Flashback

Mirianda's consistent knocking or rather banging on the door of her room woke Storm up from the the smoothest sleep she had ever had in a while. She cussed at her step sister repeatedly in her head.

Not minding that the thick head was shouting at her to get her lazy ass from the bed, Storm took her delicious time in getting up from her soft bed and stretching, before stalking to the door and opening it reluctantly.

"Did you stuff stones into your ears? I have been knocking on your door for hours, bone head!" Mirianda screamed, immediately their gazes met.

"Stop screaming like a pregnant goat, and tell me why you are right outside my door this early in the morning. Are you sleepwalking again?" Storm asked, faking a yawn, knowing how much that would upset her sister.

She wasn't really in the mood to tango with her step sister especially as the latter had disrupted her comfort sleep.

Yes, she had checked her time before stepping up. It was just five a.m. Today was a sunday, so early risings weren't acceptable for her.

"How dare you? Who are you calling a pregnant goat, you bunch of shit?" Mirianda asked Storm, stepping closer to her face, but Storm shrugged, not finding it necessary to answer the dumbo. Miraanda's words alone were threatening to give her a large bout of headache.

"I am really not in the mood to banter words with you, sister. Just tell me why you are here this early morning. I hope for your sake it's not some lame excuse about cleaning or something stupid." She stated, meaning the last phrase.

If Mirianda didn't give her a good reason for interrupting her beauty sleep, she might go ragnok on the latter, not giving a damn about any consequences of that action on herself any longer. She had stopped caring about that since she turned eighteen in the last summer.

Her step mother seemed to have known it too, for the wicked woman had stopped over tasking her unlike before, and now preferred to watch her with eagle eyes. But it had actually started after what she had done to her step brother, Manuel, on the night of her eighteenth birthday.

That fateful day, Justin and Lucy, friends of hers, had thrown a mini party for her since her own family cared no hoots about her wellbeing, other than the fact that she did the quota of jobs assigned to her each day before retiring back to bed at night, or rather retiring back to an old mat.

Her father hadn't even remembered what day it was till Lucy had come knocking on the door. Her depressed countenance had swung to that of joy when she had beheld the preparations made for her. Lucy and Justin had become closer friends that day. They had also invited some of her old classmates, and a few of the neighbours.

It hadn't been a cinderella ball, but it had meant a lot to Storm then.

The party had ended late at night, and had ended with her being tipsy a bit-having decided to drink with reckless abandon to outride her nightmares at night since she wasn't allowed alcohol at home. This hadn't stopped her from going back home even though Lucy's mother had tried persuading her to stay over for the night, and face the troubles at home the next day.

"...give yourself a break."

The woman had said, knowing of course, about Storm's mistreatment back at home.

But Storm had insisted on going home, choosing to battle that night rather than on a new day which she had always believed should start on a good note.

Well, the first thing that had greeted her when she had opened the door to her house had been a slap from Jess, her step mother.

That, followed by another slap, whilst her father had stood by the side and watched on, not moving a bit or saying anything.

She hadn't expected him to do anything though.

Since he had married Jess, he had become a shadow of his old self, a pawn in her hands. Most times, Storm had wondered if he knew about the changes in his self, if he really had to fall low to this extent because Jess' family screamed of wealth and opulence, if he really had to treat her less than a daughter whilst holding her step siblings in high regard-even though they weren't his blood, just because of his technology business; a business which had started reclining in the past year despite the large streams of money going into it.

After three more heavy slaps from her stepmother, Storm had retired back to her room which had been in the basement then, knowing that she would be overtasked by two times the next day.

She remembered slumping down on the mat, forgetting to lock the door, although that hadn't mattered then. The lock could easily be picked by a two year old, and it had seemed then that everyone in the family had spare keys to the room.

It hadn't been up to thirty minutes attempting to sleep, when she had suddenly heard the door of her small room give way. Struggling to open her eyes, her unfocused gaze had been able to capture the silhouette of her step brother stepping into her room.

"What are...you doing... here?" She had managed to stutter out that night even in her tipsy state, irritated when he had laughed softly but maniacally at the same time.

To her question, he had shrugged before telling her that he was there to collect. It had taken Storm more than a minute in her slightly drunken state to understand the meaning behind his sentence.

And when she did, Storm had tried to stand up, not wanting to fall prey to rape.

However, Manuel had been stronger.

He had pushed and held her down on the bed with one hand, whilst his other hand had worked at the zip of his trousers so that he could get on with his evil deed. His words in her ear whilst he did all that, disgusted the hell out of her.