These first two chapters have emotional abuse and minor physical abuse. I believe that it is important to recognize that these things happen, and it isn't always bruises on the skin. If you have any questions about emotional abuse, I do have knowledge about it, but this is going to be a happy story, I promise :)
CHAPTER 1
"Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, sound, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, that, if I then had waked after long sleep, will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, the clouds methought would open, and show riches ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again." – William Shakespeare, The Tempest
There was a blood curtailing scream coming from outside and it was interrupting Ariel's nap time. She stomped down the stairs and threw open the door, her schipperke puppy, Captain, trotting down with her.
"What the hell?" Ariel threw the door open and a small brown haired flash past underneath her arm, she recognized the scent of Miranda's perfume. Beyond the small yard were three boys, older than Ariel, holding rocks in their hands. "Unless you want to eat those, I suggest you put them down and walk away," Ariel starred down through the parts in her messy hair.
"I'd love to see you try, Ojo (princess)," Ariel walked outside, Captain sat down huffing and turning his head to the side. The boys laughed as they watched Ariel, in her sweater and Nike shorts, walk up to them and without stopping punch one boy in the stomach, grabbing the rocks with her other hand. The boy fell on his back and Ariel kneeled on top of him while the other boys started yelling at her in Japanese.
The boy underneath her started crying as she grabbed his jaw and pulled it down, pushing a rock in between his teeth.
"Ariel!" A male voice yelled from the window of the house behind her. Her father, Joji, starred daggers into his daughter's eyes. The sun shined bright, blocking some of his vision, but he could hear the whimpering from the street.
Ariel sighed and got up, pushing the boy more into the ground before spinning and sulking back toward the house.
"If I see you boys around here again, I'll call the cops, understand?" The boys didn't respond to Joji's threat. They simply ran down the street as fast as they could. "Ariel, my office, now," he glared down at his eldest daughter.
Ariel took her time walking up the stairs, tracing her hand over the many scratches in the wooden rail. She knew what he would say, he acted so stern and chill to other people, the ideal father. But inside the walls of their small home, he was much worse.
"You want to make me look bad don't you?" Joji slammed the window shut, making the walls shake.
"No, sir," Ariel said, keeping her eyes on the wall behind him.
"Then you want to bring shame to our family, that must be it."
"No, sir. Those boys have been bulling Miranda ever since she started school," Ariel explained calmly, she could feel eyes on her back and knew that Miranda was in the hallway peaking in.
"I don't care; you must stay out of it. Every time you leave this house whether it is going to school or getting the damn mail, you represent our family in this world. You represent me, and I will not have you going around beating up boys in our front yard," Ariel did not blink when her father got in her face, "do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"You will spend the rest of the day in the Hansha closet," Ariel knew he wanted a reaction out of her; she made sure to take as much satisfaction away from him as possible so she stood tall when she pivoted and walked out of the room. "You're going to act like that?" Joji followed her out of the room, "the whole night then!"
"No, papa, she was just defending me," Miranda said from the wall by the office. She didn't move but her voice was louder than it usually was. "Don't make her go in the Hansha, please."
The Hansha, or thinking, closet, was a tiny closet in the laundry room which had too many repairs to be worth using. It was a hot space where outside air dare not travel. The worst part, was that it locked only from the outside. Miranda had never been inside, but Ariel could call it her second room in the house.
While Miranda pleaded, Ariel had her way down the stairs and into the laundry room, she grabbed two small rolls of bread and stuck them up her sweater sleeves before entering the Hansha.
Not long after did she hear the short click of the lock, "you will not disgrace me ever again."
"I will not disgrace you ever again," she had said the phrase a million times. Nothing ever changed from her trips to the Hansha, if anything it made her resent her father more.
A few seconds more and Ariel felt the door groan with the small added weight of Miranda's back.
"I'm sorry, Ariel," Miranda's soft voice drifted through the rotting wooden door. "Maybe he wouldn't lock you in here if you just kept to yourself."
Ariel slid down the door against her back, she pulled out one roll and rolled it between her hands. "Mir, I cannot wait until I can take you away from this place and show you that there is nothing wrong about standing up for yourself, and especially nothing wrong with standing up for others."
"Papa would find us," Miranda's voice was soft, her mouth hid behind her knees.
"I would make sure he wouldn't. I have a lot of money tucked away, Mir, enough for us to get an apartment and for you to go to a good school, I have a plan," Ariel put her hand to the door. She took a bite of the roll, savoring it, as this would be her dinner and probably breakfast. "I don't want you to grow up timid and scared of everyone; I will stand up for you every day, but you need to learn to stand up for yourself."
Ariel heard Miranda's feet move away from the door. She closed her eyes and thought more of her plan on how to escape their small town. They would have to leave at night, they'd be easily seen and the traffic at the airport was always heavier during the day. If they had a taxi meet them on the other side of the forest they could get to the airport in an hour. The forest was two miles away from their house.
"What are you doing?" Ariel heard Joji yell from his office. "Do you want to end up like her?" Ariel stood up, she prayed that Miranda hadn't tried to steal the steal the key to the Hansha closet. "Do you want to end up a freak?"
"Don't say anything, don't say anything," Ariel whispered. She hadn't meant stand up to their father, Miranda needed practiced before heading straight into the bull ring.
No reply was heard, but the sound of a small body hitting the wall made Ariel want to pull the door knob off. Joji hadn't hit Miranda in almost six months, each time she was able to hide the marks with a long shirt or makeup. Ariel knew this wasn't a safe place for either of them but what could they do? If they told the police they would just separate them into different foster homes or worse, they could end up back with their father if he claims she just fell down the stairs.
Miranda's' cries filled the house and Ariel slammed the Hansha closet door with her left shoulder.
"Don't touch her you son of a bitch!" Ariel yelled from the closet.
"Oh shut up," Joji's slurred voice came marching down the stairs, "I have put up with you for so long-"
"Put up with me?" Ariel pounded her fist into the door so hard she could feel the bruises forming as she spoke. "You're supposed to care for me I'm your daughter."
"NOT MINE!" His voice grew. "If it isn't obvious you are not any part of me, and you got no aspect of your mother other than the color of your eyes. I didn't have to let you stay in my house," he started to chuckle, "I could have …left you in front of a church, or…or kicked you out on the highway…or could have at least got a couple of bucks from some gang members…" he trailed off.
"Then why didn't you?"
"Money, Ariel," she could hear his voice getting closer and closer to the closet, "it is always about the money." She heard his forehead bang into the door so she took her left hand back and punched the wall as hard as she could.
The old wood split, so far that a small crack was made, Ariel could see through the crack. Joji had trotted back, not falling, but definitely disoriented.
Joji rubbed his forehead and left the laundry room, leaving Ariel to pear through the crack with her only light being the small window above the washing machine. The sky had turned a shade of pink and orange; if she were in her room she would be able to watch the sun set. Watching the sun set was her favorite part of the day, it brought her peace, knowing that every day, no matter how bad, always ended.
"Remember that all worlds draw to an end and that noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy." – C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia