Paper crown

Chapter 1

A young girl, no older than 7, is sitting alone on a log, in the middle of the woods. Wondering what her life has come to, why she is the way she is. Praying things are going to change.

" Fawn! Fawn!" A shorter girl, half a year younger comes running through the trees calling to the elder one. " Look what I have!" She calls. The girl on the log turns to see her best friend wearing a paper crown, gently folded and stapled. "My mom made it!"

This is where my memory fades. I'm the girl on the log, Fawn. The girl with the crown? That's Charlotte, or as she prefers Charlie. My best friend since age 6. Speaking of Charlie, I owe her a call. I've been kind of shut out lately. I let my phone ring. Once, twice, three times, four. Finally she picks up.

" Fawn?! How are you?! What's wrong?! Are you okay?! Do you need me to come over?!" She said, clearly stressed out. I couldn't help but smile, she's such a dork.

" No Charlie. I'm fine. I just wanted to talk to you." I giggle. I can almost hear her embarrassment through the phone.

" O-oh! Okay! I sound like a total crackhead don't I?" She laughed.

" Yeah. You kinda do, don't worry though. I'm a crackhead too."

" I know Fawn. You are the biggest crackhead I know." She pauses. I can hear her dad's voice mutter something. " I've got to go now. My dad's about to leave for his business trip. I'll see you tomorrow! Bye!" And with that she ends the call. Classic Charlie. Her dad is always going somewhere, and she's always there to say goodbye to him.

" Fawn! Get down here!" Speaking of dad's. Mine just called me downstairs.

" Coming!" I drag myself downstairs, to speak with the man who has single handedly ruined my life. He stands there like he's a big man, beer bottle in hand.

" Come here." he slurs. Damn. I can smell the alcohol on his breath from here. But I reluctantly step forward, allowing him to slap me. Not moving until positive that he was done, then walking back upstairs to my room to flop on my bed and think.

Dad never hits me with the bottle. He may be drunk, he may be an idiot for hitting me in the first place, but he remembers things. Especially bad things. Like the last time he hit someone with the bottle, and that someone happened to be my mother. 9 years ago.

A little girl is standing in the corner of the room. Watching an argument between her intoxicated father, and her mother. She never knew why they were arguing, and probably never will, all she knew was that they were fighting. Then that petrified girl saw something, no she witnessed something. Something she had to cover up. Something she wasn't allowed to talk about. Something she never wanted to see. The man she called dad, looked down into the bottle, stared at it like it was his life and soul. Then he looked up at the woman he married, the woman he had a daughter with, the love of his life, and hit her. He smacked her across the head with the bottle. The noise made, either from her head, or the bottle, was one you would never want to hear. A loud cracking noise, like a garbage truck rolling over a box of bubble wrap. Glass shards littered the floor, as the lifeless woman fell to the ground, blood pooling beneath her corpse. And the small girl saw everything. She could have ran, she could have said something, she could have called the police. But she didn't do any of those things. She simply stood there crying, staring at the limp body of her mother. The man? He didn't say a word. He was staring too. His wife was lying on the floor, dead. All because of him. Then the little girl ran up to her father and hugged him. The man whom she had just seen murder her mom, she hugged him. She didn't see him as a monster, she didn't see him as a murderer, she saw him as a man who had just made a mistake. She saw him as human. She saw the regret in his eyes. She understood him. She wanted to be the little girl in his arms. The one he needed to protect. The one whom he was living for. The one he could understand. And the man saw that. He saw his daughter for the loving girl she was. He saw himself for the monster that he is, and for the first time, the girl saw her father cry. And for a moment, it felt like he was crying into her arms.