Accident (from Horror in All but Appearance)

You’re a hard-working parent like you should be. You work from nine-to-five to make what you need for your family. Your spouse works hard as well and you only see them in the morning and at night since you work in separate places. The job you have leaves you exhausted every day and wanting a better job or at least a better paycheck for what it does to you. Despite all the hardship, it’s worth it. You do it for God, for your spouse, your parents, your friends, and last but not least, your daughter.

Your daughter always manages to make it worth it for you as the reality of her situation doesn’t faze her since this is all she knows. She appreciates her possessions and her family more than normal children because you’ve taught her well and sent her to a decent school. Seeing her smile is enough to lift your spirits back up to play with her after a hard day of work, however, repetition can make things dull and you begin to feel less and less energized by her smile and high spirits. In the future, she might not be this energetic and positive, and despite knowing this, you stop playing with her and just rest your weary body. This rest does make you feel more awake, but your spirits are still down.

The life that you live continues to drain you until one day you snap. Without realizing it, you harshly smack your daughter into the wall so hard that it leaves a dent in it and your daughter lies unconscious on the floor. What you’ve done hits you like a truck as you call an ambulance for her since she isn’t waking up. What have you done? Why couldn’t you control yourself? Why didn’t you? What are you going to tell your spouse? Are you going the lie to them and tell them it was an accident and she just fell down the steps and hit her head on the wall? You told that lie to the people in the hospital, so why not, but still.

What will your daughter think? She’ll know the truth assuming the damage to her head assuming it isn’t too serious. You may have lost the love she’s had for you in one way or another. The bill that the hospital gives you means that you’ll have to work more for a time to pay it off, but that’s not your primary concern, and money and work will no longer bother you for a time being. Instead, you watch out for the enemy within, which was the greatest threat to your daughter’s life for a moment.