An excerpt from A Haunted Past Life

Chapter 1

Early Years

‘Home,’ Jen Rickmand muttered, mopping the kitchen floor. ‘This isn’t a home; I’m just the unpaid char.’ She wondered why she had let herself be used and bullied for so long, allowing her stepfamily to eat away at her self-confidence to the extent that she now suffered from agoraphobia.

For years, anger bubbled beneath her calm exterior, but she hid it well. Whenever they picked on her, she would take a deep breath and count to ten. She never once retaliated; instead she would bite her tongue and tell herself not to give them the satisfaction of knowing they had got to her with their spiteful remarks.

Her stepsisters made her life a misery, commenting almost daily that she looked like a beanstalk and her hair was nothing but a frizzy mess. In fact, Jen was pretty, tall, and slim, with beautiful, long, naturally auburn hair.

Jen’s only escape from them had been her interest in the paranormal, unfortunately, they had found out about it by snooping in her bedroom. They made snide comments such as, ‘Fancy reading books about ghosts. Have you been talking to them? You idiot. You’re nuts, you are.’

She often heard them talking about her as she went about her chores.

‘Have you seen the mess she looks today, especially her hair?’ Thelma would ask of her sister Monica, who would laugh.

‘Yes, she looks like a haystack on fire, doesn’t she?’ Their spiteful laughter would drift into the kitchen where she would be preparing the evening meal or doing another household chore.

They would deliberately throw rubbish on the floor and then order her to pick it up. ‘Come on, you’re the cleaner, pick it up or we’ll tell our dad about you when he gets home.’ They knew the more they derided her, the more their father would favour them. And he did, buying them CDs and giving them money, making certain Jen was around when he handed them out.

Her stepfather was the worst; he would push her against the kitchen wall when no one was about, standing close to her, threatening with how he would make her regret her idleness. He would grab a handful of her hair and pull it hard, telling her if she yelled out, he would make her regret it one way or another. He was pure evil, she never doubted that one way or another, he would attack her if she wasn’t careful. 
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