Chapter 2
642words
She vented her rage to a recording phone, kicking me intermittently.
"Doesn't a gold-digger who destroys families like this deserve a beating? And she's writing in blood!"
Clenching my jaw, I used my other mangled hand to drag myself, writing two more words in the bloody dirt!
"Amber, look!"
My heart settled. She sees it, she'll understand now.
A flicker of hope. She'll understand now.
Crack!
My wrist was stomped, bones snapping!
"Oh, perfect! Now you're impersonating my husband's daughter, are you?"
"Chloe, Chloe my foot!"
"Could you be any more obvious?"
The others started jeering too.
"Amber, I heard Chloe is bro's weak spot, no wonder this bitch managed to hook him!"
"Yeah, I wondered why this bitch wasn't talking!"
"Mistresses are really stepping up their game these days, even faking muteness!"
Hearing this, my stepmother's face darkened, trembling with rage.
"Faking mute? I'll make you mute for real!"
"Get me the scissors!"
I let out more frantic, guttural cries.
No, I really am Chloe!
I really am Chloe, I can't talk!
Back in that crash, Mom was impaled by a steel rod and died instantly.
Dad was knocked out.
I woke up in pain, the car about to explode.
I bit Dad frantically to wake him. After that… I could never speak again.
Several people held me down, forcing something into my mouth to keep it open.
"Still acting?"
"Go on, act mute for me!"
"Daring to impersonate my husband's daughter, huh?"
The scissors plunged into my mouth, then closed with a vicious snip.
They churned and twisted. The pain nearly made me black out.
I struggled, a raw scream tearing from me.
I watched shredded, bloody flesh fall from my mouth.
"Oh, and by the way, didn't you know my husband's daughter is a cripple?"
The withdrawn scissors stabbed straight into my leg.
The pain was everywhere now.
I convulsed violently.
And I couldn't scream!
"Crunch!"
Crack! My leg broke again. I couldn't move.
In a haze, I felt her smashing my leg, cold laughter saying if I was going to act, I should commit.
Over and over..
"Da…ddy!"
"Daddy!"
The shock of death and the searing pain finally tore a scream from my ruined throat.
I was afraid I'd die. Afraid that after years apart, I'd never see my Dad again.
My scream plunged the surroundings into dead silence.
Then, a bucket of cold water was thrown in my face.
"Ha! Couldn't keep up the act, could you!"
"Faking muteness, huh! Why not fake being a cripple too!"
"Crunch…"
This time, the pain nearly made me pass out.
Right then, my phone rang. The special ringtone for Dad—Black Black Sky.
I knew it was Dad looking for me! A flicker of hope reignited in my heart.
Dad will save me!
I tried to reach for it, but I couldn't.
My hands were broken.
"Still thinking about seducing men at a time like this? Even I don't dare use that as a ringtone."
"You're dead!"
The phone was smashed to the ground, stomped on twice, the ringtone becoming garbled, broken.
My last shred of hope sputtered out.
My breathing was a faint thread.
"I… Chlo…"
My attempt only brought more furious blows.
I collapsed, the doll beside me soaked in my blood, tattered—a mirror of my state.
Mom… On the day of the crash, they were coming back from buying me this very doll.
Now it was torn from me. She noticed my gaze, grabbed the scissors, and aimed them at the doll.
Its movable skull was twisted off, the scissors slashing its body, its face, its hair.
"No…" Bloody tears and pain crashed against my fragile soul and body.
"Ooh, you like dolls that much? Well, let me be charitable and turn you into one, how about that?"
