Chapter 04: Cindy
Retroville, Texas. December 2nd, 2019.
"Hold on, I'm coming!", Mr. Erickson called out to his front door after the doorbell rang. When he opened it, he saw his two most well-paying clients, Winston and Sasha Vortex, along with their blonde haired, green-eyed daughter, who looked a little shy. "Mr. Erickson, hey!", Winston said in a welcoming, somewhat gravely voice. "Hello, Mr. Vortex! Good to finally meet you in person after our phone calls!", Mr. Erickson responded as the two men shook hands.
Mr. Erickson then turned his attention towards the woman. "You must be Sasha. Mr. Vortex tells me that you're quite an ideal wife." Mrs. Vortex smiled. "Oh, you know, I try my best, but it helps that he himself is quite the ideal husband, I must say!" And on the surface, Winston Vortex did seem like an ideal man, six feet tall, in great shape, had a strong, confident voice, and was a well-liked individual around the neighborhood largely due to his military service during the Global War on Terror. After serving and fighting for six years, all he wanted was to just live a peaceful life.
Or, at least, that's definitely how it seemed.
At last, Mr. Erickson turned his attention towards the primary topic at hand, the eight-year-old girl standing shyly behind her father's leg. "Why, hello there. You must be Cynthia! I've heard you're really bright for your age! It's okay, I don't bite." Feeling her confidence surge after the compliment on her intelligence, Cynthia Aurora Vortex smiled as she stepped out of her hiding place, her pigtails dancing somewhat due to the speed of her step. "Hi, Coach Erickson. It's nice to meet you, sir!", the girl greeted in a high pitched, but clear, articulate voice.
Coach Erickson let out a friendly laugh. "Such a nice, polite young woman you are! You take after your parents! I love to see it!" The way Erickson's eyes lit up after getting a good look at the girl conveyed different emotions than the basic joy he was currently displaying. Mr. Vortex then said, "I've already informed Cynthia on everything she needs to know going in. You are to be her very first piano teacher, and he will be doing everything in his power to ensure that you are well on the way to being the best piano player in Retroville! Possibly even in all of Texas!".
Mr. Vortex then looked back down at his daughter. "Remember to treat your teacher with respect, and pay attention at all times." Cynthia smiled, and nodded. "I will, Daddy!" "Very good!", Mr. Vortex responded. He then walked up to Erickson and shook his hand a second time. "Remember what we talked about.", he mouthed to Erickson as they shook hands. In response, Erickson nodded once.
"Well, why don't you come inside, Cynthia? You and I will be playing piano together for a good hour and a half, so make yourself comfortable! Oh, by the way, how many minutes is an hour and a half, Cynthia?" "Ninety minutes!", Cynthia answered, grinning. "Excellent!", all three adults said, applauding the girl, lightly.
after exchanging a few more words with Mr. Erickson whilst their daughter sat on his couch awaiting the beginning of her lesson, Mr. and Mrs. Vortex turned around, got back in their vehicle, and drove away.
Cynthia sat down in the chair directly in front of the piano, while Erickson stood tall beside her. He began to say, "So, Cynthia-" the girl cut him off. "Can you call me, 'Cindy', please? I think it sounds better. All my friends at school call me that." Erickson paused for a few seconds, slightly annoyed that he was interrupted. Especially this early on into the lesson. "You got a lot of friends?", he asked.
Cindy grinned, "Of course I do! Everyone at school likes how talented and pretty I am!" Erickson smiled lightly. "I'm afraid it'll have to remain, 'Cynthia'. That's the name your parents gave you, it's the one they prefer, and they're the ones paying me, so I'd rather honor their wishes." The smile on Cindy's face faded, but she nodded in acceptance.
Erickson continued, "Alright, now without further ado, let's begin. This first note right here is called the C-Note..."
Thirty-five minutes had passed. Erickson was a bit of a fast-paced teacher, but so far Cindy was able to keep up nonetheless.
