Ficlets

Falling

The water, far below, sparkles in the late evening sun. “You would have been better off as…as an abortion!” Her father spits out the words as if they taste bad. Anywhere else, she thinks. Anywhere but here.

“You’re not listening, to me,” he growls.

“I am,” she intones. “You think I should have been an abortion. I’m worthless. I’m a freak. I’m…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

She wonders what happened. He used to love her. He used to say she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. But now…he wished she hadn’t been born.

Words tumble out of her mouth. “I didn’t mean it!” She cries. “I didn’t know, I was so little! I just wanted to hold him! I just thought he was beautiful!”

She feels a slap across her face. And another. She holds up her hands, but the blows do not cease. Suddenly, she realizes how precariously close to the edge of the cliff she is.

“No…” her voice echoes and reverberates all around, trailing off into the distance.

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