The Enemy's Shadow

Chapter 2

"𝐈𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲, 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐚'𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐧' 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭"
________

Before I could say a word or ask a question about who this little girl was,

A loud yelling noise was heard, along with the noise of some glass getting shattered.

The little girl, who had a frown on her face and was now sweating, was in tears as she ran up to the door.

Opening the door knob, I meet a beautiful woman in her mid-fourties. Who I assumed was this little kid's mom as she clung to her and sobbed

I noticed the woman for a longer time; she has scars all over her body.

Her neck had a few bruises, which definitely didn't look like a love bite, and her arms had fresh scars that looked like she had been hit by a belt.

"Hey cupcake, look, I'm alright; everything is fine, and dad was just having some stress at work, so don't disturb him, alright?" The woman tried to calm the little girl down.

"Mommy, why does Daddy never talk to me?" "Why does he never have time for us?" The little girl asks, which makes her mother frown.

"He is just busy with his work cupcake; alright, I'll make you your favorite pasta," the woman says, kissing the kid on the head, and leaves to cook.

while the little kid was back in the room. She went near the god's picture, taking it in her tiny hands, and started mumbling something. 

I go closer to her, trying to hear what she is saying, and she turns around, trying to find something before she starts chanting to pray.

"God, I feel someone is here," the little girl says. Could she see me? Or maybe she could just feel it in her gut.

She then hops on the bed, still holding the picture of God in her hands, and starts mumbling something again.

"Ur, the only friend I have is God; mommy thinks I don't know that daddy doesn't love us; I know everything but-" She says this as tears begin to fall down her rose-pink cheeks. 

"My other classmate's dad always brings them gifts and spends time with them, but Daddy doesn't," she says, her voice cracking as she cries. 

"Daddy never took us out to picnic or hugged me even once," she says, her tears falling on God's picture.

"But mommy always says I'm a strong girl, and strong girls never give up, so I won't give up." "I will make Daddy love me soon," says the little girl, wiping her tears away and smiling.

I turned around the room to notice the date on the calendar as October twenty-seven and the year as two thousand and five. 

Which meant I was actually in Averie's past, and the little girl in front of me was none other than Averie herself.

The way she cries and then plasters a smile on her face. Yes! She was indeed Averie Riviera.

I got my thoughts right when the little kid's mother called her out by her name. 

"Averie, my princess here, have it," her mom said, giving her a plate of pasta.

She kept the god's photo aside and took the pate, kept it on her mini-table, and started eating it.

Suddenly, Averie, who was sitting in front of me eating pasta, was nowhere to be found.

I turned my head and moved around, trying to find her, but she was still nowhere to be found.

That was until I heard a few sobbing noises coming from somewhere. The bathroom?

I turned my head towards where the noise was coming from and had a glimpse of the calendar again to find the date was February-eight, and the year was now two thousand and six.

Then I realized the old man's words. He said I would only be able to see her two moments in life: her happiness and her lowest ones. 

But to find out which of these two moments was going on with her, I had to know what she was sobbing over. 

So I walk towards the bathroom, hoping inwardly that she wouldn't be there bathing or something.

I agree that I bullied her in the past, making me a jerk. But I wasn't someone who would see a little kid bathe. I was not that shameless.

With my hands trembling, I try to hold the door knob, but fail as I directly pass through the door without opening the door.

Then realization struck me again: this is my spirit, not my body, and they can enter anywhere without touching anything.

Ignoring the thoughts in my mind, I notice Averie sitting on the floor next to the bathtub.

She was crying and hyperventilating. Was she having a panic attack? 

I didn't know what to do to make this little girl calm; she was holding her chest and breathing like the oxygen in her body was almost gone. 

I couldn't touch her, as that old man told me not to. Neither could she see me.
Then how could I calm her down? And what was she crying over?

"God, no one remembers my birthday, not dad, and none of my friends either." "Mum only wished me a happy birthday, which I'm happy with, but dad? "He didn't even bother to see me again," she says, sobbing harder and becoming unconscious for a while as she wasn't able to breathe.

Her birthday? No one wished her? She was crying over it?

I now start to feel a little bad for her—not for Averie, but for her young self.

Although her mom wished her a happy birthday, she was expecting her dad to wish her one too.
 
Why didn't that man show her affection? What did she mean when she said he didn't even bother to look at her?

Even the moment before, when the noise of the glasses getting shattered was heard and her mom was bruised up, her dad was no where to be found.

Did he just come home to hit his wife that day? And disappeared before he could see his daughter?

Does this happen every day, where this little Averie has to look at her father abuse her mom?