𝒯𝑜 𝐻𝑒𝓁𝓁 & 𝐵𝒶𝒸𝓀 - 𝐸𝒹𝒹𝒾𝑒 𝑀𝓊𝓃𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝓍 𝒫𝒪𝒞 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇

Leora Thomas

Leora Thomas was the kind of girl you bring home to your parents. She was soft-spoken, beautiful, and kind. She was known to be extremely caring and giving. You needed tutoring? She'd do it. You needed extra money for lunch? You could have hers. It was almost like she couldn't say the word "no". And on top of that, she was smart. God, was she smart. She'd been getting straight A's in every subject since the 4th grade. 

She was raised in a household with very strict and unforgiving parents named Matthew and Nina. It seemed like nothing she ever did was right. They would blow up over the smallest things. Things that could be easily fixed. Things that wouldn't matter in the near future. You get a 96% on your report card? Grounded for a month. Because they "refuse to raise a failure". 

For Leora, the groundings weren't the even the worst of it all. The name-calling however? It was. They would call her the worst names you could think. Her least favorite was when they called her a mistake. They would say it over, and over, and over again. So much so that she started questioned why she even stuck around at all.

She was the youngest of 3. She had an older sister, Yara and, an older brother, Mateo. Yara was 8 years older than her while Mateo was only 6 years older. Her siblings were now 26 and 24. They had also gone through the verbal abuse of their parents.

She remembered the relationship that she and her siblings had. It was something she deeply cherished. She recalled running to her sister's room just after her parents got through berating her. She remembered her older sister holding her and whispering "It'll get better. I promise." while peppering kisses into her hair. Yara was the kind of person that Leora wanted to be like. A kind soul.

She also remembered her brother making jokes and doing little magic tricks to try and cheer her up. He always hated seeing her cry so he tried his best to make her smile. Leora loved every second of it. Mateo didn't make a single joke that she didn't laugh at. She was amazed by him. She often wondered how he was so good at magic.

Then she started wondering where the magic had gone.

Yara and Mateo had both moved away from their shared parents and never looked back. Sure, they still spoke with Leora but it was just every now and then since their parents forbade it as they didn't want Leora to be influenced by them. Leora longed to see them again.

Yara had left home as soon as she turned 18. Poor Leora was only 10 years old. She didn't want Yara to leave because she knew that her parents' words would only become more harsh if the was the only girl in the house. But she also knew it'd be selfish to ask her to stay.

Leora had wept- no, sobbed that day like she never had before. 

"Please don't leave me" A small Leora cried while clinging to her sister. Her whole face was red. She looked like she was going to explode and in all honesty, she felt like she was going to. "Just take me with you"  She slightly slurred. Yara looked down at her younger sister with tears brimming her eyes. She knew what she had to do to escape the terror of her parents but, that didn't mean that it wouldn't hurt. 

She then reached down and stroked her little sisters face and gave her a sad smile. She took off a bracelet she was wearing and handed it to Leora. "I love you" Yara said. "More than anything" And with that, she turned on her heels and walked out of her childhood home for good.

When Mateo left, it was different. He had tried to fight for Leora. He couldn't bear the thought of her being all alone with those people that they were forced to call "mom" and "dad".

He started saving money when he turned 17. Just a year after Yara had left. He had made plans to buy a home and head to a courthouse to research his legal options for getting his sister out of that home and into his care when he turned 18.