Small Town, Big Secrets (A Vampire Diaries Seasons 1 and 2 Fanfiction)

Chapter 15: The Little Moments

TW: abuse 

1910. Mooresville, Alabama. 

Lilliana stepped foot inside her house. It was slightly later than she'd planned to be home after her few precious days with Elijah, but what she saw was not what she had expected to see. Her father was sitting in the corner in his old, rickety chair, nursing a bottle of beer. 

'Father... I - I thought you'd be out of town.' He glared at her, standing up, and staggering towards her. 

'And you went to be a whore to that Elijah guy. I knew it. I fucking knew it.' He stumbled forwards and grabbed her by her hair, making her yelp in pain as he pulled her head painfully backwards, looking at her with bright, angry eyes, but they were also unfocussed. 'You wanna be like that? Like your mother? Your mother was a whore, selling her body to every man she met.' 

'Mother wasn't like that!' Lilliana screamed, crying out as she attempted to pull her father's hand away from her hair. 'Please stop!' He sneered, then stalked down the hallway, pulling her by her hair along with her. He dragged her into the bathroom, then threw her down on the floor, staggering away and returned a second later with duct tape. She began to scream and pull away from him as he threw the beer bottle drunkenly at her. It exploded into a thousand shards, one of the shards haphazardly catching her face, slicing her cheek. 

She screamed, tears flowing down her face, clutching her cheek as the blood oozed out of the wound. He grabbed her wrists, pulling them painfully behind her back and duct taped them, then did the same with her feet. Then he started the bathtub up. She writhed in panic, attempting to get away from him, but he was angry. And when her father was drunk, he was angry. When he was angry... there was no escaping his wrath. 

'I leave for two days and this is how you treat me! I love you, I keep you in my home, I put a roof over your head and clothes on your back, and food in your mouth, and you go and whore yourself off to that stranger! I never wanted you, Lilliana. I never, ever wanted you. And now I'm sending you straight to hell. Perhaps your mother will be there too.' She sobbed, the blood flowing down her cheek. The bath was filled now. He stopped the faucet from running, then dragged the girl over by her hair again and heaved her, as best as he could, as drunk as he was, into the bath. She struggled, realising that this was to be her fate, but even drunk, her father was ridiculously strong. He held her face in the water, making her gulp in lungfuls of water, and she tried to keep fighting. For a few painful minutes she struggled, still swallowing the tepid bath water, trying to fight for some semblance of air. But with every breath, came a gulp of water, and eventually her lungs began to burn, desiring air. 

But it was not enough. She began to lose consciousness, and with that, lose her grip on life. She could once hear her heartbeat thudding in her ears, but with the water filling her lungs, and the lack of oxygen to her brain, it began to slow, dangerously. Until she stopped struggling and her heartbeat slowed until it eventually stopped. And then she was no longer in the realm of unconsciousness, of sweet dreams, or troubled ones, until she could eventually wake. All life faded from her body with one last breath, as a few bubbles seeped from her nose and mouth. 

Lilliana Moore was dead. 

Present day. Mystic Falls. 

'Are you okay?' I heard Elijah's voice ask. It felt far away, but I pulled my jacket on and turned, smiling softly, but the smile didn't quite reach my eyes.