𝐛 𝐫 𝐨 𝐤 𝐞 𝐧 || 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟏 || 𝐟𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐜

"Mom, she isn't going to stop, you know that. Drista will go, I know her like the back of my hand."

Silence filled the room except for a few sniffles coming from her mother. Her green eyes now full of tears slowly dripping down her mother's face as she brought her hand up shakily to her lips, then to her neck then forearm. The moment she started doing that, Alyssa knew exactly why she was doing that: she was replaying the scenes of Dad's abuse and touching the areas where she was once bruised. It pained her enough to make her turn away from her, but only for a split second before she bent down next to her mother, grabbing her chair and pulling it out of the dinner table to face her.

Alyssa grabbed her mother's hands, noting that they were ice cold and slightly shivering. "Mom," Nothing came out of her. She never realized just how bad her mother had been traumatized by her father, and she would've never thought it would scar her to this level. It scared her. Bringing her hand to cup her mother's now wet cheeks she brought her green eyes to meet her identical ones.

"Alyssa, I- I'm sorry I- I don't even know what you said..." she trailed off. Alyssa couldn't bring herself to make her mother worry about Drista right now, not in this state.

"Don't worry Mom, how about you go to bed and I'll make you some tea. That sounds good right about now, doesn't it?" She got up, still holding her mother's hands, helping the woman get up from her seat; you could tell how weak she was. Her mother simply responded with a "Mhm" and started walking- shuffling her feet to her bedroom as Alyssa went to the kitchen to prepare some tea to calm her mother down.

---

Drista could hear some muffled conversation coming from the dining room, but ignored it as there was a more important issue at hand.

She had to leave. She was done with waiting on her mother's approval to visit him. And she was going to leave tonight.

A small bag lay on her bed, miscellaneous items scattered around it. She walked around her room, going through her drawers, throwing whatever she thought fit onto her bed, not knowing how long she would be visiting- maybe even staying, who knows. Eventually, she was satisfied with the pile of clothes on the bed and started to quickly pack them inside the black bag, making sure to put in some water and snacks inside along with an extra set of arrows. All that was left was her bow.

Once she slung her bag and bow over her shoulders, got a torch and flint and steel, she opened the window next to her bed, not even daring to open her locked door. She paused in her steps, glancing at the door, a longing in her gaze, as if she wished her sister would walk into her room and join her. Even though she longed for it, she knew it would never happen, though everything in her made her wish she would come along for the journey.

It was nighttime now, mobs were everywhere, but Clay taught Drista how to jump from tree to tree, to avoid them even noticing her, and that is exactly what she did. She jumped from her window to the tree right next to it, already trying to see where she would have to jump to next. With one last look back into her room, she continued on her way.

---

"Here," Steam came from the warm cup of tinted liquid as Alyssa handed it to her mother. A quiet mutter of a "Thank you" came from the woman, making her daughter give a small smile as she left the room.

'Drista'

Alyssa quickly headed to her sister's room, grabbing onto the knob. It was locked. Great. "Drista, open the door please." No answer. "Drista, open the door!" She started shaking the knob as once again, silence met her demands.

'Screw it'

She ran into her room, busting the door open, cringing as the door slammed into her wall. At her dresser, she found a small hair pin, perfect. Opening the pin up, she inserted it into the doorknob, wiggling it around to see if the universe would side with her today and let the movie cliche work.

It didn't.

'Come on Alyssa, just break the door down if that's what you have to do'

'You can do it, come on'

She backed up enough for her to take her hit. Her hair bun now completely dishevelled and sweat started to bead on her forehead. A bang same from the door as she hit her leg on it, moving it only slightly out of place. Three hits, and the door was barely hanging on its hinges, and with her final efforts, the door swung open, hanging by a thread. Alyssa ran in only to find a trashed room full of clothes piled on the floor and bed, Drista's bow gone, and her window completely open, the wind from the outside sending a chill down her spine.

It was too much. The memories of her father's abuse, the entire package; his drunk nights, the fights with Mom, the yelling at the kids for no reason. Her knees buckled as she fell to the floor, hot tears already streaming down her face as she screamed out in fear, fear for her younger sister who might never return. Fear that everything would go downhill from here. Fear of what her father could do to her. Fear of him using her to threaten them to go back home.

Fear for not only Dristas life, but for the rest of the family's lives.

Oh, how that fear paralyzed her as she grabbed hold of one of the shirts thrown on the ground, taking in the subtle scent of her sister as she felt the cold hands she had once held mere moments before rub circles on her back, cries coming from another mouth as well as her mother took in the scene before her.

Alyssa's screams filled the house. She was desperate.

'It's all your fault'

'You knew she would do that'

'You should've never let her lock herself into her room'

'To think you said you knew her, God'

She blamed herself more than she should've. If Drista got hurt at all, she would take it upon herself to kill Dad, she would do it to end their misery under his drunken wrath. God, if Drista died because of him, nothing and no one could hold her back from killing him. She had to leave now if she wanted to find her, all Alyssa could hope is that Drista was safe, at least for now before she reached the main SMP.

---

"Tommy, what it that around your arm?" Wilbur asked the blonde boy, who was still on the road to full recovery from Eret's betrayal. He noticed that it wasn't gauze, it was red in fact, but not from blood.

The boy looked over to his arm, touching the material wrapping his wound. "I don't know, Y/n wrapped it around my arm so I could stop bleeding."

"Take it off,  I need to see it." Wilbur walked over to Tommy, gesturing for him move his arm up so he could take it off.

"What are you doing? It could still be pretty bad." 

"It's not, Tommy. Just shut up and let me unwrap it." His stern voice quieted the boy. The fabric was ripped in half it seemed, half hard from dried blood. He brought the two ripped ends of the red fabric together to form the one thing that led him to his weakness. A beanie with Niki's signature knitting style. Tears pricked his eyes. 

"Will, what is it? It's just an old piece of fabric."

"No Tommy, it's not, go make sure everything is prepared for the election will you..." he trailed off.

"But we did that this morning..?" Tommy noticed that there must've been something special about the item in his hands and took the mood of the room to leave Wilbur alone.

The one thing that he now had in possession that Niki made is now ripped. His own daughter had brought it to him. Everything made sense now. She came there to give him the beanie as a sign that she was done with him, to prove to him how much he missed when he left the two. 

The tears that once pricked his eyes fell down into the red beanie, wetting the dried blood.

---

(word count: 1,442)

well, pretty sad chapter

ty for all the support :')

-love, blue