As Sophie turned nine, things in the Hall household had gone from bad to worse. Matthew and Karen didn't talk anymore, they only argued. And most of the time, they argued about Sophie. Karen was trying to enforce more and more rules upon their young daughter, but Sophie had found a rebellious stubborn streak somewhere within herself and was beginning to refuse.
"Sophie, I have reached the end of my tether with this stupid journalism dream of yours" She snapped. "I want you to go upstairs and bring down all of your notebooks and any copies of that stupid magazine you may be hiding up there"
Sophie peered up at her. She may have been stubborn and she may have been rebellious but her mother's sharp words still hurt her. She couldn't understand why her mother hated her so much. To her, Sophie couldn't see anything wrong with wanting to be a writer but her mother simply despised the idea. Sophie looked around the room, as if looking for her father's support. He wasn't there; he had gone out, reluctantly leaving his little girl completely in her controlling mother's care.
"Go on Sophie, you silly girl, go now. Do what you are told by your mother" She hissed looking over her reading glasses with a cold hearted glare in her eyes.
Hot salty tears welled in Sophie's big blue eyes and she shook her head rapidly. "No, they are mine" She cried. "You can't have them"
"What was that Sophie?" Karen snapped. "Are you refusing me?" The words were like venom, poisonous and sharp as they slipped off of her tongue.
"Yes!" Sophie cried, wiping her eyes furiously with her hands, clenched into little fists in her anger and sadness. "Yes I am!" She leaped down from her seat and turned on her heel, turning her back on her mother which Karen saw as an ultimate show of disrespect. She ran up the stairs and into her room, she was afraid as she pushed herself against the wooden door in attempt to hear if her mother was following her up the stairs or not.
She heard it. The loud tapping of Karen's high heels shoes against the hard wooden floor along the hallway. The sound of the footsteps got faster, matching the rapid beating of Sophie's heart. Scared and not knowing what to do, she leant as heavily as she could against the door to try and stop Karen from opening it. Sophie was only small, and light for that matter. As the footsteps drew closer and closer, Sophie held her hands against her ears and cried. How she wanted her daddy then.
Karen pushed the door, sending her daughter skidding across the floor with the force. "How dare you? How dare you disobey your mother you little rat" She hissed stepping closer and closer to Sophie. The little girl backed away, terrified and shaking as she stepped away from Karen with tears pouring down her cheeks.
Through her eyes, her mother was a monster. She had the hissing tongue of a snake; her words of hatred were venom to match the tongue they poured from. She had the height of a giant, towering over Sophie with her high heeled shoes only adding to her. She had the strength of a predator and Sophie was sure she was now the pray. That was the monster that Sophie saw whenever she looked at her mother. She clenched her hands tight around the wooden windowsill of her open window, holding on as if the wooden ledge was her last chance for safety and stability.
"All your life, yes that's right Sophie all your life, I have raised you to be a polite, poised, well mannered, intelligent and correct little girl who will grow up to be a wonderful member of society as a famous lawyer. But your wrong, what happened to following my rules huh?" Karen spat staring down at Sophie.
Sophie sniffled, wiping her eyes quickly before hanging onto the windowsill again. "I don't want to be a lawyer, it's boring and dull. And I am smart, I get A*'s in my subjects and I am learning Latin" She said, trying to be as strong as she possibly could. "I want to be a journalist"
Karen scoffed. "Journalists are low paid, brain dead idiots who sit at their computers all day long" She said standing right in front of Sophie.
Matthew came up the driveway and got out of the car, pausing when he saw Sophie back first to her window with Karen looming over her. He bit down on his lip.
"You are brain dead" Sophie said to her mother. "Im not and you spend your days sitting in an office, paperwork all around you. You never play with me, you hate me!"
For a moment, Karen's eyes blazed like fire with pure anger. Her hands came down upon Sophie and her nails, like dagger sharp talons, dug into Sophie's shoulders making the young girl whimper and the tears come again. To Karen, Sophie had transformed from a child into a child's toy rag doll as she shook her as if trying to shake some of her sense into her.
Matthew watched in horror, wanting to move and save his little girl but his feet were stuck like glue to the ground in fear. He looked up and caught Karen's eye.
In the deep green of her eyes, he saw a flicker of murder.
"No!" He yelled, his scream being lost as it seemed time slowed in the moment. Karen gave one almighty push, sending Sophie back. Her body twisted as she tumbled over the window sill meeting the roofing tiles on the veranda roof with a crash. She screamed, her tiny body falling down the roof towards the edge.
Karen watched, her eyes wide as Matthew and Sophie screamed.