The night has fallen in the city, making all the loud noises dissipate into the darkness. The children have gone inside for supper, the stalls from the market have been taken down only to be up again the next day, and the drunken men tackle the bars, loudly talking and singing as if doing that would make their misfortunes of life disappear. I’m sure my father is currently wasting his life away in one. I sigh thinking of how my poor mother would be worried sick every night wondering when father would come back home, and if he would come back alive. From what mother told me, father wasn’t always like this.

There was a time that father used to work with his father on the family’s shoe business. That’s where he met mother and they fell in love at first sight, got married and a year later, I was born. Unfortunately, fate must have it out for this family because a few months later, a war broke out between the Raedorah Kingdom and the Qalaedia Kingdom. This war started because King James had started on his plan to conquer lands and attacking Kingdoms without notice. That did not sit well with Qalaedia Kingdom because they fought back and refused to give their precious land to a greedy King. Needing more assistance to help win the war, the King ordered every low-tier man in the Kingdom above the age of eighteen to become a soldier and fight for their Kingdom. To show good faith to the people, the King said he would give the family of the soldiers five thousand Solars for every man in the family that enlisted. That definitely made the people more determined to go to war. Having that much money would help them expand their business or move to a new town, and that was what my parents thought it would happen.

Mistakes were made during the war. Despite having a large army, the amount of training that the soldiers were given wasn’t enough to win against the Kingdom that is known for their advanced technology and powers. Many were killed, the majority was hurt, and some ended up without a leg or an arm, sometimes more. The war lasted only six months and it causes extreme damage, physically and mentally, to the men. The King, unsatisfied with losing the war, decided to take his anger out on them. The money that was promised to them was never delivered. The King said that such disgraceful men did not deserve a reward. Such action made the people angry, but there was nothing they could do. Protests would end violently, they could not count with the help on the mid and high-tiers, and after weeks of pointless attempts to have their voices heard, the people gave up and settled back into their lives, trying to forget.

After the men came back, they were different. My father was different. While in war, father went up against a highly skilled soldier whose power matched my father’s, however, this soldier’s power was one million times more powerful than my father's. While fighting, the soldier had the upper hand on my father and crushed his right leg and every bone he had in it. Luckily, there was a doctor on the field that possessed the healing power. Although the doctor was able to repair my father’s leg, the damage was too severe, and my father would have a limp for the rest of his life. Having the limp was the worst thing that could’ve ever happened to my father, especially since he could not any more jobs. Who would want to hire a cripple to perform manual labor?

From there, it only got worse. Father started drinking and gambling to forget the fact that he would be useless for the rest of his life. Sometimes father wouldn’t come home for days, he would always owe someone money and it would fall upon my mother to clean up his messes. After mother died, he started coming back less and less. I haven’t seen him in two weeks but and I don’t know what I’m most anxious about. If he ends up dying in the middle of nowhere or if he brings trouble with him when he comes home.

As I approach my house, I can see a large crowd and what it seems to be an altercation. Perfect, just what I needed to end this marvelous day.

“Hurry, hurry! I hear it’s the Scorpios again!” A group of kids run past me and the mention of the Scorpios gives me the bad kind of goosebumps. They are notorious for tricking people into gambling their most prized possessions. Out of all the people my father has gambled against, the Scorpios have never been one of them and for that I’m grateful. I still have a small amount of hope my father is not as stupid as to cross paths with them.

I try to make my way through the crowd so I can get a glimpse of what is happening.

“I hear they’re here to collect someone’s house.”

“A house? Now who would be stupid enough to do that?” Indeed. Everyone knows that being poor is already hard enough, so they would not want to add homelessness into their lives.

As I approach the front, I get more curious to get a look of the person who would do such a foolish thing. Getting through this crowd is difficult and with the commotion, it makes me accidentally step on someone’s foot. “Hey! Watch where you’re stepping!”

“I’m sorry. I’m just trying to get a look of the pers-!” As the words come out of my mouth, I finally get to see the fool. My blood turns cold. This can't be true. I freeze, trying to make sense of what my eyes are witnessing, hoping that it's nothing more than an illusion. As much as I try to deny it, my eyes do not deceive me.

In front of my house was the Scorpios, destroying the house and burning its contents in the middle of the street. Kneeling in front of the house, with his face in his hands, was the man who I still held a small amount of hope for. The man that despite all of the mistakes he made, I still didn’t give up on him. But that has changed. I could never forgive him for this. Because it was our house they came to collect. It was our furniture they were burning. It was my memories with my mother they were destroying. All of this was happening because of him. My useless father.

Father looks in my direction and locks eyes with me. I can tell that he’s been crying by the puffiness around his eyes. He has a panicked look on his face.

“Evanna!” He tries to get up from the ground but one of the Scorpio men pushes him back down and grabs his hair.

“Where do you think you’re going? You have to watch us claim your little house and burn everything.” The man smiles and follows the direction of my father’s gaze. As soon as he sees me, he releases my father and his smile broadens. “Well, well. If it isn’t this bastard’s daughter. I apologize for the intrusion. We’re just making a little redecoration you may say.” He pulls my right arm and grabs me by the chin. I can smell alcohol in his breath. I struggle to get away from his grasp.

“Now, now little kitten. Let me take a good look at you.” He moves my face side to side and grins. I can see his yellow rotten teeth and his foul breath makes my eyes sting. “You’re not that bad looking little kitten. I may take you home with me tonight since you don’t have one anymore.” He licks his lips and it makes me shudder. He’s strong so my attempts to get away don’t prevail.

“Stop!” My father gets up and tries to approach us only to be held back by two men. “The deal was only the house. Please. Not my daughter.” He gives the man in front of me a despaired look. Does he really think that he can soften him up?

“You are in no position to give orders around here vermin.” He man looks at me up and down and licks his lips again. “Besides, I would take good care of your daughter.” The man leans down in an attempt to kiss me but I spit at his face. That replaces his disgusting smile with a menacing glare. “How dare you spit at me you bitch!” He raises his hand to slap me and I close my eyes because I know it’ll hurt like hell.

“Yvan!” A voice calls out in the midst of all this chaos. I open my eyes to see a man wearing a jacket with the group’s logo on it. His demeanor is different than the other. His is calmer and demanding. I’ll guess he’s the boss. “Let her go. We’re done with what we came here to do. We’re leaving.”

The man called Yvan curses under his breath. Before releasing me, he leans down and whispers in my ear. “We will meet again, and when we do, I’ll make sure to finish what we started.” He kisses my check and lets me go. I’m quick to wipe my cheek, hoping to take away the germs he left behind. The other men also release my father and walk back to their departing group.

After they leave, the crowd retreats back into their homes and I’m left there, with my father, looking at our destroyed house. I look down and see that there’s an amulet that belonged to my mother that had escaped the fire. I crouch down to retrieve it and hold it to my chest. At least there’s one thing that survived this horrific act.

“Evanna.” My father touches my shoulder but I’m quick to slap his hand away. I hate him so much for everything he has put this family through. Tonight, he crossed the line.

“You are no longer my father. Not after tonight. I had forgiven you for many things that you had done in the past but this, the destruction of our home, I will never forgive. So why don’t you just go to a bar and disappear from my life, because that’s the only thing that you excel at.”

The last thing I see is my father’s distraught face before I walk away. Leaving behind, broken memories and a broken home.