WILLA
I turned eighteen today.
Most girls my age would ask for money. A car. A party. Maybe just a day without getting beaten up.
But me? I'd settle for just surviving.
I touched the crescent-shaped necklace at my throat and pushed my white hair back, staring at my reflection in the mirror.
I allowed a small hopeful smile to touch my lips. I deserved to be happy. Even if it was just once in my life…
"Where is that devil's spawn?!" Mother screamed, followed by a door slamming hard enough to rattle the frame.
My ears twitched at the sharp edge in her voice.
I'd heard worse. You learn to live with it after fourteen homes.
"Trouble again," the voice in my head murmured lightly.
I rolled my eyes, saying nothing.
A beat of silence, then she spoke, "I can make her stop."
I almost laughed. "How?"
It was absurd.
She was the reason I got punished half the time. The reason I was the nutcase. The psycho who heard things no one else did, swore someone was following her when there was no one there.
Attention-seeking. Dramatic. Pathological liar. Crazy.
That was what they called me.
And somehow she thought she could help?
"Just say the word." She urged.
Before I could answer, mother screamed again. "Is she deaf or something?! Willa!"
I slipped my shoes on and hurried out before she could call a third time. Three calls meant consequences. A disastrous one. I'd rather not get on her nerves.
I reached the second to last step when a hand shoved me hard between the shoulders.
My breath left my lungs as I pitched forward. I grabbed for the rail, but a sharp slap on my hand made it impossible.
I slammed the floor hard.
Pain flared at my side, right where my rib was still healing from the beating I got last week. For a second, I couldn't breathe.
My chest tightened. Tears burned my eyes, but I swallowed them back and looked up.
Rachel, my foster sister stood above me, wide-eyed and fake innocent.
"Oops, Willa. I didn't see you there." She tilted her head. "Thought you were just… wind." She flipped her raven black hair to the side, her baby blue eyes twinkling with mischief.
Of course.
A five-foot-six gust of wind.
Biting back a curse at her lack of apology, I pushed myself up slowly. It was only a matter of time. I'd be out of the damned house soon.
I turned toward Mother and forced a small smile. "You called me?"
"I did!" she snapped. Her face twisted like she'd tasted something sour. "You ungrateful little witch!"
I frowned. I couldn't remember doing anything wrong. The only time she got this mad was when Rachel, their 'perfect daughter,' was involved.
I stole a peek at her, and she looked back at me blankly, before gazing back at mother. "Did I do something wrong?"
"I told you she'd pretend!" Mother shouted, turning toward Father, who looked at me like I was shit, with disgust twisting his face.
"Did you do it or not?" Rachel added lazily, folding her arms.
"Do what?" I started to shake my head—
Something hit my face, and I stared down to see a white envelope slid to the floor at my feet.
My name was written across the front.
"Pick it up," Mother ordered. "And read the shameful thing you've done."
I didn't pick it up. I continued to stare as my thoughts wandered on what could be there.
Expulsion from school? No. I was a good student. I never got into trouble with anyone except with Rachel and her friends.
What else?
"Read it!" Mother growled.
I flinched, forcing the lump in my throat down and picked up the paper. Slowly, I tore the envelope open.
My breath caught as I read the first line.
"This is a follow-up regarding your elective termination procedure…"
I blinked rapidly, staring at the words as my fingers began to shake uncontrollably.
"Who got you pregnant?" Mother screamed, jerking my attention back to her.
Pregnant?!
Instinctively, I touched my stomach and shook my head. "I… I've never… I'm a vir—"
Her hand struck my cheek before I could finish.
My head snapped to the side. A sharp ringing filled my ears. Tears flooded my eyes, and threatened to spill down my cheeks. But I forced them back in.
"I don't know what this is." I said, keeping my voice steady despite the sting in my cheek.
"You don't know?" Mother hissed, stepping closer until her whiskey-laced breath fanned across my face. Then I noticed the empty bottle sitting on the centre table.
She was drunk.
Mother let out a bitter, shaking laugh, her finger stabbing my chest as she spoke.
"We endured every insult, every filthy look from the neighbors, at work, gatherings… because of you. You freak!" she shouted.
I bit hard on my lower trembling lips, watching as she ranted.
"We put you in the same school as our darling daughter. We gave you everything you needed. We never treated you as less, and this is how you repay us…?"
Lies, the voice in my head snarled.
Obviously.
I shouldn't care what they thought about me anymore.
They were cruel. Terrible.
Yet…they were also the only ones who'd kept me longer than a year. Everyone else had gotten rid of me faster. "I'm sorry, Mother…"
"Don't call me that!" she screeched, glaring at me. "I have only one daughter, and that is Rachel!" She pointed sharply at her. "She would never do something this disgraceful. Never."
