mom took her to the doctor, she started to get better, she didn't die... She was devastated, but she kept on living. For what? She had no clue. But she still kept living.