Her Street Fighter

05.

Chapter Five
Marebela

"Help! No stepmother, don't lock me in here, please," I cried. My body tried to grab onto her before she could push me into the cold basement.

"These are the consequences for bad little girls," she said. Her voice was evil and wicked.

"But I'm not a bad girl, I'm good," I cried. I've always followed the rules and I always did what I was asked to do.

"Good girls don't do the things you've done," she continued.

"But I just picked a flower from the garden." I was wandering around out in the meadow and stumbled across a field of daisies. They looked so pretty dancing in the wind.

"And what have I told you about picking flowers?" she asked.

"Not to do it..."

"And what did you do?"

"I did it," I said, lowering my head in shame.

I was only five at the time.

I shoot up from the bed. My heart was beating, sweat dripped from my forehead. My hair stuck to the side of my head.

Gunn ran into the room I was sleeping in. "What's wrong?" he asked, rushing to my side.

I looked at him and spat out in a rush, "Nothing, I'm sorry to wake you."

He grunted but didn't say anything further.

So I continued to speak, "I'll go back to bed. I'm sorry I woke you again," I stumbled sheepishly over my words. I was repeating the word 'sorry' over and over.

I lay on my side, shuffling to find a comfortable position. But I could still hear my stepmother's words; I could still feel the harsh actions on my skin.

I sat up to see if Gunn was still there. He was staring at me with his perplexed eyes figuring me out again.

He held contact with my eyes, but I quickly looked away, my cheeks burning as I did.

I could still feel his stare burning holes in my skin.

"Follow me." He didn't say anything after that. He grabbed my arm and dragged me from my sleeping spot.

I wasn't sure what he was going to do so I started to freak out. "No!" I flailed violently, thrashing around in his hold, but it wasn't anything against his iron grip. "Please, no, I'll go back to bed, I promise you. I won't trouble you anymore."

An involuntary whimper escaped my mouth. And I was about to protest some more.

"Would you be quiet? Stop acting like that. If you thought I was still going to hurt you, then why did you beg for me to let you stay here?" Gunn growled.

I shrugged my shoulders and lowered my head to look at my feet. I wouldn't say I liked his rise in tone. It made me feel small like my stepmother would make me feel all the time, and I hated it.

I hated that no matter how hard I tried to get away from her, she still found a way to haunt me.

"What were you going to do then?" I asked confusingly.

"What did I say about questions," he grumbled.

I frowned.

I wanted to say more than I needed to, but I know he'd get madder if I did, and I have already woken him up from his sleep.

He led me down the stairs and out of the restaurant doors. I was a little nervous. I gnawed the inside of my cheeks with my teeth and picked at my nails.