"Alright, now, I'm going to add in a basic tempo track with this switch right here, and all you need to do is play the notes I tell you to play in-sync with the tempo. Can you do that, Cynthia?" Cindy felt a little tired, but she was determined. "Yeah!", she said to her teacher. "Very good. Now, let's dive in.", he said.
For the first nine seconds, Cindy tried her best to play the correct notes in-sync with the tempo track emanating from the piano-speakers, then Mr. Erickson abruptly stopped the track. Cindy stopped playing, and a confused look crossed her face. "What's wrong, Sir?", she asked. "I'm afraid you were a little off-tempo, but it's okay. We'll just start over. You didn't get that far, so not much progress was lost.", Erickson answered.
"Okay, sorry.", Cindy said. Erickson smiled. "No worries, kiddo."
This time, they were six seconds in when Erickson stopped the tempo track again. "No no, not quite my tempo, it's all good, here we go.", he said. "Oookay.", Cindy replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
This time, four seconds until the abrupt stop. "Off-tempo?", Cindy asked. "Off-tempo.", Erickson responded. "Umm, okay.", Cindy said. "What the heck? I was doing so good up until now. Why am I suddenly messing up so much?", the girl thought to herself.
And so she tried again. This time, she awaited the abrupt stop again after the fifth second, but to her pleasent surprise, he didn't stop it! She smiled as she kept going on and on, onto the fifteenth second, then the sixteenth, the seventeenth, the eighteenth, the nineteenth-
-and then she felt a quick, tremendous force hit her in the face hard enough to launch her off the chair and onto the floor.
Less than two seconds after her bottom hit the floor, all of the pain that that force brought with it starting making it's ugly presence clear on her face, as both her hands shot up almost involuntary to cup her severely stinging cheek and her eyes began to tear up.
She then looked up to see that the force that hit her, was Mr. Erickson, with the back of his hand. A look of extreme shock crossed the girl's face. Mr. Erickson, on the other hand, looked mildly angry as he stopped the tempo track yet again. "Do you understand why I just smacked the shit outta you, girl?", he asked her.
Cindy fought back further tears. "I...umm..I-" "Answer me!", Erickson yelled. "I-I was off-t-tempo?", she asked in a broken voice.
"Get off my goddamn floor!", Erickson yelled, startling her. She slowly raised herself off of the floor. Erickson continued, "Yeah, you were off-tempo, but you just messed up like four damn times! No-one is that stupid, so either you're the first person to ever be that stupid, OR, you're deliberately trying to waste both MY time and YOUR parent's money! I dunno what's worse. So which is it?"
Cindy stammered out, "I...I'm not stupid-" "OH so you ARE trying to waste time and money! What a little bitch you are! Now, where you going too fast or not fast enough?!" Erickson asked. "W-what?", Cindy asked. "You did it on purpose, tell me!", Erickson demanded. Cindy stood, paralyzed. "I...I..I-" "Jesus Christ, maybe you ARE the first one to be this stupid! You can't even speak!" Erickson interrupted.
"...I don't know!", Cindy yelled as tears fell down her cheeks. "Oh good lord, you're BOTH! You're disobediant, AND a little retard! You are a worthless little piece of shit, Cynthia!"
The poor girl had never felt so hurt in all her brief existance. Her cruel teacher then continued, "You know what? COME HERE!" With that, he quickly grabbed her hair and yanked her over his lap. "OW! What are you doing?!" Cindy cried. "You are a bad girl. And you know what bad girls get? SPANKINGS!"
In the next instant, he brought his hand up high, then brought it down on the girls bottom, causing her to yelp and cry. For as long as Cindy could remember, both her parents would occasionally give her spankings for breaking established rules, but she wasn't supposed to be receiving them from a stranger...right? "Why are you doing this? I didn't mean to do anything wrong!", Cindy begged as he continued to spank her.
He temporarily stopped. "I was only going to give you eight spankings, but you're inability to tell me the truth has knocked it up to TWENTY!", he yelled. So he continued, and Cindy cried, and cried.
