Terrible Short Story Things!

Behind closed doors

Scarlet sighed silently as she trudged down the stairs. Another bad thing done by her, therefore more bruises. Trust me, she had tried to tell many times before, but technically it was legal. Her mom gave her 2 sisters permission to beat her up. Luckily her oldest sister, who had came for a visit because she moved out as soon as she reached her 18th birthday, didn't partake in the beatings. But her two other siblings, her twin Melanie and the four year old named Camilla, held nothing back.

The second Scarlet reached the ground level she mad a straight bee line for the kitchen, where her family had gathered shortly after they left her curled up in a ball on the hallway floor, they are currently talking with a very good friend of her mom's Bruce. Her sisters were all sitting around like the perfect daughters they were. And the second Scarlet sat down she felt out of place. All her siblings held there heads high and there teeth were perfect and everything about there looks was perfect. It was there personality that was flawed, but not many people see what happened behind closed doors. And this family, they made sure they were perfect for the public.

Scarlet on the other hand. She didn't like to think she was perfect at all. Her teeth weren't pearly white, she ate lots of sweets, and her glasses along with her over sized sweater and her hair (which was always up) made her look like a nerd. She didn't bother to put on the fake mask her family did around Bruce. Bruce was an old friend of her father. And she knew Bruce knew that there dad was a superhero. He knew that all four sisters gained a power. So there was no use in pretending, or at least not to Scarlet. But to Scarlet acting and pretending we're different things. Scarlet chose to act so she could fit in.

The second her mom, Melanie and Camilla got up she let her posture relax. Her older sister looked over at her, taking off her fake mask as she did so.

"What happened to you" Lily, her sister said.

"Mom gave them permission again" She mumbled weakly. She was so done and so ready to speak her mind right then and there. But she bit her tongue, like she was taught. Lily quickly got up from her chair.

"I will kill her!" She yelled trying to run out the room. Scarlet just simply grabbed the back of her sisters shirt, expertly stopping her sister.

"I am so confused" Bruce mumbled to himself running a hand through his hair. Scarlet turned to look at him.

"You want to know what happened" She said bluntly. Finally deciding to speak her mind.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I" Bruce said glancing between the two sisters.

"Mom gave Melanie and Camilla permission to hit Scarlet again" Lily said venomously. Meanwhile Scarlet was perfectly calm.

"You see how we act Bruce?" Scarrlett asked, and without waiting for an answer she continued speaking "You see how we pretend? This is for one reason and one reason only. She wants a perfect family, and to her a perfect family is a big family with no problems. What she didn't want was 4 super powered daughters. And so the second we were born she started teaching us that our powers made us bad people. And whenever one of us shows signs of disobeying her orders not to use our powers...she drills into our heads. She gets in our heads and makes us believe things we don't want to believe. And it's hard to break from her control."

Bruce's eye brows were furrowed as he studied Scarlet. Her eyes held no emotion, they were cold and hard, holding no warmth like they usually did. "Then how did you break from her control?"

"She said it's hard, not it was impossible. It took me years to realize that our dad had powers, and he was no monster. So why should us having powers make us monsters. Mom must have obviously loved him, so maybe he wasn't all that bad." Lily said coming to stand behind her sisters chair.

"Exactly. No one wants to see what's behind locked doors Bruce, true horror lurk behind close doors. And if people did look hard enough to see what they weren't supposed to, to see the true horrors behind closed doors...they would see everyone in a whole new way" Scarlet said finishing up her little rant as her family came back in the room. And Bruce watched as Lily's mask came back on, while Scarlet went back to what she liked to call "acting" to fit in.

Bruce hated to admit it, but he had never noticed it before. He never noticed how controlling there mom was. And he sure as hell didn't see how bad it was until he was told. Maybe there right, maybe no one wanted to know the true horrors hiding behind closed doors. But then again knowing the horror is just a small step in stopping it.