The Devil's Daughter

~8~

🎼"Concentrate Angelica! Stop playing around and play properly," said my snotty violin teacher. Bloody old crow. She looked like one too, with tiny beady eyes, a wrinkled up face and a pointed nose where her round spectacles rested perfectly. So I started again with the same song that I had been practising forever.

"Can I please play something new?" I begged and she gave me a stern look, "you'll play something new once you perfect Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," she said, doubting my skills as a musician. Miss Wig often spoke so brazenly while my parents were in the next room, dad had hired her, because of course he did, and she's disliked me ever since.

"Prepare to be amazed." Bitch. I took a few deep breaths and pictured myself alone in a peaceful quiet forest. With animals asleep around me as the sun slowly rose from the mountains. I had played this song so many times that I had it memorised, no, burned into my brain that I had a special place in my mind that would I perform on. A place with eternal Spring. The birds woke everyone up with their sweet melodies, flowers sprouted threatening to bloom. The sky was a mass expanse of colour as dawn broke in, turning from purple to gleams of pink and orange. I had performed this song so many times that the world was starting to look the same when I pictured it. The only alterations being who entered this forest with me.

"That's enough, Angelica." The snotty bitch interrupted.

"No no keep playing!" I heard my mother squeal. Miss Wig jumped at the sound of her voice and turned around to see my mother beaming at me before she gave a deadly look to my violin teacher.

Ha-ha!

"Can I just go to bed now? I have school tomorrow," I said, and my mother nodded disappointedly.

"Alright, Miss Wig you may go now," She all but growled. You'd never want to get on her bad side which was where my dad was heading once one of us had the courage to tell her what was going on. I packed away my violin and leisurely walked down the hallway listening to my mother mutter something to my teacher. I didn't quite catch it and didn't bother to linger around to find out. I finally reached the stairs but noticed something through the glass doors leading out to the backyard.

Was that? Oh my god, it was a cat!

A black cat with shiny purple eyes. A very skinny, actually bony cat. I put the violin case down on the floor and opened the door to welcome it in. Curiously, it remained seated there staring up at me with its tail swishing from side to side.

"You can come in," I said and immediately felt silly. It licked its lips and walked in. A well-mannered cat? Very interesting. "I'll get you some milk but if it's possible try and make sure no one sees you." It stared up at me and licked its lips again. I laughed at myself and walked down the hall to the kitchen, the cat following me quietly, except for its claws tapping against the floor. I opened the fridge got out a bowl and poured the milk in. I put the bowl on the floor and jumped when I heard someone's voice.

"Angelica what are you doing?" my father asked. I looked at him and saw he was dressed to leave.

"I'm hungry, where are you going?" I asked coldly and searched the room for the cat who had disappeared. Uh oh, where did it go?

"Out for work. Just mess up of forms, I'll be back later," he said wrapping his scarf around his neck.

"It's eight o'clock. Surely your assistant can fix that on her own, or are clueless women your type?" he stiffened and gave me a blank look.

"What are you talking about?"

"You tell me, dad. What is it like coming home pretending to care about us? Acting as if you were ever a loving dad." My voice broke at the end and I felt tears brewing.