√ 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽 » 𝗲𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘁𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻

06; poison and pain

~ 6 YEARS AGO~

"When will you ever learn?" Manjot screamed, spit flying from her mouth, narrowly avoiding Priyanka's calm face.

It was a charade- Priyanka mastered lies and poker faces at the age of ten, and after a mental breakdown at school, she had been determined to learn the way of not caring.

And truth be told, she never would.

Because her heart, before it was mangled, of course, had been rather big, and while Priyanka wished to have an empty soul, her heart wouldn't let her.

And that was her weakness.

In the Patel family, weakness was like an ocean of blood to a coven of thirsty vampires.

If you had weakness, or even remotely showed it, you were dead.

So at a young age, where most children would be crying, mothers comforting, and fathers hugging, was replaced with closed eyes, yelling mother, and disapproving father.

"And how was I supposed to know that Padma was going to ask Riyaz out? It's not like she told me, she never talks to me!" Priyanka calmly replied, voice rising steadily.

"It wasn't like I asked him! He asked me!" At this point, Priyanka was yelling back, eyes red but tears contained inside her heart.

"You-" Padma Patel, Priyanka's year older sister sneered at her, "This is your fault. Mom, please, punish her! Now I don't have a prom date!"

When her mother hesitated, Padma looked at her father.

"Daddy, what would people think?"

That seemed to do it.

Inderjeet stepped between Manjot and Priyanka, face twisted.

For a millisecond, Priyanka thought, 'he's going to protect me. it's going to be ok,'

The opposite happened.

And, really, looking back on it, Priyanka should've known that her parents did not hold one sliver of love for her.

Priyanka's head snapped back, her hair flying, as her father, her last bit of hope, hit her.

She whimpered softly as she softly touched the cut on her cheek forming from her father's ring.

The young girl didn't look back as she walked away, body trembling in fear and anger.

As soon as she got to her room, she dropped, asleep.

On the way down, she cut her head further by the jagged edge of the door she still hadn't passed.

~

From that moment on, Padma never spoke to Priyanka.

The emotional abuse doubled, and on nights that her parents were drunk, Padma having escaped, Priyanka would have to hide somewhere in the house, and pray that the next morning they would forget they even wanted to hit her in the first place.

This also took a toll on Priyanka's psychological health, and soon enough, she could lie so well that if you'd see her cheat on a test, she could manipulate her words so delicately that you would believe you'd cheated instead.

This was benefited by the fact that everyone liked her from the start. Yes, some disliked Priyanka, like her parents, but that was after they'd seen something about her that they didn't like.

For instance, her narcolepsy.

Even so, Priyanka never allowed herself friends, to better quicken the process of not caring.

Her health deteriorated so fast while she was growing up, that it majorly stunted her height.

As he parents were near 6 feet, Priyanka lost a foot and several inches, making her seem inferior to predator males.

She had excellent aim at their weak spot from her chair, however, and the males simply never expected it.

Every dose of her drug made Priyanka wildly unstable at random times, and her parents would lock her in her room for a while to let her calm down.

It was the poison that not only ruined her mind, but ruined her body.

So every time someone would stare at Priyanka judgingly, she'd smile mildly back.

It was odd, miraculous, how even the most famed physicians never cracked the girl named Priyanka Patel.

You didn't have to have PHD's to break the female down, however.

Just look and listen.

For the pain and poison inflicted inside.