The Pure Ones

Chapter Four

PENELOPE'S POV

I laid down on my bed daydreaming, I imagined myself living a life different from the one I was currently living. I dreamt about traveling the world and going on adventures with somebody. I saw myself standing on a field, surrounded by long grass and the warm sun kissing me, overwhelmed by the sweet scent of cherry trees and dancing to the songs of the birds. I close my eyes and take in this sweet moment, but then I am interrupted by a knocking on my door.

"Penelope?" a voice from behind the door calls out to me. "Who is it?" I ask, "Yesenia" the voice replies, "You may come in" I say. Yesenia, an elderly woman with olive skin and warm brown eyes walks in holding a tray containing my lunch, she gently sets it down on my table. "Thank you" I say,
"Oh, please, no worries" Yesenia says
"Your father has arrived" she also adds, my expression drops suddenly. "Penelope, why the long face all of a sudden?" Yesenia asks concerned as she takes a seat next to me,
"It's nothing" I reply quickly.

"Penelope, I hope you know that your father is only hard on you because he loves you? He loves you, and he wants what's best for you. Your mother, well, she isn't around anymore, so your father has to step in for her, it's not easy" Yesenia says as he runs her hands through my hair.
"Leave me alone!" I say slightly agitated
"My apologies my lady, I will be leaving shortly, but please allow me to fix your hair and get you something nice to wear, you have to look good for your father" Yesenia said
"Fine" I reply.

I take a seat on the chair in front of my mirror. I watch myself in the mirror as Yesenia combs through my long gold hair, the light from the window reflects off my light skin. I start to imagine again, I did not even notice Yesenia was already done with my hair and had been tapping me for quite a while.
"Are you okay my lady?" Yesenia asks "Yes, I was just thinking" I reply, "Okay, well I am done with your hair, let me get you something to wear" she says as she starts to search through my wardrobe.

Soon she pulls out a beautiful purple dress, "How about this?" Yesenia asked showing me the dress, "It's good" I reply with a weak smile.
"Well do you need my help putting it-" Yesenia was saying before I cut her off saying "No thank you, I can do it myself, you have helped quite a lot, thank you, you may leave", Yesenia frowned lightly but then she left and shut the door behind her.

I am Penelope Greenwood, the only daughter of Lord Hamish Greenwood. Yesenia is just one of the hundreds of servants my father has, she was my handmaiden and I also considered her my only friend. I never really had a chance to make friends, I had been restricted from the world all my life, the only people I ever really got to have conversations with were Yesenia and myself. All my life I struggled to live up to my father's standards, trying all I could to impress him but it never seemed to be enough. "YOU'RE A DISGRACE!" "HOW DID I END UP WITH A DAUGHTER LIKE YOU?!" Were almost all I ever heard my father say to me, after hearing the same thing for years nonstop it stops having any effect on you. Just like alcohol, the first couple times it might be a little hard on you but after a while you get used to it and it even stops having any effect on you at all, so you proceed to find other measures to please yourself.

Even though Yesenia always told me that my father loved me it was hard to believe, I never heard him say the words "I love you" to me in my entire life, he had never embraced me before, sometimes it was almost as if he found me repulsive.

I missed my mother so much, the times she used to be around were the only times I was ever happy in my entire life. But unfortunately, I lost her when I was a little girl, she had been coming back home when suddenly a riot broke out and she was caught in the crosshairs, a bullet went straight through her heart.

Now that she was gone all I felt was pain and sorrow, I would stay in my room for days, sometimes even weeks but my father would not even care. Sometimes I wished I could just end it all, maybe the pain I was going through would finally stop. But as much as I wanted to I did not have the courage, so I proceeded to hurting myself.