Beauty and the Bad

My life used to be normal. I had normal parents, went to a normal school, and had normal friendships. Never had a boyfriend, or skipped class, or even stayed out past curfew.

One person, in one accident, one fateful night, changed all of that. Because one person, decided it was okay to drink and drive. Because of that one person, and their stupid one-time decision; I lost my father. My mother lost her husband, and my grandparents lost their son.

After that night, everything in my normal life changed.

And became one hell of a life.

My mother sank to depression, and took whatever love knocked on her door; even the ones that tried to break them down. She started dating a younger man, who at my age of 16 was closer to dating me than her, but he liked the older woman.

Or should I say, the older woman who had money.

My grandparents were wealthy, and though we had decided as a family to live off our own income, they had left a large inheritance for my father, for when they had passed. The plan was to use part of it for my college, and the rest was to go towards my parents' retirement home.

But he was taken before they were, and we were given the money to help survive off one pay-check, tossing her dream retirement home out the window, and all her other plans for her future, and mine.

She thought she had found love in this young man, Jeremy, but only after a few months of dating him, she discovered he was a drug addict. Mostly addicted to coke, but dabbled with a bit of everything from time to time. My mother tried to look the other way, saying that he is 'sick', and she needs to help him.

But no matter how hard she tried to fight him to stop, he chose the drugs over her every time. And every time he came crawling back, because he was out of money and drugs, she would take him back with open arms. He would promise to get help in the morning, and then they would start their vicious cycle for another few months.

Those few months turned into two years, and things got way out of control. I thought my life had changed before, because of one fateful night.

I had no idea what else fate had in store for my mother and I.

Or how much death we would endure.

One summer night, Jeremy came home late, and he was distraught. My mother had stayed up waiting for him, and tried calming him down and asking why he was so upset, but he ignored her and demanded money. She said she didn't have much money left, and what she did, was to buy me new school supplies and clothes for my last year of school, which was supposed to start at the end of the summer.

He demanded she give him all of it, every last cent, or he was going to hurt her. She did as he had asked, but he had just become more enraged, screaming that it wasn't enough, and that he needed more. He started tearing through the house, turning everything over to try and find some secret stash he thought my mother was hiding from him.

I had hidden in my room the entire time, and waited for him to break down my door, yelling at me to give him whatever money I had made from my small part time job at the local community center, teaching dance to children. I tried to tell him I didn't have anything, and he slapped me across the face.

My mother had then come rushing into the room, and tried to get him to stop, but he was too enraged and blinded to even see her, so he knocked her down too. Jeremy had run out of the room when someone started to bang on the front door. My mother and I stayed in my room, and listened as he and another man argued loudly in the living room.

Suddenly, gun shots had went off, and we heard one thud on the ground. My mother tried to muffle our screams, and rushed back out into the living room to make sure Jeremy was alright, despite how much I had yelled at her to stat put until whoever was alive was gone.

It was Jeremy who had been shot, by some burly bald man, twice the size of my mother and I. He looked straight at her before she could make a move towards Jeremy, and I stayed hidden behind the hallway door, peeking through the crack.

"Speak a word of this to anyone, and I'll kill your entire family, " the man said to my mother, his words coated in a thick Irish accent, before he ran out the door and disappeared. My mother snapped out of it and rushed over to Jeremy, and cried over his corpse.

Despite what the man had said, she had immediately called the police; and told them everything. She gave them a clear description of the man, and everything she knew about Jeremy and their connection. Turns out, he had been Jeremy's drug dealer, and he owed money, that much had been obvious.

That was when my life changed for the second time.

The police were never able to capture the man.

My mother and I were placed into witness protection, and moved half-way across Australia. We had to up-root ourselves, and leave everything we knew and loved behind. I couldn't tell anyone where I was going, or why I was leaving. I wasn't even able to say good-bye to my friends or grandparents. None of them were able to know what was happening.

My identity was stripped.

I am no longer Chloe Byrne.

After that day, I became Haley Quinn.