UGLY

Twenty years later

Kathy woke up while it was still dark because she needed to get Athena's favorite flowers from the forest.

Athena liked to smell them first thing after she woke up and each time Kathy delayed in bringing them, Athena would give her so many slaps across her face.

She had noticed that Athena wasn't like that with everyone. She was the only one Athena always treated with so much anger and hatred.

She didn't know why Athena hated her. She had once told her mother Meela that princess Athena was extremely mean to her but her mother had slapped her hard across the face and accused her of being jealous of the princess.

In her own words, "a lowly and disgusting slave like you should feel lucky that you are at the princess's beck and call.

So many people would die for the privilege of beholding the princess's beautiful face everyday but because you were born as an extremely ugly child, you cannot hide your jealousy for our noble princess."

Sometimes she wondered if Meela was really her mother. She loved princess Athena so much that she could not bear to hear one evil word against her.

Weren't mothers always supposed to take their children's sides? She just couldn't understand why her case was different.

All other mothers she knew loved their children excessively but her mother always hit her for flimsy reasons. Perhaps it wasn't her mother's fault. Perhaps it was her fault for being so ugly.

She felt this way because her mother was not the only one who hated her. The queen hated her and even the king did.

All the servants in the palace, both male and female hated her as well. They all treated her very badly and looked down on her.

She knew that she was born ugly but she didn't make herself that way. It wasn't her fault but everyone hated her for it.

No one wanted to be her friend. No matter how many nice things she did for them, they always still found a reason to pick on her.

There were times when she thought that dying was better than living but, she couldn't bring herself to end her life.

What baffled her the most was the fact that princess Athena was very close with Meela, whereas, she who was actually Meela's daughter did not share such a relationship with her.

It was also weird that the queen loved Meela so much and always spent time conversing with her. Every one obviously loved the mother and hated the daughter but Kathy did not understand why.

Sometimes she would sit by a corner and watch as Meela showered the princess with love and adoration. If only one person in the kingdom could treat her like a human being, then she would be content and have no complaints.

When she got ready to leave, she looked at her mother Meela who was still asleep and decided to wake her up.

She did so because the last time she left without waking Meela up, Meela had kicked her so hard on her back and she hadn't yet recovered from the pain.

As she tapped Meela, she said, "mother, I am going to get princess Athena's favorite flowers in the forest"

Meela woke up from the bed and yawned as she stretched her arms. When she realized that Kathy had woken her up from sleep, she slapped her so hard that Kathy fell backwards.

Kathy stood up and began to cry as she said, "when I left without waking you up yesterday, you were very angry and that was why I decided to wake you up today before leaving."

Meela looked at her angrily and asked, "so what are you trying to say? Are you insinuating that I'm senseless?"

Kathy shook her head and said, "no" but another slap landed on the same spot on her cheeks before Meela screamed, "get out of my sight, you ugly worthless slave."

Kathy quickly ran out of the house while crying. She couldn't find a single person outside since it was still dark but she didn't have any choice.

Nobody cared about her enough to worry that something could happen to her if she kept leaving the house when it was still dark.

For as long as she could remember, she had always walked on eggshells around Meela. She had no idea how exactly to act because she always got beaten up regardless of what she did.

She wiped her eyes as she slowly made her way into the forest. Most people claimed that the forest was dangerous and riddled with wild animals and rogues who preyed on innocent girls.

She had once shared this worrying piece of information with Meela but Meela had told her that she was too ugly for any man to ever take an interest in her in such a way.