Finally, he stopped, and Cindy's bottom was in a tremendous amount of pain. Her parents had never hit her anywhere near that hard! Mr. Erickson had a look of anger across his face, but what Cindy didn't know, was that this was the part Erickson looked forward to the most.
Nonetheless, he managed to maintain his facade. "I didn't wanna have to do that, kiddo, but you're just being too problematic! Now, are you gonna behave?"
Cindy, after sniffling a few more times, composed herself. "...Y-yes, sir!"
Erickson responded, "Good, because you give me any more shit, then we're gonna have to do that, again. And next time, I'm afraid your little pants are gonna have to come off-" "NO SIR, please!", Cindy cried, interrupting (and arousing) him.
He grinned, and then said, "I should hit you, again for interrupting me..." Cindy drew in a terrified gasp. "...But since this is your first day here, I think I'll go easy on ya."
Cindy let out a relieved sigh, but was still deeply scared. "This was the easy way?!" She thought. Erickson then continued, "Now, if you're done screwing with me...let's get back to your lesson, shall we? We still got plenty a' time for you to learn a bit more."
Cindy looked down, tears still in her eyes. "...Yes, sir."
Some time later, the doorbell to Mr. Erickson's house rang, and after he got up to see who it was, he opened the door to find that it was, at long last, Mr. and Mrs. Vortex.
"Ah, Winston! Good to see you, again! I hope that-" "DAD!", Cindy screamed, cutting Erickson off as she ran past him, and into her dad's arms for some well-needed comfort. "It's okay, after I tell Daddy and Mommy what happened, they'll help! They'll call the police!", Cindy thought.
"Good lord, Cynthia, what happened? You look horrified!" Cindy answered, "He...he hit me! He spanked me even though I wasn't doing anything wrong! I HATE him!"
"Oh my goodness! Sasha, take Cindy back to the car! I'm gonna call the police on you, Erickson!", Is what Cindy hoped would happen.
Instead, both her parents just seemed...eerily unfased. "Sasha, take Cynthia back to the car.", her dad ordered in a quiet, but serious tone. "Come on, Cynthia.", her mom said as she grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the direction of the car. Cindy complied, happy to get away from this dreadful place, but as she looked back, she saw that her piano teacher and her dad were...shaking hands and smiling. As if nothing went wrong. "What the...?", Cindy thought.
About a minute after Cindy and her mom returned to the car, Mr. Vortex finally too, returned to the vehicle, and they at last drove away. Away from Cindy's bully. Cindy's grown up bully. Hopefully forever.
Cindy began to cry some more. "Dad! Mom! He's horrible! He-" Her mom cut her off. "Settle down, Cynthia. I know this all seems confusing right now, but your father and I will explain things when we get home. For now, just...relax."
Cindy complied, but she couldn't stop crying. She opted to just whimper quietly as she hugged herself.
Her parents, on the other hand, still didn't seem at all phased, or even surprised.
When they finally got home, a two story house on Autumn Drive, Cindy's parents ordered her to go to her room, upstairs. After she did, her parents followed her.
Cindy's room looked about how an ideal eight-year-old girl's room looked; pink walls, pink curtains, a pink bed, and filled with stuffed animals and numourous different Barbie's and Ken's living together in the iconic Dreamhouse.
After they all sat down in her room, Cindy held her favorite stuffed animal, Daisy the Beagly-Dog, and told her parents the whole story. All of it. "I can't believe Mr. Erickson did that to me! We're gonna call the police, right?"
Then Cindy's father said the sentence that she would never forget.
"Actually, I'm afraid you're mistaken. Mr. Erickson proved to be the perfect choice to be your teacher. He followed my orders down to a tee."
Cindy looked at her father, eyes wide in shock. "W-what? But he hurt me!"
Her father contiuned, "Cynthia, you're eight years old, now, and it's time for you to understand how the real world works. You're old enough now to where it's no longer sensible for you to be coddled. The way it works in the real world, is that the only people who truly prosper in life are those who are the best of the best of the best. In everything they do. People who are anything lesser than that, not only most likely won't succeed, but quite frankly, they don't deserve to."