"Of course I would never do something like that." Rachel wrinkled her nose in disgust, then sighed dramatically and looked pointedly at me. "The whole school already knows. Now my reputation is ruined."
Rachel shot me a small, triumphant smile when no one was watching. But the moment Mother looked her way, she rearranged her face into one of sorrow, as though she were grieving her shattered image.
It was obvious. She set me up.
But why?
I had only ever been kind to her. And she had repaid that kindness with cruelty for reasons known only to her. Anger flared in my veins, hot and reckless, and my fingers curled at my side.
Rachel abruptly rose to her feet. "I have my birthday party tomorrow, Mother. I can't have people knowing she's here."
"That's right," Mother agreed, fixing me with a resolute stare.
A heavy silence filled the room. Then she broke it with a single word.
"Leave."
I expected that, yet the word still struck me hard in my chest, my heart clenching painfully.
"Leave on your own," she repeated coldly, "or I will make you. And you won't like the outcome."
I stared at everyone in the room to see they shared the same feelings. They wanted me gone.
My eyes wandered to the window. Snow was falling relentlessly outside. She wanted me to walk out into a snowstorm.
No one cared. They never did.
I let out a bitter scoff, shaking my head. "Stop acting like you did everything for me without working me to the bone. You treated me worse than a servant. Taking me to school and providing for me was the agreement!"
I hated how she always made it sound like I never deserved anything.
Maybe I didn't.
After all, my birth parents hadn't wanted me either. They had thrown me away the first chance they got.
I couldn't really blame anyone else for doing the same.
"W…what did you just say?" Mother stuttered.
"You heard me," I repeated, standing by my words.
I was tired of holding back and letting them lash out at me for things I had never done. I lifted my gaze to them, my jaw clenched and my fingers tightened into fists.
"If I were you, I'd ask your so-called precious daughter. She's the one who's been sleeping around with men like your husband."
Rachel's eyes widened, a gasp escaping her parted lips. "She's lying!"
It was the truth. I didn't care how they reacted to it.
"And there's no need to throw me out like a dog," I added coldly. "I'm leaving anyway."
But not like this. Not in the damned snowstorm.
I wanted to let my pride down, to fall on my knees, to plead as I always did. I'd die if I left this place. The storm was terrible but…better dying than being treated like dirt. I turned away from them, not after seeing the stunned look on their faces.
I had only taken a step towards the door, when I heard my mother's voice.
"You silly stupid thing!" She growled, then a hand snapped around my hair, and another hand was on the jacket I was wearing.
"This is mine!" Rachel snarled. "If you are going to be a spoiled brat, you might as well walk out naked because you brought nothing here!"
I grunted, trying to shove them off me. But they were too strong. Rachel managed to pull the jacket off me, and rip one side of my dress.
Mother shoved me towards the door and Rachel rushed ahead, her hand stretching toward the handle—
The doorframe shuddered.
Then the door exploded inward. The hinges snapped and splintered wood tore through the room.
Snow surged inside in a blinding wave. The lights flickered violently. Something heavy slammed against the wall hard enough to rattle the picture frames.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
"What the hell?!" Mother hissed, stumbling back. Her eyes snapped to me. "Did you do that, you freak?!"
"W… what…?" I stammered, wrapping my free arm around myself, teeth chattering, eyes wide as my mind struggled to process what had just happened.
"You did—" Rachel's accusation was cut off by the sound of footsteps.
Heavy ones.
I saw the feet first. Large. Misshapen.
Then my gaze traveled upward.
I stopped breathing.
Fugly. That was the first coherent thought my mind formed.
Its eyes were too large for its small head, its face distorted in a way that seemed to shift the longer I stared at it.
It ducked beneath the broken frame, its shoulders brushing against jagged wood. Snow clung to its thick, dark, and matted fur, nearly black under the hallway light.
"What did you bring into this house?!" Mother shrieked.
"Oh Father in Heaven," Rachel whispered, trembling as she made the sign of the cross. "Deliver us from this evil."
Father had already fallen from his chair, terror etched across his face.
I remained frozen, staring at the creature. Its head lifted. Big, flat nose flared once.
Then it turned.
Slowly. Directly toward me.
My pulse thundered in my ears. I wanted to run, but my body refused to obey.
It took a step forward, moving past Rachel as though she were invisible. Snow melted beneath its feet, dripping onto the hardwood.
Mother's voice rose into hysteria. "Get out! Get out of my house! I command you in Jesus' name!"
She clutched a crucifix in one hand and a bottle of holy water in the other. Funny, because she had never been religious.
The creature inhaled deeply, as if memorizing my scent.
"Run, Willa! Run!" the voice in my head screamed, snapping me out of my paralysis.
I twisted toward the broken doorway, ready to bolt.
Then I heard another voice.
"It's too late."
And it lunged.