Dark History - Tzeitel - Thirteen Years Ago - Spell Broke

Tzeitel’s spell was broken. Her father resumed beating her with the belt buckle, hitting her even harder than before.

“Stop being a freak! Just be fucking normal!” He shouted, punctuating each word with a blow.

Tzeitel curled in a tight ball. She tried using her power but they were both too angry and aware, it only seemed to be making them more angry. Tzeitel stopped using her power and whimpered, waiting for it to stop. It was like her parents were making up for the time lost over the past weeks when her powers stopped them. Her father stopped hitting her only for her mother to kick her repeatedly. Tzeitel thought they were going to kill her but was afraid of making them even angrier if she tried using her powers. It was the worst beating they had ever given Tzeitel, and it only stopped when Tzeitel’s mother missed a kick and smashed her toes against a leg of Tzeitel’s bed. Her father pulled Tzeitel up by an arm and slapped her across the face a few more times before throwing her into her closet. The closet door was shut, putting her in near complete darkness, and she heard them pushing something against the door. She was trapped and hurt too bad to move or try to leave yet.

Hours later Tzeitel needed to pee. A few hours after that she was thirsty and still had to pee. She ached all over but managed to stand up. She tried opening the door but of course it did not budge. She paced around the small dark space, feeling like her bladder was going to burst and like her tongue was made of gravel, but she knew better than to call on her parents to let her out. Tzeitel was thinking about peeing in the corner when she heard the door being cleared and thrown open. She was grabbed by the neck before her eyes could adjust to the light and yanked into her room.

“If you try to run me again I’ll break your fucking neck.” Her father hissed in her ear.

“You better not have pissed in there.” Her mother said, glancing into the closet.

Tzeitel blinked as she was roughly guided out of her room and down the hall to the bathroom.

“Don’t try anything.” Her father squeezed the back of her neck and released her.

Tzeitel bolted into the bathroom and closed the door. To her relief they let the door stay closed. She used the toilet and briefly thought about going out the window. But she was too afraid to run. Her parents were already so angry with her, what would they do after they caught her running? Succeeding at running away never even occurred to her. She washed her hands at the sink, then caught water in her hands to drink thirstily until her mother threw open the door. She shoved Tzeitel from the sink and grabbed her by the arm.

“We didn’t say you could drink! If you have to piss again, don't expect us to let you out.” She said, roughly dragging Tzeitel out of the bathroom and down the hallway.

Her father met her in the hall and grabbed her by the arm. "Stop it, you freak!" He shouted and slammed Tzeitel into the wall.

Tzeitel was locked in the closet again. She grew hungry but was used to being hungry. She got thirsty again but all she could do was pace anxiously, hoping they would let her out again soon.

After hours Tzeitel had no way of keeping track of, she heard her parents talking to people whose voices she did not recognize. Her closet door was open and she squinted at men in uniforms. They grabbed her and put a heavy metal collar on her neck. Tzeitel instantly felt herself cut off from the source and felt like she was missing a part of herself. One of the men held a fob.

"Don't ever try to run from us, and do what we tell you to. If you don't -" he pressed a button on the fob. The collar delivered a powerful shock. If the men had not been holding her she would have fallen to the floor. "But if you're an obedient girl everything will be alright."