A bored looking guard sat at his desk quietly working through a mountain of paperwork, after some time he let go of his pen and leaned back on his chair letting out a big yawn. He sighed as his eyes moved towards the big stack of papers on the corner of his desk. He looked across the room towards a small girl sat cross legged on a chair near the entrance, at barely more than 2ft tall she seemed comparatively short for an 8 year old, yet was normal height for one of the catlike children. She had pale white rough textured skin indicating the regular use of some kind of hair removal, likely given to her by her parents to make her appear more human. She wore a black cloth on her head which covered her ears and was tied round the back almost looking like a pony tail. On her face was a small almost flat nose with a small thin lipped mouth just below it. Her large green cat-like eyes stared mournfully at the floor barely registering the world around her. He continued to watch her as she leaned forward, her arms folded across her stomach, a tear fell from her eyes and she sniffed before wiping her nose on her gloved hand. He let out another sigh and shook his head before pulling another sheet from the seemingly endless pile and picked up his pen before continuing to write.

Several minutes later the front doors opened and a tired looking man with tear streaked eyes entered, he looked to be in his early 30’s, had short dark hair with a short well groomed beard. The small girl looked up as he entered shouting “Dad” as she leapt from her chair and ran towards him hugging his leg. The top of her head lightly brushed the bottom of his fingers and he pulled his hand away a look of disgust flashing across his face as he looked down at her. She seemed not to notice any of this as she held on to his leg.

“I take it she’s yours then?” the guard called across the room.

Still looking down at the girl the man bent his leg slightly lifting his foot off the ground, taking the hint she let go and stepped away from him, her eyes staring down at the floor.

“Wait there” the man said gruffly before approaching the guard at his desk

“About time you got here, this is a guard house, not a daycare center” the guard stated with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

“She cause any trouble?” the man asked in a tired voice.

The guard snorted before responding “The mere presence of her kind is enough to incite trouble, as I am sure you well know.” pulling out a sheet of paper from his desk he placed it in front of the man before handing him a pen and saying “Sign here please”

When the man didn’t immediately take the pen from his hand the guard looked up to see him staring at him, a look of anger on his face, his hands were balling into fists at his side as he struggled to contain himself. The guard dropped the pen on the sheet and sat back crossing his arms while meeting the mans gaze “you planning on taking all day over this?”

The man snorted at the guard before picking up the pen and roughly signing the sheet, before throwing the pen at him as he turned to walk out the door without saying another word, or even looking at the girl who jogged out after him, her short legs making it hard for her to keep up with his pace. The guard simply watched them leave before picking the pen up off the floor and grabbing another sheet of paper from the pile “Civilians” he muttered to himself before continuing on with his daily slog.

*********

The girl followed the man out of the guard station towards a dark green family sized car, it had a cracked windshield and various dents in the bodywork with the remnants of half washed off graffiti dotted about the paintwork. He opened one of the side passenger doors with a gruff “get in” before opening the drivers door and getting in, the small girl had just managed to sit down and put her seat belt on before he pulled off down the road. After a short while she asked “is mum alright?”, when he didn’t respond she asked again but still got no response. She waited a couple more minutes before resting her head against the window to watch the world go by as he drove on, a short while later she had fallen asleep.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Some time later she awoke to the sound of a door slamming shut, she sat up and looked around not recognizing where she was, her door opened and her dad simply said “get out”.

 She looked at him and said “where are we?”.7

Once again getting no response from him she looked to her side to take off her seat belt, as soon as the belt came off a hand grabbed her by the arm and threw her out of the car. She landed hard, her face scraping against the pavement. She pushed herself up onto one elbow with a grunt and touched the side of her face with her other hand, when she pulled it away there was blood on her gloved fingers. She turned to face the man who was now opening the car boot “Dad?….What are you doing?”.

Once again her question was met with silence as he pulled a backpack out of his boot and slammed the door shut before throwing it in her direction. It landed just next to her with a dull thud, she looked at it before turning back to him and once again repeated the question

 “Whats going on?”.

He stood with his back to her his hand just touching the car door handle, after a few seconds he turned to look at her, his eyes were red and streaked with tears, his bottom lip quivered as his breathing intensified. In a voice expressing barely contained anger he said 

“Your mother is dead Willow”.

 She took in a sharp intake of breath upon hearing those words, the stammered 

“n…nnoo, she” but was cut off before she could finish.

 “YES!! she is Willow”.

Willow sat up looking down at the ground her elbows resting on her legs and her hands clasped over her mouth as she started to quietly sob. Her dad continued to talk in the same barely controlled voice. 

“You know, I could accept the occasional bit of graffiti on the house or the odd broken window when people realized what you was”. He took a step towards her while continuing to look down at her with little more than contempt in his expression. 

“Hell, I could even put up with having to move to another area when things started getting too bad, even your brother and sister didn’t complain too much about the constant bullying they received because of their freak sister”.

 He shook his head before looking away 

“But this”, 

he turned to face the car resting his hands on the roof and leaning slightly towards it while looking down at the floor. Willow just sat quietly listening to him as what he was saying sank in. Without even looking back he continued

 “Your mother died because she tried to defend you………It’s your fault shes gone, and I will not risk losing anything else for you.”

 He was about to open to door when Willow spoke up “But I didn’t…..” At those words he turned sharply and cut her off shouting 

“YES YOU DID!”, she stopped immediately at that stunned into silence. 

He continued “EVER SINCE YOU WAS BORN YOU HAVE CAUSED US NOTHING BUT TROUBLE YOU LITTLE FREAK!” 

he stopped briefly trying to contain himself once again before continuing in a more even tone. 

“The best thing you can do for us all moving forwards is just stay the hell away”,

 after that he turned back towards the car, opening the door and stepping inside. Willow had gotten to her feet and ran towards the door as it shut, banging on the side and pleading with him not to leave he sped off causing her to fall on the ground again, she curled up into a ball as she sobbed to herself “please don’t go”.

Willow just watched as the car sped off into the distance, a light wind blew through some nearby trees, the natural serenity a stark contrast to the storm of emotions running through her mind. For a time she just lay on the side of the dirt road, unable to move or act quietly sobbing to herself.