Disclaimer: I don't own Phantom of the Opera or anything else for that matter (kidding of course).
I've just updated the chapter with breaks (I'm a ditz sometimes, I know) I apologize to anyone who read the chapter and didn't understand a thing that was going on. I just started using this edit thingie (very descriptive Liz :( ) so...yah. Once again I'm sorry.
Child of Two Worlds
Chapter One
I stared out my small window to the empty world before me. The sky was gray with not a single hint of sunlight within it. There was a murder of crows perching on the branches of the larch tree under which my parents were wed twenty years ago. The crows' caws were the only sound I could hear for miles. I tried to avoid their eyes but I knew their black marble eyes were on me.
My father stomped out of the barn with a pail of milk in his hand, heading toward the house and towards me. I knew that soon enough he would yell at me for not milking our cow myself. Already I could hear him grumbling my name and cursing my existence. I didn't care though. I didn't care much for anything anymore. Aubert had cursed my name since the moment I entered this miserable bleak world.
I heard the loud angry slamming of the back door and my father's voice at the bottom of the stairs.
"Maria! Get yourself down here girl!" he bellowed.
"Maria Antonia," I muttered as I rose from my bed. "My name is Maria Antonia."
I made my way to the foot of the stairs as a convict might walk to his death; slowly, reluctantly, and still considering if he should make a run for it. At the top of the stairs I slowly looked down at my father who glared angrily up at me.
"Well don't just stand there like an idiot girl! Get down here now!"
I tumbled down the stairs to stand before the domineering figure of my father. I stared into my father's stormy gray eyes, but quickly looked away. He always had the power to stare straight into a person's soul and I didn't want to watch him stare into mine.
"Why did you choose not to milk the cow this morning?"
I stared down at my thin feet. They were black from all the dirt I moved through and there was grime between my toenails. But I'd rather look at them then at my enraged father.
"Answer me!" he barked.
"I was too tired to milk the cow!" I burst out before I could think otherwise.
"Ya were too tired to! Listen here your majesty, your mother and I do a lot around this farm and so should you!"
I looked my father dead in the eye, which surprised both him and I. "Yvette's not my mother. Only Mother's my mother" I said in a dark and cold tone.
"Listen you bitch, Yvette has been a better mother to you than that whore who brought ya into this world! Now you best be treating her with a great measure of respect, or I'll throw ya out of this house before ya even know it! Ya understand!"
I begrudgingly nodded and my father stiffened.
"Good, now go get us some eggs from the coop. And don't ever even consider not doing your duties again or else you're out!"
I nodded and quickly moved out of my father's sight. I grabbed the egg basket on the kitchen table and flew out the door. I didn't stop running until I reached the chicken coop. Rapid tears were blurring my vision, but I wouldn't cry. I couldn't cry. I hadn't cried since that terrible day twelve years ago. I shook my head violently trying to shake the past out of my mind. I didn't want to think about that day. I never wanted to think about that day again.
"This porridge tastes like horse manure," my father bellowed at me from across the kitchen table. "What the 'ell did ya put in this girl!" He then proceeded to spit the porridge onto the floor.
"She's slipping Aubert," my stepmother told my father as they leaned into each other like dark minded conspirators. "She's to busy thinking about men to do as her betters tell her. Soon she'll become just like her mother and then where will that lead us." She sneered my way, her rotting teeth making my stomach churn.
My father looked me up and down. "I should have known you'd turn out this way. After all we've done for you." He violently threw his bowl of porridge at me. It hit my breast with a great force. I suppressed a cry of pain but my stepmother cackled madly. My father soon joined in, both of them always taking humor in my humiliation.
"Aaahh get your arse to bed girl, and don't try getting up to eat cause I'll know. Now get outta here!"
I quickly left my seat at the table before they could humiliate me any further. I stamped up the stairs and burst into my room. I flopped on my straw bed with a sigh of relief and exhaustion. Once again my eyes watered with tears, but I wouldn't cry. Through my heavy breathing, I could here Aubert and Yvette discussing me in the kitchen.
"She'll make fools of us Aubert, we must throw her out."
"But the town will scorn us Yvette. They'll think we're being cruel, they'll think we have no good reason for getting rid of her."
"Well if she stays, the town will turn away from us, they'll think we are alright with housing a slut. We need her out Aubert!"
"I understand, my love. I'll tell her to pack her bags as soon as she makes breakfast."
"See that you do Aubert," Yvette muttered.
My breathing became faster. I was furious and yet somehow uplifted. Throw me out Father? Your own daughter? Fine, I don't care. That's right, I DON'T care. But it will be I that gets to leave this hell on earth and it will be I that will succeed in this life. And you will not throw me out Aubert and Yvette! I will not award you that pleasure. For I will leave by my own will. As God is my witness, I will not award you with my humiliations anymore!
Ok, that was the first chapter of my really sad and cheap first fanfic. No, no, please read and review. Healthy criticism is accepted but only if it's healthy.