Immediately, Father grips Emilia by the lick lifting her from the ground. Emilia’s feet squirm as her hands fights to get her father’s grip off. She tries to gasp for air, but her wind pipes are too tightly squeezed.
“We were worried about you! Then you wake us up in the middle of the night like we don’t work in the morning.” Her father yells, “Who in the Goddesses do you think you are? Do you pay any bills here?”
Father releases Emilia’s neck, and she falls to the floor hurting her ankles. She rubs her sore throat. Mother joins Father’s side with her hands on her hips.
“What is wrong with you?” Mother vocalizes as she shakes her head at Emilia. Though Emilia tries to hold onto her tears, the tears trickle out.
“Go to the room I wake up early to pay for!” Father yells at her. Emilia rises awkwardly and makes her way around the corner, but her parent’s voices fill the halls when her foot hits the first step of the stairs.
“Next time stay gone!” Father yells behind her. The conversation slightly softens as her parents speak to each other.
“She’s so stupid.” Mother exclaims.
“We should’ve given her to your mother when your mother asked to take one of the girls. Would’ve saved us some problems.” Her father pronounces.
“Girls are usually helpful. She’s the most useless girl I’ve ever known.” Her mother declares.
Emilia continues to rub her neck, but she feels her lips quiver. Her heart takes leaps as her veins shiver. Not from fear, but from dejection and shattering. Tears flow creating a monsoon, and she hugs herself tightly rocking back and forth. Her body searches for somewhere to sit moving closer to the ground as her legs press together tightly.
Footsteps approach, so Emilia slips into the nearest closet. The footsteps lead up the stairs. Emilia is useless. She is a waste of space. Her family doesn’t even love her. It’s not like she asked to be born. She couldn’t even do the world and die properly. What is her purpose? What does she do? She helps no one. She can’t even complete simple tasks like cooking, cleaning, or returning home at a decent hour. She’s lazy. Waking up before the sun is one of the hardest tasks Emilia has to complete in her day. She hates it when the soldiers ask for extra uniforms, food, or anything. She definitely can’t think for herself because her parents have to assign her tasks to do like cooking when she gets home or even sweeping the floors. What is wrong with her?
Nothing is wrong with you. Teddy’s voice reaches Emilia’s brain as it strokes her leg. Emilia looks down at the bear with eyes accepting the flaws within herself and shaking.
“Yes, there is.” She nods her head.
As the thoughts rush around in her head explaining why she was choked, slapped, whooped, beaten every time she did something wrong, her nails grow longer into thick talons. Emilia can’t do anything right. Her neck becomes thicker and hairy. Nobody likes Emilia. Her eyes turn blue glowing in the dark. Emilia makes everything worse. Her cries become short grunts. Emilia is a waste of space. Her teeth grow large, and all four of her canine teeth overlap her bottom and top lips. There’s nothing Emilia can do. Her ears move to the top of her head taking on fur and becoming pointy. Emilia is worthless. Emilia’s family doesn’t even love her. Her mouth viciously stretches the bones of the jaw and nasal area outward until it forms a snout. Emilia is a mistake. Her hands and legs become furry paws. But, Emilia didn’t ask to be born. Her back shortens as it loses the human movability forcing Emilia onto all fours like an animal. Maybe they’ll miss her when she’s gone.
Emilia, the beast, pushes her body against the door forcing it to open under her weight. Stepping into the halls, the wood floors crumble under her feet. Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap. Her family rustles upstairs. Emilia takes a step towards the closest exit, but the floor crunches loudly underneath her feet. Floorboards, another thing Emilia has destroyed.
“What was that?” Father’s voice rings.
Footsteps hurry down the stairs, but before Emilia can make a dash for it, Father Mother, Gracie, and Mary stop at the foot of the stairs behind one another. Each of them stands before living proof that there is something off about Emilia. They are the ones who have always hated her.
Father throws his shoe at Emilia. Finally, he can kill her. Isn’t that what he always wanted? Emilia launches at her father knocking him down. The women rush up the stairs as Emilia claws at her father, but he pushes her off rushing up the stairs himself. Emilia leaps up to the second floor blocking her family’s path. The family turns to rush down the stairs. Her family has always worked hard to get as far from Emilia as possible. Why would they be any different now? Emilia snarls and growls as she chases after them. Teddy holds onto her front arm never letting go.
The family rushes into the kitchen, and Emilia prowls after them with her head low. Emilia growls through bared teeth. Father pushes his wife and daughters behind them, protecting them. He never protected Emilia like that. In fact, in any situation she needed protection, Father just watched. Does he even consider Emilia to be a part of his family? Did he even want her around? Did he ever want her as a daughter?
Emilia pounces on Father knocking him onto the table which crumbles under the weight of them both. Pain seers into Emilia’s back; she hisses turning to find Prince Victor holding a curved sword pointed directly at her. Emilia examines her hideous beast like reflection in the sword. She truly does resemble the beasts the kingdom fears. The pain in her chest grows as she backs away slowly. Victor swings his sword knocking her down and slicing her fur coat. With two wounds, Emilia quickly bounds out the back door.
Though she can hear Victor rushing after her and shouting orders, she doesn’t stop. She jumps up the rubble of rocks climbing up to the wall. The warning horn of the nation screams out alerting people to hide and soldiers to assemble ready for orders. Soldiers rush through the streets and towards her on the wall. Emilia glides to the green side of the wall then bounds deep into the woods.