Unhealthy Desires (standard:drama, 1985 words)
Author: Hulsey	Added: Oct 27 2006	Views/Reads: 4015/2572	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A young girls' ignorance of anorexia.

Mandy Greaves listened to her heartbeat slowing down. She could hear the
faint drumming fading away, or at least she thought she could. Mandy 
felt no pity; she had merely lost her desire to live. She would rather 
die on her own, in her secret hideaway, and away from the mocking, 
cruel audience. Mandy was so fat and ugly, that she could not bear 
another human being staring at her. In reality, Mandy was not fat and 
ugly. She was an anorexic and was about to offer the ultimate 
sacrifice, rather than be forced to eat. 

Her sixteen years on earth had mostly been a struggle. She had been in
conflict with herself, to achieve the figure that she craved for. Not 
long now. She would be free from her old enemy, the scales. Those 
lying, corrupt scales, deleting an odd ounce here and there, when Mandy 
knew for a fact, that she was gaining weight. 

She closed her eyes and saw whiteness; pure pristine whiteness, so
bright and wonderful. She was weightless, floating above the green 
meadows and rivers, the radiant, pure light drawing her ever closer, 
like a magnet attracting a needle. 

Anita Greaves was a dominant and over-protective mother. She had a
tongue like an Irish navvy and a temper to match. Some say, but not to 
her face, that she nagged her obedient husband, Joe to death. He had a 
stroke at the young age of thirty, probably brought on by his wife's 
domineering obsession. 

Mandy had few friends as she grew up in the sleepy town of Oakhampton in
Devon. What friends she did have, were always under the watchful eye of 
her mother. Ever since the death of her father seven years ago, Mandy 
had withdrawn into a shell; her love for him infinite. 

Anita had high aspirations for her daughter, as far back as six years
ago. Anita Greaves was an attractive woman with an hourglass figure, 
but she held a grudge against the modelling world for spurning her of 
what should have been a thriving and rewarding career. The only thing 
that stopped her having a career as a model was her crude misuse of the 
English language. The photographer's eyes would light up when she 
entered the room, pound note signs before their eyes. Then she would 
open her mouth and the inevitable words, “we'll be in touch,” followed 
her through the door. 

Anita did the next best thing available to her. She worked as an erotic
model, or that is what she was told it was. Pure pornography was a more 
appropriate definition. If Anita could not be a model, then she would 
settle for the next best thing. From the age of ten, Mandy was groomed 
to be the next supermodel, and that is when her troubles began. 

Mandy's first day at school, and the teachers took her slender
appearance to be nothing out of the ordinary. A fine-boned child they 
used to call her. One of her teachers, Miss Darcy had grown quite fond 
of her and suspected that all was not well. It all stemmed from an 
English lesson, when the children were told to write down a list of 
unhealthy foods for their project. All of the children had a list of 
perhaps nine or ten food products; all that is apart from Mandy. Her 
total numbered over a hundred; even listing foodstuffs such as soup, 
pasta, potato and fish. When prompted by Miss Darcy, Mandy explained 
that her mother had told her so. 

Miss Darcy was also concerned about the bruises and cuts that often
marked Mandy's frail body. The explanation was always the same. “I fell 
over, Miss.” In reality, the truth was a lot more dire. 

Mandy was allowed to eat only fresh fruit and vegetables. God forbid if
she was ever caught eating anything else. Of course, her mother could 
not watch her while she was in school, so she resorted to desperate 
measures, weighing her daughter both before and after school. If Mandy 
was found to be one ounce overweight, she would be thrashed. The 
thrashings were not too bad at first, but gradually, over the years, 
they became more brutal. Cold baths and being locked in a dark closet 
for hours was one such punishment. 

Anita had turned to the bottle more and more, as she tried to numb the
shame that she sometimes felt after punishing her daughter. The school 
authorities had become involved after Miss Darcy had notified them of 
Mandy's weight loss. Social services often called, but always made the 


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