The Strings Being Pulled

Ch 24

*2 weeks later*

"DAMNNN, nice shot!" Anna compliments.
"Fuck, my arms..." Liza mutters as Anna takes off their earplugs.
"You'll get used to it." Anna replies.

Anna has been teaching Liza how to use a gun properly this week. We're somewhere outside far from where there are people.

"Awake?" I ask.
"Mm, how long was I sleeping?" Liza tiredly asks.
"Three hours, feel better?" I answer.
"Mhm, sorr-" I cut her off by pressing my thumb on her lips.
"No need to say sorry." I state.

She sits up and leans against the headboard. She seems to be in a better state though her hair is messed up.

Anna and Liza put on their earplugs again. Another shot, I'm a good distance away so I won't deal with any hearing loss even though I don't have earplugs.

Liza has gotten the hang of using a gun very quickly. I'm holding onto her phone which Peter bought for me and Liza a few weeks ago when he took us shopping. He was very generous and payed for everything, I learned from Catorce he's often like this because he loves to shop with other people.

I can see why, Peter was very excited about it and we were in the mall for five hours straight. Me and Liza have a few new clothes now thanks to him. He took us to a nice restaurant aswell.

"Liza, do you wanna stick with this?" I ask.
"Mhm, but just until we can kill the vampire." Liza answers.
"I'm more concerned on your mental health." I state. "How do you plan on handling this?"

Liza manages to get a bullseye, Anna claps and points out whenever she does something wrong. Anna, Peter and Catorce are interesting people. They have been bringing us to different meetings where we mostly spectate and most of them are just business meetings.

"Your mental health is important and it's clear that you have a lot of wounds." I explain.
"I know but they aren't that bad..." she responds.
"What makes you say that?" I sit besides her.

Liza manages to get another bullseye. She's getting better and better at this, Anna has an impressed look on her face.

"...Well others deal with much worse." she answers.
"It doesn't change the fact that you have gone through terrible things too." I reply.
"It's just that I'm not used to anyone caring about my mental health." she states, her voice slightly shaky.
"Caring about your mental health, it's an important thing." I reply.

She squeezes my hand and doesn't say anything. She bites her lips and looks down.

"How come you care when I can't?" she asks.
"Because I value you." I answer. "Do you remember my answer to your question on the difference between liking and loving?"
"...It was an indirect confession." she squeezes my hand even more.

Liza hands Anna the gun back, she takes off her earplugs. Anna takes off her earplugs aswell, guess they're finished. I hand back Liza her phone, it's getting dark and we're just halfway through September.

"You did an awesome job, now you can use a gun and know the basics!" Anna states.
"Thanks." Liza mumbles.
"Let's head back." Anna smiles.

We head back to the car, the sky is slightly cloudy and cold outside. We didn't bring any jackets because it was over 10°c the entire day which isn't that cold but now it's close to 0°c.

"It was." I reply. "But that doesn't matter now, the focus should be on your mental state."
"Everytime I think about my parents it just feels like hell." Liza responds. "I want to move on."
"That's good, what do you want your first step to be?"

She thinks for a while, still holding and squeezing my hand. It's a hard question, this one needs some thinking so I'll give her all the time she needs to think.

Anna sings to the song on the radio, this one is in Spanish though. She's driving and singing, that doesn't seem exactly safe with how focused she is on singing.

Liza's eyes are closed and her head is leaning on the window, she's not sleeping but I'm not gonna disturb her. I'm sure she's tired.

"...I think I should tell you the situation." Liza says after a while.
"You sure?" I ask.
"Mhm, you always listen and never judge so I trust you." she answers.
"Then I'm all yours." I state.

She stops squeezing my hand but doesn't let go. Her voice is slightly shaky as she tells me everything.

"I was only given birth to because my parents were in debt and if my blood got purified then they would get more than enough cash to get out of debt. So in their logic, as long as I lived until 18 then nothing else mattered, they didn't want anyone to feel sad about my death so they spread rumors about me to other parents and the other parents spread it to their kids."

"My dad was mostly away on business trips and my mom worked multiple jobs, she would yell at me if I asked for just some food when I was 5 and almost hit me on multiple occasions. They'd blame everything on me, destroy my self-esteem and ripped apart my report cards even if I got high grades because to them, it was worthless."

"I never had real friends to support me and everyone talked shit about me behind my back. My dad neglected me and my mom screamed at me or sometimes locked me in the closet. They never did anything nice to me either, just gave me food and let me go to school but that was the max kindness they gave."

"Once I had hives and they didn't care, it got so bad that I went to the hospital but right after they yelled at me for being a nuisance. They constantly reminded me I was gonna die and the only important thing about me was the money they'd get after my death."

Liza talks as she starts to cry, hearing about her parents makes me sick. Although it was rarely physical, the verbal abuse throughout her life is something no one deserves.

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Thank you for reading < 3