Love Hate, Hate Love

2.

{Author's Note: Hello, darlings, I apologize for interrupting your flow of reading, however, I've come with a warning. There is the description of somewhat detailed child-abuse in this chapter. If you are sensitive to that sort of content please note the warning I will provide before that section of the chapter.

- SilverFlarePlays <3}

Squeezing her hand tight, tighter still. Tears threatened to escape her eyes. Trembling at the bedside. Gently nudging the cold body of her mother. The bedroom reeked of the stench of illness and death. Why did she have to go? How could she leave her all alone?

"M-mother? Mother... Mother, wake up... Please, Mother," Linterna didn't want to believe that her favorite person was gone. She shook her mother's body desperately, begging for her to wake back up, "Please!"

A large hand painfully gripped onto the ten-year-old's shoulder. A low bitter voice told her to leave the room immediately. Linterna winced letting go of her mother's cold hand. It fell limply on the bed making a small thud. She stared down at her feet as she stood frozen in place. Her tears flowing down her face slowly drained the ocean of emotions anchoring her to her mother's side.

"Elizabeth. Leave."

Her fist clenched tight as she was finally able to take a step away from the bedside. She didn't dare look up at her father as she was released from his grasp. The second she stepped out the door and closed it behind her she took off sprinting to town. She couldn't bear staying in that house any longer. At least in town she won't be alone. Alone. She was now alone.

Linterna stood in the middle of the town square staring at the people passing by. Her salty tears ran dry as she observed the civilians of the kingdom she's always called home. She loved this place but everything seemed so dull and repetitive the more she observed. Her view on the place was once so bright and colorful. She started moving once more with the general crowd. The endless chattering of the town square filled her ears as she walked silently. The smell of freshly baked bread filled the surrounding air. The smell once made her crave the sweetened buns and made her head spin with nausea. She walked farther along the path holding her breath briefly as she passed the warm bakery. Her mind was clouded, completely unfazed by the outside world.

Linterna didn't return home until the sun went down, the crescent moon dimly lighting the inky black sky and the stars dotting the heavens above. The door creaked as she entered the dark house. The crushing weight of grief and misery was hung above in the air of the home. It made it difficult to breathe, clinging to her lungs like thick smoke.

"Father...?"

There was no answer when she called out into the darkness. Linterna rushed to her bedroom holding her breath as she scampered past her father's room. She didn't wish to bother her father at this hour. She had too much on her own mind anyways.

{Author's Note: Here is the promised warning as stated at the beginning of the chapter. Again, if you are sensitive to this sort of content I suggest you skip to the next chapter or stop reading this story all together as this will be a reoccurring theme.}

As days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into years Linterna's father became worse. His treatment of Linterna was closer to how one would treat a disobeying animal in the beginning. However, the more Linterna went against the treatment the more severe the punishment would get. It was during these punishments that he would overstep the boundaries of sanity. These were no longer ways to keep his daughter in line. No. This was something that was meticulously performed to cause her the most pain possible. The years that followed her mother's unfortunate demise were filled with the worst pain imaginable.

The average punishment for Linterna was being withheld from eating certain meals. She was hardly given more than a single meal a day by her father. If she was found to eat more food later in the day by her father she would be held forcefully by the scruff of her neck and made to vomit out the contents of her stomach. She would have to continue until nothing but her stomach acid exited through her sore mouth. Only then was he satisfied and left her kneeled over her own bodily fluids. The ridicule and belittling for every little thing she did was constant and never ending. His words always cut down her spirits the second they hit her eardrums. Linterna would have to learn to tune out her father's condescending and spiteful tones. Her father's favorite punishment seemed to be putting her in a tiny, cramped closet without any light and beating her until severely bruised and, at times, bloody. If she made any noise it would only worsen her beating for that day. Although, the worst of his treatment towards her came when she did something he deemed as 'misbehaving'. Mentioning the mere existence of her deceased mother, crying in front of him, looking him directly in the eyes without being told to, or giving her opinion on a matter all fell under that category. For misbehaving, it simply cannot be described as 'punishment'. Many prisoners of war were familiar with the types of things Linterna's father was capable of doing. This wasn't punishment. This was torture. She grew to absolutely despise and hate her father.