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"You see?" my mother scoffs. "She can't even respond to you when you speak to her. Honestly, Jim, I never understood why you made me keep her. When we found out it was a girl you should have let me go through with the abortion like I wanted to. She ruined my ability to give you a son and then goes around behaving like a spoiled brat. I honestly don't think she deserves to sleep in her room tonight."
My father sighs and shrugs his shoulders. "Whatever you think is best."
I look between my father and mother in horror. I've never been forced to sleep in the cage before. At the very least they always let me out before they go to bed.
My stomach pains are worse now, reminding me that if I go back into the cage, I won't be able to sneak something from the kitchen for dinner.
"No, you can't," I manage to stammer out.
"What was that?" my mother nearly spits out in anger.
I swallow thickly. "Please, I. . ." The words die on my lips.
"You horrible, ungrateful spoiled brat. After all we do for you, you have the audacity to sit there and argue with us?"
"No, I," I start to say. The whole situation feels so out of control now. My mother is reaching for me and my body is moving on instinct. I don't mean to dodge out of her grasp, but I do.
She loses her balance, her ankle twisting in her perfect stiletto heels and she falls to the floor, just at the entrance of the cage.
I've never seen her this way before. She's kneeling on the ground. Her knee is scraped and her hands are pressed against the cold cement I know all too well. She's no longer this perfect, beautiful woman who can do no wrong. For the first time, I am seeing her for what she really is.
A cold, cruel, and heartless woman.
Something inside of me breaks. Before she can get up I press my foot onto her back and kick her inside of the cage.
My father yells her name, pushing me out of the way in his rush to get to her. He's crawling inside, trying to grab her.
"Jim," she's screaming out. He's holding her but the cage is too small for them to move around. My father struggles to help her and in doing so climbs further and further into the cage himself.
I stand there, watching the entire scene. That's when a small bit of light catches the door. I close my fingers around it and in one swift movement, I slam it shut on them.
They both turn around and look at me in horror. I pull the key from the lock quickly before they can grab at it.
"You wretched child!" my mother screams. "You let us out this instance!"
"No," I say to her.
"Raven," my father says in a stern voice. "Open this door right now!"
I take a step back.
At first their demands are forceful. With each outburst, I refuse and take another step away from the cage.
But then their tone softens. They start pleading with me.
By the time I'm at the top of the basement steps, they're begging me to let them out.
I take the final step onto the landing and close the door behind me.
Darkness swallows everything.
Even the desperate screams of parents.
ChapterSix
"You don't understand," she says.
"Then help me to," I reply back desperately.
