Genesis

I remember the feeling of the cold pavement against my naked flesh. My torn dress was no shield against the chilling damp that seeped into my bones. I lay there for what seemed an eternity, waiting for death to take me. Wishing for a way out of my broken bleeding body. I remember the light in the distance as I slowly crawled towards it. "I must get home, father is waiting" I whispered aloud, even though there was no one to hear. Father. Would he want me now?. Would he still call me his "Perfect Rose"?. My limbs were twisted beneath me and the gravel dug into my palms, but still I crawled on.

I could hear Royce laughing as he staggered away, he kicked me one last time and snarled "No one will ever want a whore like you". Whore?. I...I was taken. I didn't give this willingly. He TOOK this from me, as he tore my dress from my shoulders, and when he threw me to the ground. The crescent shape of his finger nails, raised lines across my throat and neck where he had dug them in to choke my screams from me. I could still taste the rusty taste of blood from the teeth he had knocked from my mouth. Broken and bleeding, I welcomed death's release, but it did not come. I heard them button their trousers. I heard them laugh, so many voices laughing at me. So many voices calling out to Royce "Best find a new bride, looks like this one is all used up".

Even as I slipped into the abyss I was angry. Angry and cold until the terrible fire found me. Even the voice of the angel that saved me could not quench the terrible flames that ripped through me. Surely this was hell...surely this could be no other place. What had I done wrong?. Why?. The Angel apologized each time I screamed, and promised "Soon...soon, it will be over". But why?. Why must it end this way?. I was going to be a Bride, A Wife...a Mother. What about my house on the Hill, and High Tea served at noon?. What of my pretty dresses and ribbons for my hair?. Was there to be nothing more, than this?.

There was supposed to be more. Why?. I don't understand what I did wrong. Am I being punished?.

This is how I died. Broken, bleeding and lulled into oblivion by an Angel of mercy, with only one word on my lips. Why?.