Stars In The Snow

Zach and I were neighbors, and we grew up together.

I lost my mother when I was really young and lived with my alcoholic father.

Meanwhile, Zach’s parents divorced, and he lived next door to me with his gentle mother.

Zach’s mother loved me and would occasionally ask me whether I would become Zach’s wife.

Whenever she did that, Zach would be highly against it.

“Who’d want to marry a mute?!”

Even so, Zach always protected me.

When other people threw stones at me, ordered their dogs to bite me, or stole my stuff, he always ran over and fought against my bullies.

Even if he was battered and bruised all over, he still stood in front of me as my protector.

He said that he did not like me because I was mute, but he would always protect me because I was his star.

Then, one year, my father got into major debt and wanted to sell me because I was useless, but Zach’s mother discovered his plot.

She saved me, but my drunk father stabbed her thirteen times, and she never woke up again.

I would forever remember how Zach looked at me when I woke up in the hospital.

His eyes were full of despair and endless hatred.

“Why didn’t you die?! I hate you! I’ll forever hate you, Stella!”

In his rage, Zach slapped me.

He struck me so hard that I was dizzy from the blow, and I lost my hearing in my left ear because of it.

But it was also because of this slap that Zach stayed by my side.