A Cursed Life

This story is not for the faint of heart, it’s not a tale with a happy ending or even a remotely good one. When the tale is finished don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.

This particular story begins in a small village with a small happy family. They lived in a cottage and owned a successful farm. Each year their harvest gave them plenty of food and they never starved. The father relished in their fortune and scowled at the starved farmers who couldn’t grow their crops. He thought them weak and stupid and viewed them as less than the dirt on his boots. Because of this, the villagers hated the family.

The children at school bullied his son, always laughing at him and making fun of his weight. He weighed a little more than the other schoolchildren because he was eating properly, a fact that he never forgot. This bullying lasted his whole life and when he finally reached his teens he had become so aware of his weight he began to starve himself. He would go days on end without eating until he was finally the same weight as the kids at his school. The son was overjoyed because he thought he would finally be accepted amongst the other kids. He walked to school with his sister with a bright smile on his face, something that rarely ever happened, but when he got to school nothing changed. The kids still made fun of him, except now they called him Twig instead of Pig, and they laughed at him continuously.

His sister who also got bullied never noticed the turmoil her brother went through as she fought her own battles. She didn’t notice how he increasingly got depressed, isolated himself from everyone, and began to have cuts on his wrists. His parents didn’t notice their son’s declining health either, too wrapped up in their wealth. One day the kids at school pushed him a little too far, they spat in his face and told him he was worthless, a stain on this world. In tears the son ran, he ran into the woods and ran home. He went to tell his father about what had happened but his father told him that he was overreacting. He told his mother and she said that they’re just kids, they don’t mean it. These words were not a comfort to him though, they only made him feel worthless and ignored. The son in a last resort to get rid of the overwhelming pain he felt went out of the orchids with a rope slung over his shoulder. He decided then that if he was just a stain on this earth then he must leave. He climbed the tallest tree and tied the rope on the thickest branch, then he tied the other end to his neck and jumped.

The daughter walked home alone, she was worried sick. Her brother was nowhere to be found and the kids were the opposite of helpful. Dulling she noticed the vultures that flew above her family’s orchard. She assumed that a squirrel must’ve died but as she walked by she smelt the most awful smell. Deciding to investigate she climbed the fence and wandered into the orchard. There she found her brother’s limp body hanging from the tree. Her scream of terror echoed off the trees causing her parents to rush to her aid. When her mom reached the tree and saw her precious son dead she fell to her knees and released a silent sob. Her father turned pale as a ghost as he stared at the awkward angle of the son’s neck.

None of them could stand the sight of the dead son for long and they all rushed to the house to grieve. The father went into town to ask some men to retrieve his son’s body because he couldn’t stand the sight for long without retching. When the men saw what the poor son had done they all shed tears for the boy as they cut the rope down and then buried him. After that the once wealthy family soon became sorrowful.

The daughter still went to school but she had changed, she no longer sulked in the corner as she did before, now when the kids came up to her she glared daggers at them. She blamed these kids for her brother’s death and they knew it. A week after her brother died a girl came up to her, one of her brother’s many assailants, and tried to say sorry. She wanted her to know that she felt bad about what she’d done. The daughter was enraged with the gall of this girl. Blinded by her anger she punched the older girl in the face and as she fell to the ground she spat in her face. After that, everyone left her alone.

The mother secluded herself from society. She couldn’t stand to see other families with their kids because it brought her pain every time. She wished with all her heart that she could go back and pay more attention to her son. She blamed herself for his death because she neglected her precious boy. She didn’t listen to him and brushed off his issues. She was too filled with greed to notice that her little boy was hurting. In her grief and wallowing the mother refused to eat or drink or get out of bed. Within a month after the son’s death, she passed away due to her grief.

Again the father asked some men to bury his loved one. They buried the grief-stricken mother next to her son hoping that she found him in the afterlife.

The father was distraught. He couldn’t understand how his family had gone from glorious and surviving to ruined and in tatters. With no one else to blame he pinned it on his daughter. He claimed that she was cursed by the devil and only brought misfortune to his life. He convinced himself of this lie and began to take his anger out on his daughter. She soon learned to hide when he became furious for fear that he would begin to hit her again. One night the father had drunk more than his share of ale. His words slurred together and his fists began to hit anything and everything. The daughter was terrified and in her fear, she fled the house to sleep with the animals in the barn. When the father discovered his house was empty he was furious but also relieved. He felt that there was no longer anything holding him here. In a drunken haze, he packed everything he could and fled into the night.

The daughter woke up the next morning to an empty house and an empty heart. Her father abandoned her. He left her here in this haunted place filled with joyous memories that were now tainted. The daughter fell to the middle of the destroyed room, the last piece of her father left here, and began to sob. Her cries reached the villagers causing them all to fear. They felt the devil brush past them all as he headed to the cottage. As the daughter sobbed the devil placed his hand on her shoulder. He whispered her pleasantries and promises. He asked if she would like revenge on all of those who had wronged her. The daughter still lost in her grief nodded her head. The devil grinned knowing that he had won a valuable asset. He then asked how she would feel to be the general of Hell, the executioner of all of those with black souls, the avenger of the lost. Tears still streamed down her face as she looked up at the devil. Yes, she whispered. She didn’t realize that she just sold her soul, she just wanted revenge. The devil leaned down and whispered the last words she would ever hear on earth, “Welcome to hell, Lillith.”