A Quil Ateara love story

chapter twenty

Alissa's pov:

Once again once I woke up and the quill was gone, leaving just a few crumpled sheets behind. My stomach dropped when I thought about him not being here but I pushed it away and started getting ready for school.

After dawdling down the stairs, the smell of pancakes hit my nose and my stomach growled loudly. I jumped the last few steps and swung into the kitchen but had to stop dead in my tracks.

My father was sitting at the table, sipping a cup of coffee, looking exhausted and hungover. The bags under his eyes were a bruising purple and the rest of his skin was sallow and yellowing. His eyes were sunk and heavy lidded with exhaustion and his lips were chapped and pale. He looked like death.

This was not uncommon for his mornings but the strange part was that he was here, typically he is gone every morning, one of the small blessings of my day.

"Oh, um, hello father, mother, good morning," I stammered out as I took my seat at the table.

"Morning lissy," my mothers bright voice chirped out and I was put on my guard immediately. She was never this happy in the mornings, no one is. So i wondered, what's coming.

My question was instantly answered.

"You see, I was curious as to whether I could trust you to abide by my rules when I wasn't here to enforce them myself. And I was surprised to find out that you can't. After asking a round a few times I found out where you spent your days in my absence. Now I was shocked to find out you had been down on that little reservation, running around with the local cult. I don't ask much of you to do it, just that you listen to me but you can't even do that. The second i leave you go whoring around with anyone stupid enough to find you worth their time. And let me tell you, that makes me angry. You seem intent on ruining not only yourself but me, your mother and any other reputation we could ever try and uphold. Why do you ruin everything?"

My father had backed me into a wall and i could only stare dumbly back. I felt frozen. I heard it before I felt it. A sharp smack sounded through the air and the sheer force of it knocked me to the ground.

I fell, crumpled to the floor, as my cheek exploded into a dazzling, bright pain. A cool metallic taste coated my mouth and the room sounded as my vision blacked in the corners and lights danced before my eyes.

An agonizing grip on my jaw dragged me to my feet and his hands forced me to look into his eyes. I searched desprat;ey for any emotion in the cool granite but came up short. He was empty, dead, his bruising grip on my cheeks being the only thing to remind me he was alive. Very much alive.

"Hm, nothing to say for yourself? How disappointing yet unsurprising, you are nothing and will always be nothing alissa, nothing but a waste of space, a waste of air. I gave you your life so I own it, I own you and all I ask is that you obey me, yet you can't do that, can you?" tears streamed down my face and i couldn't bring myself to speak to him, i couldn't.

"CAN YOU?"

His hand fisted in my hair and a quick tug sent me back to the ground as my scalp burned. He sent a swift kick to my stomach and a deafening crack rang through the kitchen tiles as my rib broke under his foot. My breaths came out short and quick, and I willed myself to try and apologize, to beg him to let this be over. I got nowhere as his shoes pressed down hard on my throat. My windpipe constricted and I clutched at his foot, thrashing under him as my body slowly gave up its fight.

"Look at what a fucking mess your, its disgusting. Your disgusting alissa, a fucking embarresment, look at what you made me to to our lovely house, its a wreck and it is all your fault. I own you alissa, dont fcuking forget it."