Something to Sing about: Drabbles of Eliza Dushku characters
4. "Hey there Delilah" (song by Plain White T's) Pearl, This Boy's Life
"Hey there…Delilah," Dwight hissed, his eyes narrowed, and Pearl stiffened, quickly beginning to inch towards the door. She knew full well that what it meant when her father called her by that name.
It wasn't her name, of course; her name was Pearl Eleanor. He had gotten the nickname from the Delilah of the Bible, and now, whenever he was mad at Pearl, that was what he would call her.
She was just like her, he had told Pearl time and time again. All women were, with their seductive wiles and betrayals… they would use their charms to lure you in and then once you trusted them, they would stab you in the back. Always trying to hurt you, always taking off on you, they were good for nothing, her father said repeatedly.
It didn't matter that Pearl, being only eleven, was not a woman but a child; the potential was there, her father said, and he would get rid of it, knock it out of her so she would never become like the others of her kind. With each mark on her body Pearl prayed…not that it would stop, but that the day she became a woman would never arrive.
Dwight never hit her before, when her older brothers and sisters were around, or when he had Toby and her stepmother to concentrate his rage on. But they were all gone now, leaving her behind, and she was alone with him.
"Come here, Delilah," he said, his voice deceptively soft, and Pearl knew there was no escape…for everyone else, yes, but not for her. Never for her.