Sweet Luxuria

Prologue

When you are young, evil is not completely tangible. Although the monsters under your bed and the shadows in your room fill you with thoughts of all things scary, evil is never truly understood until it has to be. Evil is a nameless, faceless force to be reckoned with. But when you grow up, you realize that the monsters your parents told you were just your imagination are very much real. The only difference is, these monsters are people just like you.

Erela was once a child, just like everyone else. She had thought the world was beautiful. That it was full of light and hope, and all things wonderful. Everything for her was smiles and sunshine until the harsh slap of reality forced her to acknowledge the truth.

The world was an ugly place, filled with ugly people, who did ugly things.

She knew that now.

---

7 years ago

Dad was home. She could hear his footsteps as he entered the house from her small bedroom upstairs. He was home late again.

Erela wasn't supposed to be awake, it was well past 9:30, the new bedtime her parents set for her when she recently turned twelve. She had begged for ages for a later bedtime, saying that she was basically a teenager now and could handle going to bed a half hour later than usual.

Tonight she couldn't sleep though. Everything always felt wrong when Dad wasn't home for supper, and especially when he got home this late into the night. Erela knew that Mom had waited up for him again, she was going to be mad at him.

Mom's voice echoed off the walls of the house, reaching Erela's ears easily, "You're home late," she stated deathly calm.

Silence settled for a minute before Dad answered, "What does it matter, Woman?" he grumbled.

Erela heard one of the kitchen cupboards slam shut and someone, probably Dad, noisily filled a glass with water and slammed it on the counter.

Her parent's voices echoed through the house, straight to her room where she heard every word clearly. "I'm getting tired of this shit, Todd. You're pathetic, drinking all night instead of spending time with your family. Erela needs her dad," Mom said, disguising her near desperate pleading as anger.

"I don't want to hear this shit again, Louise," Dad sighed angrily.

"Well, you need to! I won't raise my daughter around a drunk, I just won't. So you better smarten the fuck up because we'll leave you in a second if you keep it up," Mom shouted, quickly getting upset by Dad's behavior.

"What did you say to me, Louise?" Dad growled, Erela heard her mom whimper.

"What the fuck did you just say!" he repeated, yelling. 

The sound of a glass shattering rung through the house and Mom let out a shout of pain.

"You think you can threaten me like that, huh? You got another thing coming, Woman. I run this house. I own you, Louise."

Erela laid frozen in her bed. She'd never heard her parents fight like this before and she didn't know what to do. What if Mom got hurt? Dad's drinking was no secret, and how angry it made him wasn't either, but he wouldn't hurt Mom because of it, right?

Mom let out another whimper, "Please, Todd. Stop it please!" she cried.

Ice was coursing through Erela's veins at the sound Mom's pleading. She needed to help. She needed to do something. Dad wasn't supposed to be acting like this, he loved mom. This wasn't right.

Erela forced herself to remove the warm quilt from her body and tiptoed out of her room to the top of the stairs. Her movements were shaky with fear, she tried not to focus on the sounds coming from the kitchen. Slowly, she descended the wooden stairs, reaching the bottom steps only to look through the kitchen opening and witness the effects of Dad's anger.