Cindy began to look down, a new lump building in her throat. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Her mother continued the speech, "Yes, Mr. Erickson hit you, and yes, it hurt, but it wasn't without reason. You made a mistake, multiple times, and he was merely showing you what happens naturally to those who flounder in life. You've learned a valuble lesson tonight in the importance of being a winner in life."
"No, no, no...", Cindy whimpered out as she began to cry, again.
Her parents both looked at each other for a few seconds, and then her father said, "I don't know, Sasha, it doesn't look like our little Cynthia has truly understood the error of her ways." Sasha replied, "I'm afraid you may be right, Winston. Cynthia, we're sorry, but for your inability to follow directions tonight at your piano lesson, you won't be getting any dinner."
Cindy looked back up at her parents, her mouth open in shock. Her father continued, "Agreed, Sasha, and I don't think you should be allowed to sleep in comfort, tonight, Cynthia, so I'm afraid that instead of your bedroom, you'll be spending the night in the empty closet, with no blankets or pillows."
"What!?", Cindy cried out, holding Daisy close.
Her mother then said, "Good thinking, Winston, and...on the note of our little Cynthia growing up, that little stuffed animal in her hands, she is far too old for something like that, don't you think?"
"No!", Cindy screamed.
"Why yes, Cynthia has been sleeping with that thing ever since she was three years old! It's high-time we got rid of that old thing. Cynthia, give it here.", her father demanded.
"No! NO!", Cindy cried. "Come on, Cynthia, you're too old for that thing!", her mother said as she tried to pry the stuffed puppy out of her daughter's little hands.
"No, I'm not! Why are you doing this? Please!", the little girl begged, hugging Daisy tight. Finally, her father stepped in, and pushed Cindy to the ground, forcing her to relinquish her stuffed animal. "Ow! Where are you going?", Cindy asked as her parents sauntered out of the room with her toy.
Cindy ran out of her room after them, to see that they were walking towards the living room's lit fireplace. With Daisy.
Cindy's eyes widened. "NO! No, Daddy!", but Winston completely ignored her as he callously, but aggresively threw Daisy onto the fire. Without thinking, Cindy ran towards the fireplace in an attempt to save the closest thing she had to a pet...
...Only for her to be quickly stopped by a vicious slap from her mother. "We're doing you a favor, Cindy. You'll see.", the woman said in an annoyed tone.
Cindy cried like a baby as her stuffed animal burned in the fire.
Then her father grabbed her by her neck and began to haul her down to the aforementioned closet.
"No! Dad, please!"
"Quit fighting, you little bitch.", he whispered, venomously.
They arrived at the closet a few seconds later, and without hesistation, Winston threw his daughter in, slammed the door back shut, and locked it. This closet had never been used for any purpose since the Vortex's bought this house. Not until tonight.
The closet was very small, and pitch black. Cindy was still at a young enough age to where she feared the dark immensely. "Daddy! Lemme out! DADDY!"
Her father was about to really lose his temper. "Hey! Settle down! You got another day with Mr. Erickson tomorrow, this time, it'll be twice as long! So I suggest that you calm down and get some rest. Goodnight."
Cindy remained determined. "Dad! Lemme out! Daddy! Mom! Mommy!", she cried out as she banged on the closet door.
After a few minutes passed, Cindy's high pitched screaming began to grow much weaker, as did the young girl's resolve. "...Daddy...", she whimpered out through sobs.
At last, she slowly walked to the back wall of the closet, collapsed to the floor, hugged her little legs to her chest, and quietly sobbed.
In the span of just under four hours, her idyllic childhood was utterly ripped away from her.
Meanwhile, Mr. Erickson had finally gotten to sleep after a very, very enjoyable few minutes beforehand. As he slept, his phone was next to him on his nightstand.
And on it, was a picture of Cindy.
Mr. Erickson's search history one week ago:
10:00 P.M.:"Little girls naked in shower"
10:05 P.M.:"Little girl pees"
10:10 P.M.:"Girl caught naked covering face"
10:15 P.M.:"Little girl embarrassed"
The next morning, Cindy was woken up at five-thirty, primarily so her parents could tell her about what her new home life was going to be like from now on.
