Lost In The Woods
Alison's POV:
“Oh, not again! What sort of being are you? Must you always bring bad luck?” Mrs. Johnson yelled at the top of her voice, and without waiting for my explanation, she hit my cheek with the hot spoon in her hand.
“Ahhh!” I flinched and quickly made my way to the door, but Sarah, her cook, stood in my path and pushed me to the floor. I heard Mulan and her two minions giggle excitedly, but what could I have done, other than sit on the floor like a rejected puppy, crying and hoping for things to get better?
“Do you think blackmailing me emotionally will work?” Mrs. Johnson asked, walking towards me menacingly with a knife in her hand.
“I didn't mean to break your cup, ma'am. After washing it, I wanted to return it to the cabinet, but Mulan tripped me, and I fell," I explained, sniffing like a wee baby.
“She is lying, Amma; I didn't touch her. She's just making up stupid excuses for her neglect behaviors,” Mulan choked out with a sympathetic voice and hugged her mother.
Mrs. Johnson knew that Mulan was lying; it was obvious from the look on her face; nonetheless, she decided to blame me. “You are cursed. That's why nobody wants to be your friend; you'll never get mated if you keep this stupid and annoying behavior of yours.”
“Amma, don't dash her dreams,” Mulan said with a pretentious voice. I knew she was mocking me, and I buried my face in my palm.
“Dreams?” Mrs. Johnson arched her brows in surprise. She gently lifted her daughter's face from her body and knelt in front of me. “Do you have dreams, little one? I mean, is a vagabond like you allowed to dream?” She asked sarcastically.
I can accept anything, but I hate it when a person in power belittles a child with a big dream, so I lifted my face, nibbling on my fingers nervously. “Everyone is allowed to dream. Moreover, I am a werewolf, just like you,” I replied, mustering all the courage I could gather.
“Werewolf? You think you are a werewolf?” Mulan questioned with dry laughter, "Oh, for the moon’s sake! You are nothing but a wretched being who got lucky and was born into a Beta family.”
“You hit the nail on the head, Mulan,” Mrs. Johnson praised her daughter. “Even your mother will agree with us. Everybody hates you,” she whispered, and her words echoed in my head more than a thousand times.
‘Everybody hates you!’
‘Everybody hates you!’
I couldn’t argue with them because they were right. My parents and siblings hated me more than they despised silver.
That was the tenth job I was losing in the space of four days. I wanted to make my parents proud of me, to show them that I might be wolf-less, but I could still achieve great things. Anyway, if you’re born with my type of fate, you will understand that nothing ever moves in your favor.
Whenever the sun saw me, it went back into the cloud. Puppies were frightened of my face, and even my wolf refused to come out on my sixteenth birthday.
It wasn't like I was bad-looking. I was the most beautiful girl in my pack, but whenever they were grading the pretty girls, I was always left out.
I sluggishly stood up from the ground, bowed to Mrs. Johnson to show my sincere apology, and walked out of the door. They kept mocking me as I left, but I didn't react or shout at them.
Over the years, I'd gotten used to their ill-treatment.
……
My name is Alison Villiers, a twenty-year-old teenager who was born shortsighted and physically weak. Some people called me sickle cell, while most people said I was cursed by the moon goddess.
I have two elder siblings, Phillip and Phyna. My parents hated me, and I was treated like an outcast. Sometimes, I wondered if they were my biological parents, and till today, I haven't figured it out.
My heart-shaped face and the gentle curve of my high cheekbones have often been described as inviting. It's something people notice when they first meet me, and it's one of the reasons my sister, Phyna, despised me.
I loved my parents and siblings, and I was willing to do anything to make them realize that I was still alive, but unfortunately, they didn't care about me and focused their attention on Phyna, the breadwinner of our family.
Phyna was my role model. I idolized her and wished to become brave, accepted, and expensive like her. The fact that she was dating the Alpha of our pack gave her a great deal of respect, and it changed my family's fortune.
Alpha Henry Smith was well respected and feared; above all, he was freaking rich and handsome. I'd always wished to be mated to someone who looked exactly like him, and although I was warned to stop daydreaming about getting mated since I was wolf-less, I'd always believed that nothing was impossible.
Deep down within me, I knew that Phyna wasn't in love with the Alpha; she was dating him because of what she would gain, but I kept my observation to myself.
Back To The Present:
“Alison?!” I heard my mother's hoarse voice and began to shiver immediately. I had prayed, hoping that Mrs. Johnson wouldn't inform my mother about the broken cup, but I guess I was wrong.
My mother, Mrs. Aaron, stood in the doorway, her arms crossed and her right leg tapping impatiently; her face burned with anger. The air was thick with tension as she glared at me.
“Mother…..” I muttered, fidgeting as those words left my lips. I stood still, wondering if I should move closer to her or run for my dear life. After weighing my choices, I took the bull by the horns and walked up to her.
“Mother, I can explain,” I stuttered, unsure of how to explain my side of the story. Unfortunately, my mother didn't bother to listen to me; she growled like a wounded lion and hit me in the face with her hard palm.
“What are you doing here? Why did you leave Mrs. Johnson's restaurant?" She asked with her annoying voice, and I nearly choked because of her questions.
"Well..." I murmured. I hadn't thought of what I was going to tell her.
"Aaron! Come and see the type of daughter you gave birth to. A helpless and weak Beta who only likes to bring bad luck to us," My mother yelled at the top of her voice, and her screaming attracted my evil father, Aaron.
Aaron ran out; it was as if he was eagerly waiting for me to come back because he was well-prepared.
“So you got fired again?” Aaron asked the minute he came out of the house. He didn't bother asking how I was doing, considering the red marks on my face. The first words that came out of his mouth were plain criticism.
“Father, it wasn't my fault; I got sabotaged,” I cried out, but nobody cared about my feelings, and my parents began another round of insults.
I felt the familiar feeling of helplessness and secretly prayed that the ground would open up and swallow me, but it didn't happen. Instead, I stood in front of my parents like an orphan, enduring their painful backlashes.
“I regret the day I gave birth to you; if I had known you had this horrible luck, I would have aborted you, as my friends advised me to,” My mother's words echoed in my thin skull, and then began the brutal comparison between me and my elder sister, Phyna.
“Why can't you be like Phyna? She is your sister, yet she is a thousand times better than you!” Her words stung me like a wild bee, and I wanted to scream at her, to tell her if she had treated me the same way Phyna was loved and cared for, I would be a hundred times like her. But I kept quiet, knowing the consequences of my words.
“Phyna is different from me. Everybody has different callings in life, Mother,” I muted, just enough for my parents to hear.
“So what is your calling? You useless bit-”
“Why is my name being mentioned?” Phyna’s voice suddenly echoed in the corridor, interrupting my father's words, and my eyes were lightened up immediately because she wasn't alone.