"What did you do to me?" I asked again while playing with sand on my feet.
My parents, Luke, and I went out for a walk near the beach. This is not the usual setting where we could finally talk about some serious stuff, but I guess this is good enough to have some fresh air at the same time.
This condition of mine is getting worse, and I don't even know what's going to happen next. I'm not going to die anytime soon, but maybe this could be one of the rarest times that this will happen in our family.
"We only did things that would save you," Dad said while he was looking from afar.
"It's never our intention to hurt you, my child." Mom tried to reach out for me, but I avoided her gaze and her arms that were supposed to hold me.
I know what I did was a bit harsh, and the pain and longing in my mother's eyes are too visible in her eyes, but I wanted to choose myself this time. All my life, I've been a slave to follow every fucking tradition they believed in. The only time I tried to free myself was when I got into college, but I'm still guarded by my brother. It pains me to see my mom like this too, but I've got to endure it just to let myself live my own life.
"How imbecile of you to act like that!" Dad said as he noticed what I did.
"I only did what I needed to do," I mumbled.
"If you really wanted to take full control of your life, then speak up and don't give those damn whispers!" Dad said something like an order this time.
"Dad, please," Luke butted in.
"Even you this time, huh?" He looked at Luke in an instant. "I expected you to be her guide, not her instigator when she needed one."
"Dad, let her have her moment this time around," Luke said in a calm way.
"What moment?" He asked harshly. "Moment with that impostor? You want your sister to be with that creature, huh?"
"Impostor? What do you mean by that?" I asked.
They both went silent, but Luke just sighed before he spoke up again.
"We were tricked by Ysmael before by the fact that we didn't notice that he's that kind of man," Luke explained.
"A fucking werewolf," Dad said under his breath.
Dad looks so pissed right now; at least he's showing some emotion in his face. Mom never spoke up again the whole time Luke tried to stoop up for us both. Meanwhile, my head hurts again, and I think this is an indication that I could remember some pieces of my memories before I lost them. This time, I'll try to contain the pain.
"We're going home," Dad said as if it were a statement that anyone should comply with.
"I'm not going home," I said.
I scoffed and lowered my head as it kept hurting.
"Don't test me, Adi," Dad warned me, and I just eventually laughed sarcastically.
I looked up to face him eye-to-eye, and right now I couldn't even consider such a thing as the fact that he's family to me. His being a ruthless man made me like this, and now I'll let him face my rants.
"I couldn't bear to endure your cruelty anymore, Dad. Your coldness to this family led us to end up like this. Why do you need to be so cold anyway? I don't really understand how you fucking disregard the fact that I'm your daughter yet you decided to have me a fucking lab rat? You didn't even have the willingness to tell me everything, and now you let me suffer from these fucking episodes of my severe headache and—"
I couldn't finish what I was saying as I felt a hard slap on my face. Mom suddenly stepped in to slap me.
"You don't get to tell us those things because you didn't know anything about them," Mom said, but then I could hear her fighting the urge to cry.
Luke pulled me away from our mother. My head is still lowered as I try to hide the fact that I'm already crying.
"You want to know the truth?" Mom spoke up again. I heard Dad trying to stop him from saying something, but she started to talk again.
"Yes, we did tortured you in some ways. We injected series of serums in your body. But do you even know why we did that? Ever since you were a kid, we always knew that you'll going to be the great among us and we did try to hide you from eyes of enemies around. We move city to another just to keep you safe. You couldn't realize your strength but when you realize how powerful you are, you became reckless and even applied in a university who's far from us? Do you even think you can protect yourself by your own then? And so we did agree to let you marry a man we thought who could possibly change you but it's too late when we found out how he tricked us but we didn't say anything and I just let you have it on your own way because I saw the way you look into his eyes."
Mom's voice almost broke upon saying these last words.
"But a tragedy came in and you were in a car accident. When Luke rushed to the mansion, your whole body was turning purple already, and that's when we found out that Luke is not the first person who found you. They all planned it out, dear. Those people from the North were the ones who got you into an accident and even let you drink a poison that would slowly kill you from within. We put a stopper to it, and believe me when I say that we did everything we could do just to avoid you from that torturous procedure, but we're left with no choice. All throughout your session, we are there watching you suffer, and you have no idea how it hurts to see you struggling. You're shouting his name, my child."
Mom began to cry in front of me, and every word that came out of her mouth got my head spinning around a little bit.
Luke sighed for a moment before tapping my shoulders and giving me a handkerchief of his. I wiped my tears away, and when I held up my head to see Mom, she was already crying in Dad's arms.
I bit my lips at the thought that I had done this to her.
"Are you happy now?" Dad asked me.
I couldn't find the right answer for him. Yes, I felt a big relief in my mind, thinking that they only did it for my sake, but I felt terrible at the same time. I felt so horrible as a daughter, and I now realize how hard it is for them to tell me things as they are also struggling to even just recall them for a moment.
"Dad, don't even push to add up another problem now," Luke said in a serious tone.
"Regardless, both of you need to go home just to keep you safe," Dad said, and they're about to go when I speak.
"I don't want to," I said, and they stopped walking away from us. "I need to face this, Mom, or else we'll just have to find another place to go. I don't even want that to happen. I have a life out there in that city we live in today and I can't afford to lose it. I don't want to be away from him again, and I'm pretty sure all of you know what I mean by that. Let's just face it; all we need to do is fight them to tell them that we're not going to run away this time."
I didn't hear anything from them as minutes passed by, but then Mom said something.
"The last time I fought, I killed an innocent one. I don't want it to happen again," she said before they finally walked away, and my brother and I just watched them from afar.
I couldn't help it anymore, and my knees had just collapsed already.
"Is that a good sign that they left?" I asked Luke, as I was already panting.
"I couldn't even tell if it was a good thing they were here, though," he chuckled softly. "Are you going to be alright after you find out everything?"
I paused for a second. I couldn't even assure myself that I'd be fine with my condition, and yet there's another problem I need to deal with.
I just looked at my brother and smiled.
"Maybe I can try."