They were going to sell all her toys, as they were a needless distraction from becoming a great individual. "We're going to let you keep Barbie, but only the main one. Every time you look at her, you'll be reminded exactly just how flawless you need to be in order to be successful in life.", her parents told her.
She got to keep her bed, but the catch to that was that depending on how well she behaved throughout the day, her bedtime experience would differ each night.
If she merely pass/failed, she would get to sleep in her bedroom, but no blankets. If she failed moreso than she passed, she wouldn't get any pillows, either.
If she utterly succeeded, then she got to sleep normally, with both blankets and pillows.
However, if she really failed or misbehaved, then she would get the closet again.
Cindy was cold most nights.
Cindy was only allowed to eat one meal per day in the form of a bland, but very healthy and nutritious dinner. If she didn't behave adequately well throughout the day, however, she was to be outright starved for the next day.
Cindy eventually became very skinny. (To the pleasure of her piano teacher)
She eventually forgot the taste of Ice Cream and Purple Flurp.
She was only allowed to watch one hour of Television per day.
She was allowed internet access, but every night, her parents would utterly invade her privacy, and go through all of her search history to see whether or not she was following the rules on what to search for. If she cleared her history, it was a night in the closet without dinner. If she was caught looking up almost anything that didn't pertain to getting better, it was a night in the closet without dinner.
No comedy, no movie clips, no music.
The little girl was immensely relieved to know that she was still allowed to go on playdates with her best friend, Elizabeth Folfax, (Who went by the nickname, "Libby") even if she was only allowed to do so once every three weeks, if she behaved well enough.
And above all else, she was told, "Do not ever tell anyone about any of this. If you even think about violating this rule, well...let's just say me and your mother have no issue making a new child."
The first time she went on one of these playdates after her life was turned upside-down, the two girls decided to play with their toys, as Cindy told Libby that she was jealous of her toys. (Which technically wasn't a lie). Cindy asked her friend, "Is it okay if I set up the story by myself?", to which Libby allowed.
The scenario began at Barbie's dreamhouse. Barbie and her close friend, Christie, were having a tea date together, when suddenly, the dreaded Pirate King Robert Kragg appeared, and he was demanding that Barbie give up her whole house, and all which was inside! The Pirate King viewed the dreamhouse as a great potential fortress for his crew, and cared not at all who he had to hurt in order to get it!
Barbie and Christie begged to their bully to leave them and their belongings alone, but the dreaded King wouldn't budge. He unsheathed his cutlass, and threatened to gut the two girls if they refused to comply!
Just then, when all seemed lost, Superman landed directly in front of the Pirate King, causing Barbie and her friend to cheer, "It's Superman! Hooray!" Superman smiled a genuine, warm smile at the two girls, and then turned his attention back towards the Pirate King, who looked stunned and scared. "Kragg, I'm going to give you ten seconds to turn around, and leave these two lovely ladies alone, or else I'll have to make you leave!", Superman boomed in his iconic, strong voice.
Kragg was horrified, but he remained determined nonetheless. With all his might, he let out a war cry as he sprinted at Superman and slashed at the hero. The cutlass, of course, bounced right off of him. "I'm not impressed.", Superman said. With that, Superman launched his opponent miles away with one great punch.
And just like that, the Pirate King was gone, and peace had returned to Barbie and Christie's lives.
"Woohoo! Go Superman!", the two girls both cheered. Superman merely responded, "It's okay, there's no need for this much cheering, I only did the right thing to do, nothing more."
Christie then responded, "But Superman, most people don't do that. You do. We want to thank you."
Superman remained silent for a few seconds, then responded, "You're welcome, girls." Barbie then walked up to Superman, hugged him, and said, "If more people were like you...
...the world would be a happier place."
"Uh, Cindy, are you okay?", Libby asked her friend. Cindy looked up from the Superman action figure, and made eye contact with her friend. "Um...yeah. Why?"
Libby answered, "You're crying."