Part Two of
Chapter One: Harsh Beginnings
Indulged to the fullest, Angela was allowed to do whatever she wanted: jump
on beds, blow bubbles in the house, leave a mess wherever she felt like leaving it, and Mary Sue and Daniel would simply chuckle and congratulate themselves on what an energetic, boisterous little girl they were raising. Angela also triumphed in every obstacle life could present with the least little effort. She was accepted into the gifted classes in her primary school, where she excelled instantly and was quick favorite amongst teachers and peers alike. Spoiled and unaccustomed to discipline, Angela enjoyed every luxury life had to offer without working for it and was told that she was the perfect person each day of her life.
In gross contrast, Lilith's primary years were just a cut above outright child abuse. Still dressed in whatever dark hand-me-down clothes Mary-Sue and Daniel could find, Lilith was blamed for every occurrence in the house; from dishes left in the sink to problems with the fireplace to wall graffiti that read "Angela is Beautiful" in pink letters and surrounded with butterflies. Every day she woke, Lilith dealt with her parents' harsh words and watched miserably as her twin sister was afforded every measure.
"You're so stupid!" Mary-Sue would say when Lilith brought home poor grade cards, and when her teachers would comment on Lilith's lackluster social abilities, Daniel would scream to her, "Well, it's not our fault the children hate you! Look at you! Can you blame them?"
Every harsh word was spoken in Angela's presence and in accordance with her parents' wishes, she too grew to despise her twin. She was nasty to Lilith, calling her names and hitting or pushing her just because she happened to be there. Twice, social workers came to visit upon the house to inspect the cause of the bruises with which Lilith would sometimes attend school, but Mary-Sue and Daniel would account for the issues as sibling rivalry and managed to dodge further investigation. Each time, Lilith simply sat and withstood the arrant opprobriums tossed in her direction, and Angela became more contentious and hostile toward her.
Finally, growing frustrated with the injustice found in her own home, Lilith began to fight back; pushing her sister back when she was pushed, screaming in return to parents who yelled at her and becoming just as hateful toward all those who were hateful to her. She woke up each day and went to sleep each night with a scowl set upon her young face, while Angela was presented with love and admiration from the moment she opened her eyes to a new day to the moment Mary-Sue and Daniel tucked her in bed at night after reading a nighttime story.
One night, after Angela was given a dessert for finishing her vegetables at dinner and her own inquest went ignored even after completing the very same task, Lilith pushed away from the table and attacked Angela harder than ever previously, screaming "I hate you!" the entire time.
Daniel and Mary-Sue were quick to separate the girls and forced Lilith to sit on a crate in the corner of her room for three days straight while Angela, who had delivered the majority of the blows to her sister, was allowed to play in the sunshine and was even given a gift for having to deal with the "other daughter."
"It's not fair..." Lilith would cry to herself each night.
In her heart she knew she had done nothing to deserve such mistreatment from her family and she simply could not understand how someone who looked exactly like her could be given everything while she was given nothing.
By the time she was ten years old, Lilith began to demand answers from Mary-Sue and Daniel.
"Why does she get to play in the pool all day and I have to stay in the house all the time?" Lilith yelled one day to her mother.
"Because stupid, ugly girls don't get to do as they please!" Mary-Sue sneered in return.
"I look just like her! We're exactly the same!"
Without a valid answer, Mary-Sue simply screamed what she had been wanting to say since the day Lilith had been born.
"We never wanted you!"
With tears in her eyes, ten-year-old Lilith ran to her room and threw herself on her bed to bawl into her thin covers for the rest of the day. She always had the inkling that Mary-Sue and Daniel had not wanted her, but to hear the words, to have them float through the room as easily as if Mary-Sue were telling her to take out the garbage was almost too much to bear.
Having watched the argument, Angela, feeling sympathy for the first time in her life for her sister and simply troubled by the revelation, looked to Daniel with wet green eyes.
"Is that true, Daddy?" she asked. "You never wanted us?"
Daniel turned to his cherished child and smiled. "My darling, Angela. We always wanted you."
Once Angela had been tucked into bed that night and Lilith still cried in her own room, Daniel went into the study to speak to Mary-Sue.
"You shouldn't have said that to her," he said.
Mary-Sue sighed at her desk. "I know. I just slipped...besides, you know how busy I've been at the office lately. Congressman Michaels is looking to run for governor next year and I've been under a lot of stress.
Daniel sighed and left Mary-Sue to her work, knowing full well how busy Mary-Sue had been recently. They had not simply held one another in months, let alone made love and with their new problems with Lilith, it seemed even more likely that their marital troubles would get worse before ever becoming better.
The months passed and the atmosphere of the Pleasant household grew darker. When the twins were about to celebrate their eleventh birthday, Daniel pleaded with Mary-Sue to throw a birthday party for both girls.
Annoyed by the suggestion, Mary-Sue attempted to tell Lilith about the what she had planned for her upcoming birthday, but the wounds inflicted had not nearly enough time to heal and Lilith spat in Mary-Sue's face for even proposing that she participate.
"Why should I go to your party? You didn't even want me!"
Instead of making amends at the birthday party, Mary-Sue forced Lilith to sit in the hallway and listen as Angela opened present after present. Lilith, hardened by years of abuse, did not bat an eye even after hearing Angela open the RC Car she had been wanting for weeks, and decided on that day she deserved better and rued to never forgive either Mary-Sue or Daniel.
Seeing that Mary-Sue had botched an attempt at reconciling with their young child, Daniel pulled Lilith into the hall after the party with a special gift he had picked out just for her.
"You can keep your stupid gift!" Lilith yelled and she turned toward the wall, refusing to even look at him.
Not knowing what else to do, Daniel called for Angela.
"I have something else for you, Precious," he said giving her Lilith's gift.
Lilith turned from the wall in time to see Angela accepting her gift and anger coursed through her.
"If he really cared, he would have tried harder to give it to me," she thought. "I hate them all!"
Hate festered within Lilith and burst forth at inopportune times; sometimes during dinner, sometimes while at school, and sometimes just while walking through the house and passing her sister who always had a contented smile on her face.
"I hate you!" she would yell. "I wish you were dead!"
Instead of replying with the same malcontent, Angela found herself simply recoiling in fear at the version of herself that had gone off the normal path. Lilith was angry with her all the time, and as they grew older, she knew there was very little that could change what their parents had done to her.
Rather than shower Lilith was continuous poor treatment that was bound to be noticed by the neighbors, Mary-Sue, Daniel and Angela, took to ignoring her and as the years passed, Lilith became cold and apathetic toward the rest of the world.
Chapter Two (Part 1): Troubled Teen Years
