𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑤𝑛 | 𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐒𝐎𝐍

10⋆☾⋆The burning wound

Tw: Abuse and angst

And there it was. Still the same dump after all those years. A rectangle shaped wooden building with an almost collapsing straw roof, miles away from the other farms. The only thing that had changed was ivy that had climed up against the walls, having torn into the very foundations of the building with its vines and hopefully it wouldn't be long till it had completely crumbled it.

The longer I stared at it, the bigger it seemed to become. As if on cue lightning struck the sky, directly followed by a large thunder and rain starting to pour down. That didn't make the expierence more startelling no. Reluctantly I let myself get pulled inside by Gilan as the storm became heavier.

Inside it was somehow colder than outside, the rotting walls letting out every bit of warmth that dared to settle in. I took it all up as I wrung out my hair. The wooden pillars in the middle of the room holding the roof together with all of its might, though it would soon succumb to the crushing weight above it. Then there was the stove on the far left side of the room and on the opposite side of that were the sacks of straw. Everything smelled like wet wood and old dungeons.

I noticed the tall boy by my side eyeing the chamber curiously while he walked  around in it, but he was careful not to touch anything and kept scaring up when he would almost bump into something. I kept my eyes on him until he came back from his inspections.

"Well they're definetely not here," he mentioned, running a hand through his soaked brown curls.

"Mhm," Absentmindedly I replied, trying to push down old memories as I looked at the empty beds. The pressure behind my eyes was building rapidly, the more images flashed before me in my mind. They stung, like salt in an open wound.

A flare of smoke shot into the air as a small sturdy man laid the iron into the fire. The sound of the hot metal colliding with the burning coals echoed over the otherwise silent meadows. A small pregnant woman held the sheep still, calming it after they had brandmarked it, so if it ever got loose or stolen, there would be no doubt who it belonged to. 

"Was that the last of it?" The man asked, wiping the sweat of his forehead. They'd spent all afternoon branding the new livestock they'd gained the last spring, something they always liked to put off for as long as they could.

His wife nodded, still petting the sheep that had been gravely upset by their actions and was glaring at the with it's ugly eyes. He took a towel from his shoulder and wiped his hands off as he walked into the small house that was soon to be overrun by childeren.

"Sedille!" An angry shout sounded from the fields, making her turn around and look. It was a furious farmer, dragging along a small child that had her gaze glued to the ground. The smile that had played on her lips just moments before had faded like snow before a hot summer sun as soon as she'd laid her eyes on her daughter.

"I caught this abominal fucking offspring of yours sneaking around my barn again,"  he threw the girl onto the gravel , where she roughly landed on her bare knees. Her face was whitewashed and her little hands were shaking.

Sedille's eyes darkened as she kneeled in front of her child, grasping her face tightly in her hand. "Why'd you do that? Huh?"

But the trembling child kept her lips tightly pressed together, knowing what was to come. The woman raised her hand and sharply landed it on her daughters tear stained cheeks.

"I caught her stealing one of my wives dresses. You know you should be gratefull I didn't turn her in," The man spat, eyeing her as if she were an unwelcome insect.

He folded his arms with his brows knotting together, seemingly plotting a revenge plan.

"A punishment would be in order, would it not?" The farmer slyly asked while looking around, trying to find something. He apparently found it when his eyes landed on the still red glowing branding iron.

The mother followed his gaze. Her eyes hardened as she gripped the child's arms firmly.

He picked up the iron and turned to Sedille who silently pulled down the waist of her daughter's skirt enough to reveal her hip. She truggled, keeping the now screaming and sparteling kid in place as the hot iron sunk into her skin. Her cries reminded of a pig being slaughtered, the same hopelessness and pain in them.

"That's what you get," She hissed at her weeping child and returned inside.

An invisible rope wrapped itself around my neck, suffocating me. I rubbed my hand over it, trying to get it off. The walls seemed to overflow and I was pulled into the wild current that collided against the shore every time it came across. My vision went blurry and unconsciously I found my way to the door. The rope loosened as soon as the cold drops of rain landed on my face, as if they'd dissolved like some acid.

While I caught my breath Gilan stormed out after me and wrapped his arms around my waist as soon as he'd seen the tears rolling down my cheeks. There was only one word that repeatedly left my lips and it was 'no'.

"What happened?" he whispered softly in my ear.

I wanted to reply, to tell him, but every time I opened my mouth sobs instead came out. The heat flared up anew, I was sure the rain would sizzle on my skin, but in the end it was only my imagination.

We stood there for a while, in the pouring rain, embraced. Eventually I freed my one hand and brought it to my hip to run it over the white mark that was engraved in my skin.

I sucked in a deep breath, still constantly on the verge of tears, but I was willing to try again. "I-"

The thought of the words falling of my lips was enough for me to start crying again. I'd never said them aloud.

Again I breathed in and attempted to steady myself, but my voice still came out shaky. "I just... I don't know what I did wrong..."

A/N:
Hi guys!!! So maybe some of you have noticed, but I gave Like a thief in the night a theme song, I put it at the beginning of the book if you want to go check it out. So if you've got any suggestions for this book, please let me know! Question for today: what are your thoughts on raisins?

See you next week!

Xxx. HeelsAreCute