MEREDITH
My mother was a high-class sex worker. After I was born, that was the period when humans and werewolves started interacting with one another, causing some sort of balance to the human world, as I was told.
But that wasn't my case because my birth seemed to have disrupted my mother's balance, causing my mother's world to shift. She said, and I quote, "You caused my downfall, and you shall suffer for it." She had left the poor-stricken world and married a very rich elite man who had always wanted a werewolf child. Having a werewolf child born directly from birth signified power to the human race—not just money, but you'd have the chance of producing the alpha king's bride or mate, just anything related to owning power.
But I came out as human, causing my father to be disappointed and therefore exiling my mother and me from his life, pushing us back to the slums where the rejected like me live. My mother had committed to different kinds of stuff. Sometimes she was a good mother, or perhaps I was the one trying to find righteousness in that.
For a while now, she had stopped bringing men into the house after a client of hers tried to lay his hands on me, and she had almost murdered him.
But right now, standing in front of my mother and watching her being smashed by the principal, who had just handed me a form less than an hour ago—banging my mother on the bed we both lay on—sent me screaming in horror.
I watched the principal's eyes widen in horror as he quickly jolted out from the bed and grabbed his boxers, trying to hide the horror that dangled between his legs.
"God, I am so sorry, Meredith. I am so sorry. I didn't know... oh my god..." he spoke as he was trying to wear his boxers, but my eyes were on my mom, who was looking everywhere but at me.
The principal quickly rushed out from the room, his hands scattered with his clothes and briefcase as he brushed past me, still mumbling words of damn apologies, which meant nothing to me.
At this moment, I still stood by the doorway, staring at my mother, who was finally looking at me, the blanket wrapped around her, as drops of sweat glistened down her body.
"What? Aren't you going to speak, huh? Something caught your throat?" she said, venom ripping off from her mouth. But for some reason, I could see that her voice wasn't steady and vibrant like it always had been. Rather, it cracked as she spoke, but I didn't give one single damn. I felt disgusted by her.
"You fucking disgust me, mother. TODAY WAS MY FUCKING BIRTHDAY..." My voice rose higher than usual, but I didn't care. The hurt, the shame were still ripping through me.
"Today... Today... you fucking slapped me... You still reminded me how much... how much you hated me... and as if that wasn't enough... You fucking decided to bring my school principal into our home, our not-so-beautiful home, to fuck him in our bed, mother."
I screamed, finally breaking down with all the resolve I had been holding since the day began. I watched my mother flinch at my words.
"What, mother?" I replied, watching as she didn't utter a single word.
"Did I mumble, mother? Huh, did I?"
"FUCK!" I screamed, smashing my hands against the doorpost and feeling the pain course through me like fire.
"I'm sorry, Meredith. But I fucking had no choice. It wasn't my intention to whore around with your principal."
I laughed at her words. Her entire words sounded funny to my ears. I couldn't believe what she just said.
"You slept with him. I heard you moaning like some unhinged animal, and you said it wasn't your intention..."
"Enough!" My mother screamed at me, shutting me up, as she stood from the bed, butt-ass naked, as she strode towards me. Her eyes were pinned on mine, and she stopped three steps away from me.
I wasn't scared of her anymore. I stopped being scared at thirteen, and she could do her worst.
"I promised you that I wouldn't bring anyone into our home..." she said, looking around.
"But you fucking rejected the form to The Apex Academy. He came to tell me how you rejected the form, and I was angry... and... And somehow, I didn't know how... but his hands were on me, and I couldn't resist. I haven't had sex with a man for, like, maybe two months because I've been trying to change, and I never even wanted to lay my hands on you this morning. Fuck, this was the first time I had ever slapped you, and did you even know how hurt I was, slapping you... yes, I... I had said all manner of hurtful things growing up, but I'd never raised my hands on you. Never. And I... I fucking never wanted to sleep with the principal."
She said, her words coming out so rushed like she didn't want to miss any sentence, and I found it difficult to trust her. But one thing was correct: she'd never laid her hands on me before this morning, and she had done that because I perhaps had pushed her buttons by calling her a whore after she also reminded me of how much of a failure I had made her life become.
"I am not accepting that form," I said, lifting my bag from the ground and walking past her, but she pushed me back. Her hands grabbed onto my wrist so hard that I winced, so hard she instantly let go, giving me an apologetic look.
"I am sorry, but you are accepting that form, and you are filling it up," she said, her words throwing me off.
"Why are you even so interested in me going to some damn elite school, the place filled up with people like that man who disowned his family just for some mere power?" I said, and she gave a light chuckle, waving her head.
"Now I know why you don't want to accept the form. You hate the elites, you hate people like your father, and you even hate the werewolves. You have every right to. But look around you—they rule the world; they own us, the air we breathe. Look around you; where do you belong? Some damn dirty, war-ruined slum where no future is made for people like us."
She said, her words throwing me off once again. I wasn't expecting these words from my mother, never in a lifetime.