The Original Baby Girl

Little Girls Need Lovies Not Lashes

Merit's mind slipped off into her long repressed memories as she slept that night.

Her eyes burned, despite them being closed, as she lay on the cold earth in her mothers tent. She recalled praying that it became cold enough during the night to take her away from the cruel and heartless witch the village called her mother. Slowing her breaths in an attempt to keep the woman's attention off of her she took a silent inventory of every bruise, cut, or gash hidden under the thin dress she was permitted to wear. The horrid woman did everything she could to break her daughter. She wanted the ideal daughter as it were. She made it clear with every disturbing punishment, that women do not depend on men, that they don't depend on anyone but themselves.

She constantly told Merit that she was sick and that she needed to be cleansed of the illness in her mind that made her behave like a child. The woman was never satisfied to just have a daughter that loved her, despite her. She demanded a proud woman for a daughter, a daughter that would stand defiantly against men rather than leaning into them for comfort and adoration, and would sear the flesh from her child's bones to procure one if she had to, in fact she had a few times. Her remorseless mother healed it every time to avoid drawing unwanted attention to herself. Despite every attempt failing to give her what she wanted, she wasn't done trying.

Merit listened to the cool breeze of the evening and was sadly grateful to be to numb to feel it anymore. Since the age of nine her mother had begun this cleansing and Merit knew that her protests were useless. She had been branded as the village philistine, and her mother was the one to ensure this in order to isolate her and keep from being found out. It started with simple things like telling them she didn't understand something anyone with average intelligence could comprehend. Then she moved on to more hurtful things, like lying about why she hadn't bathed. She wouldn't dream of telling anyone she denied her child to bathe, so instead she would tell them that she would become violent if you attempted to bathe her.  The woman always found a way to turn everyone away from her child. She was efficient, at the very least, at forcing the girl out of ear shot to those who would pity her.

Merit stilled instantly when she felt the warm fingers of her mother stroke her dirt caked hair at her temple. "Don't you think you've suffered enough? My darling daughter?" The cool melodious voice of the woman made her skin crawl, and her blood burn colder than frozen steel. "Don't you want to be like the other girls? Chasing the strong hunter men when they return?" Merit's lack of response drew a ragged breathe from her. "I know you hate me today, but you will thank me when you grow into a strong and lethal woman like your mother."

Merit's eyes opened as much as they could while one was swollen shut, and the other had sand under her lid causing discomfort and limited movement in it. "No. I am nice." Her small timid voice barely reached the woman's ears.

"Wrong!" The heinous woman screeched as she flew to her feet and pointed two fingers, glowing an eerie purple hue, at her. "You are a seer! You see all! You know all! You are the epitome of forces to be reckoned with!" The light blinded the girl causing her to close her only partially working eye.

The pain in her face intensified greater and greater until it seemed to burn away the bruising and cuts on her face. She blinked here eyes open as her mother glowered down at her and pointed to her designated spot, for when they had guests. The girl slid herself under the table, and gripped the planks her mother had secured to the front of it, to watch as the younger boy she admired entered upon invitation.

"Niklaus! How good of you to come by." She smiled kindly at him. "What brings a strong young warier to my dismal little tent?"

Merit held her breathe when he glanced under the table at her. "I'm actually here to ask you for some of those purple flowers. Mother loved them so dearly. And, I was hoping you had some more." Merit smiled silently. She knew better. She'd slipped out many nights to follow him deep into the woods. She'd slip in as close to the boy as she could without being detected and stealthily watched as he brought the world around them to life on a torn cloth he'd hardened with stagnant mud water the day before.