Page 1 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

Their Kingdom Come

Prologue

Exodus, Matthew, and Ephesians say you must honor your father and your mother. Maybe that’s why, the day I have the worst fight in history with my parents is the last day I see them.

And what was the fight about?

Clothes.

New clothes. Since I’d literally worn holes in all of mine.

Mom promised we’d go buy some as soon as Dad came home. There was a sale on at the mall, so the timing was perfect. I knew exactly what I wanted too so we’d be back long before the night service at our church.

But Dad ran late, and because Dad didn’t believe in things like cellphones, we had to wait for him. I mean, he knew they existed, but he saw them as materialistic trappings.

Clothes fell under that category too.

When he finally arrived, there wasn’t enough time for us to go.

I guess the planets aligned or some shit because for the first time in my life, at the age of seventeen, I threw a tantrum.

I yelled.

I screamed.

I swore.

They said nothing. And then they left and went to church without me.

It’s weird to think that if we hadn’t had that fight, things would have been so much different.

I’d be dead.

But because of the fight, I hadn’t been in the car when Dad lost control and drove into the barrier at top speed.

I’d been in my robe and slippers, sulking into a cup of hot chocolate.

I never finished that chocolate.

I don’t even know what happened to it.

Someone must have taken it to the kitchen, tossed it out, cleaned it.

But it wasn’t me.

Because I was at a police station for the rest of the night, pretending to understand what they kept telling me.

My parents were dead.

I’d been set free.

The invisible chains keeping me tethered to a life I silently hated with every breath had been snapped.

Instead of grieving, all I kept thinking was…

This would change everything.

Chapter 1

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