I redact my forgiveness

*I swear I meant to follow the prompt. Alas, I wrote this...content warning-ish, I guess*

You told me I was ugly.

Worthless. Brainless. Pitiless.

You told me I would never amount to anything more

than the sad shadow of a dream you'd predestined for me.

You told me I was small,

and then when I outgrew you,

you cut my legs from beneath me.

You told me I was talent-less,

unworthy of investment.

You told me not to reach, not to strive, not to build myself up.

You even taught me that it wasn't worth the effort.

Why become at all when the world only seeks to destroy?

I listened.

That scrawny, pathetic, witless child listened.

I drank down your bitterness and convinced myself it was sweet honey.

I forgave every transgression.

I offered myself up onto your altar,

allowed you to mold me into your dream.

I didn't fight back.

I didn't ask for more than the pittance you gave.

I stagnated.

And I reveled in every shred of praise.

I stopped caring about my conscience.

I ignored the inner voice that screamed

to be more than a slave.

Yes, the child I was

forgave.

And then,

I was suddenly awake

and full of hate.

I hate what you made me.

I hate that I let you convince me to be nothing.

My conscience is screaming now, motherfucker--

and it's telling me that you committed a travesty.

You heinous, insidious, shriveled little prick-

you stole that girl's soul.

You saw her.

You saw that she would've rattled the very core of the universe if given half a chance.

And you were terrified.

So you crushed her- crushed me- like the ember at the end of a cigarette butt.

I became ash beneath your feet.

I am no longer a child.

She may have forgiven you,

but I don't.

Most certainly not when I went and fulfilled your dreams for me.

When I pumped out children like some prized brood-mare

because it was the only thing I'd ever been taught to be.

I became that mother.

I became that wife.

I became that live-in maid you always wanted me to be.

But your plan backfired.

Because the moment I looked into my child's eyes,

I felt more powerful than you'd ever allowed me to be.

And I knew

I would burn the world for that little girl.

I would even burn you.

She will never doubt for a moment

her immense worth.

And as she grows, I feed that fire in her.

Intelligence that was quelled in me,

looms iridescent behind her cunning eyes.

She will rattle the very core of this universe.

And I will be there

beside her

a battle cry on my lips,

as she conquers every dream she ever dared to dream.

And you will still be dead

Ash beneath our feet.