The atmosphere was dark, not just from the lack of light but also from the despair and regret that filled the air. Her brain tried to conjure up escape routes but none seemed possible. She needed a better layout of their prison.
It had been an hour and a half since there kidnapping and nothing had changed. She just lay motionless on the bed,her expression blank,her mind far. Her sisters had fallen asleep and her parents were still unconscious.
She thought about everything that had happened since she could remember upto now. Everything was great when she was younger. Her parents loved, maybe because she was still the only child, she had friends and her best friend was still around.
But as she got older, she realized her parents didn't love her because they had grown to despise her. Not only them, but other family members too. She didn't get it at first but she had a vague hint to what the cause maybe. Though it was not all relatives but most wasn't really any better. When Maddie was born,her suspicion was confirmed. It was solely based on appearance, she simply didn't resemble her family.
She later realized that most of her friends were manipulative, spendthrifts and worst of all, rude spoilt brats. They had only stuck around because of the money and she was also easily manupulated. When she finally cut them off, she only had one true friend left but he too was taken from him.
Slowly but definitely, she was all alone but her sisters only had her so she moved on only because of them. But now, they too were in jeopardy. As she pensively pondered on the predicament,her parents regained consciousness. They looked confusedly at everything around them, and once they regained composure and memories of what happened before they blacked out, they began to curse
"That stupid girl! What has she gotten us into now!?" Her father spat angrily. He then groaned from the sharp pain he felt behind his head
"Where even are we? And why is it so dark?" Her mother, Mrs Smith wondered.
"Those bastards! Where are we?" Mr Smith hissed.
He began shaking the metal bars violently, shouting at the top of his lungs. The two girls woke up.
"You should stay quiet." Devon finally suggested. Mr Smith was silent for a while not sure if he was hearing things.
"Devon? Is that you? Mrs Smith finally inquired.
" Yes, it is." She replied flatly. They had never heard her tone so low and cold.
"What did you do you ignorant child!" Mr Smith howled.
Her response came in cold." Nothing"
"Then why are we here? It must be because you messed up again cause my babies would never do anything bad." Mrs Smith contorted.
They began giving unrealistic explanations and she just kept quiet. She didn't have energy for this. Her sisters didn't even try to get involved, they understood their so called parents were insensitive and always found ways of blaming their eldest sister. It was futile trying to argue, they would always win. They were lawyers after all, great lawyers at that.
But Maddie finally snapped when their father said she was good for nothing and scolded his wife for preventing him from kicking her out of their house years ago.
So they wanted to kick me out. Years ago? Devon thought, hurt by her own parents,who were sworn to protect her.
"You guys are just awful!" Maddie shouted angrily.
The Smith's were unaware their other daughters were there, listening in on their conversation.
"Ummmh... it's... it's not like that honey..." Mrs Smith started but was cut short.
"You guys always blame her unnecessarily. How is it her fault if this happened to us! She has always tolerated your nonsense but this has gone too far." Her parents were dumfounded.
"You listen to me young lady, you're too young and innocent to comprehend what is happening." Her father tried calming her down.
"No. You listen. I'm sick and tired of your mistreatment towards her. You aren't even worthy to be called our parents let alone hers" She answered back,her mouth filled with bile.
Her parents were utterly stunned. Yet again, they blamed Devon for their daughter's outburst.
"Is this what she was telling you. That were bad parents?" Her mother tried to ask gently, but she got no immediate response.
"Why are you poisoning our children's minds?" Mr Smith angrily muttered.
"She isn't poisoning us." Annah spoke in her defense. "She's the one who takes care of us. She's our mother." Her sweet reply tore her parents heart .
"No, she's not honey. I'm your mother, right." Mrs Smith tried changing her mind, her voice was shaky as if she was about to breakdown.
"When was the last time you actually sat down to know how we're doing?" Maddie jumped in again.
"We....we never did because you guys are doing okay." Mr Smith defended .
"That's because she was always there for us. You know nothing about us and yet you call us your children." Retorted Maddie.
" Of course we know you. I gave birth to you. I know you like the back of my hand."
" If you think so, what's our favorite food, color, subject." Maddie snapped back sarcastically.
" Well, you both love pink, and Annah loves spaghetti and meatballs, while you like....ummh cereal?" Mrs Smith didn't know anything about them. Her answers were wrong.
" How about the one thing that frightened us the most ? I'm sure you can at least remember that."
The two were quite for a while.
" The day you two almost got hit by a car." Their father answered proudly.
" No" Annah stated disappointedly." Even that day it was Devon who saved us because you were too busy on your phones. But instead of saying thank you for saving us, you scolded her for dropping and running your drinks." Annah continued as she sobbed bitterly.
" The most frightening thing experience was when we almost died in a fire at school. After being rescued, when you were contacted you guys clearly said and I quote,Are they alright. Then ask someone to take them home. But when we called Devon through her principal, she was still in class but she ran all the way to our school just to make sure we really fine. Even after going home and not attending school because of the renovations she was the only one who saw that we still had trauma from the fire and she used her own savings to take us to therapy. Every evening without fail. Yet our own damn parents didn't even once how we were and, you still have the audacity to call yourself parents." Maddie completely broke down.
She had resentment towards her parents, they all had.
" Devon, what's our favorite color? Annah wondered trying to prove Maddie's point.
She sighed before replying. "Maddie likes blue because it's the color of the sea and you like yellow because it reminds you of the sun."
" Do you see now,she knows us better than you have, that's why we love her. So stop making her sad." She reprimanded them childishly.
With that simple confrontation they finally realized how their children truly felt about them.