Characters: Lofty, Tonker
Rating: D

Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with Terry Pratchett or Discworld.

Fathers and Daughters
by Amazon Syren

My aunt and uncle sent me here, into the house of pain.
I was only a child. Only nine.
I kept my silence for a while.
When it came time to tell my story, I kept it short.
'I kissed the wrong person', I said to them.
The older girls -- They were all older than me then, -- nodded, knowingly.
It's a familiar story, even if I was younger than most.

But there are other stories than mine.

Take this one: She is tall and strong. I can feel her burning like a column of flame inside. And yet, it's taken a year for her story to come out.

Now, in the dark of the long, grey room, she begins to speak, putting words around the hatred in her eyes, the sharpness of her shoulders, voicing the reasons why she won't look down when one of the priests sets his eyes on her.

It's a story of fathers and daughters.
A story too many of us know.

"When I started getting breasts, he stopped looking at me," she says. "He went after my sister instead."

I see the other girls nodding in the dark. They know too well what she means by 'looking', what she means by 'father'.

"That's why I killed him. That's why I'm here."