Love Hate, Hate Love

10.

{Author's Note: This chapter contain imagery of physical and verbal abuse of the hands of a father if you are sensitive to that please skip the part with the warning before it. Other than that, enjoy reading this chapter, darlings.

- SilverFlarePlays <3}

Linterna had dedicated two entire years so far in caring for the princes tirelessly. She determined that leaving the two-year-olds in the care of the maids would be alright for about three days as she returned to her home. She had gotten used to the castle's layout but she missed her books. She had so many notes to fill into them. She packed those notebooks she'd filled out over those past two years into a merchant backpack. It was quite heavy and she made her way past the gates of the castle.

She greeted the guards saluting them as she made brief small-talk with them. She had acquainted herself with most of the staff employed in the castle. Most of them were very pleasant people. She seemed to enjoy the company of the Eclius' butler, Solaris. He seemed like a good fellow and was interesting to speak to. She thinks he is a wonderful friend to have, very helpful indeed.

She arrives back at her home standing awkwardly at the front door, her hand frozen on the doorknob. She hadn't seen her father since she left for the castle the day after receiving the king's letter. A deep sense of looming danger hung on her shoulders cementing her to where she was standing. She slowly turned the door handle. The heavy door inched open as the old hinges groaned. The home was exactly as she remembered. There was nothing peculiar or unnerving about the house but still chills ran down Linterna's spine as she got the motivation to move her feet from where they were glued.

"Father...?"

Linterna could hear someone making a ruckus upstairs. There was a loud crash followed by her father sprinting down the stairs. Within seconds her father grabbed both of her arms squeezing them as he looked her up and down. He seemed to have a hard time believing his eyes.

"Elizabeth? Is that really you? What happened to you? You simply disappeared one day! Where did you go? Do you know how worried I was about you?! You didn't say a word. For all I knew my only daughter, only child could've been dead!" her father spoke as if he was genuinely concerned for her well-being all these years.

"Have you not seen the news, gone into town, spoken to anyone these past couple years?" Linterna scrunched her nose as the putrid scent her father reeked of hit her nostrils. He smelled heavily of alcohol and as if he hadn't showered in months. Feelings of disgust and hate began to wash over her.

{Author's Note: Up ahead is descriptions of abuse. Please don't read it if you are sensitive to such content. You are welcome and advised to skip ahead a chapter or stop reading this story all together.}

"What do you mean...? Are you saying everyone in the kingdom knew of your whereabouts except for me? Your very own father? Elizabeth... Elizabeth..." her father's concerned expression twisted into overwhelming wrath. "Elizabeth, have you learned nothing from what I've been trying to teach you all your life?"

Linterna felt the grip on her arms tighten painfully. Her father's overgrown nails dug into the fabric of her sleeves, nearly tearing them. He dragged her down an all too familiar route in the home. She dropped her backpack right by the door as it limited her ability to break free from her father's tyrannical grasp.

The last thing Linterna remembered before waking up to the repugnant smell of burnt flesh was her father knocking her out in the closet she was always punished in. She groaned barely able to move her back felt numb and tight. A foul scent of chard fabric also drifted its way into her nostrils. She stumbled and tripped her way out of the closet desperately trying to get to her bedroom upstairs. She agonizingly was able to reach the top of the stairs and catch her balance leaning against the wall. She staggered closer and closer to her room. Uponing opening it she immediately beelined to the bookshelf. She carefully collected her items of knowledge into a few bags and she carried them down with her. Linterna's bag she brought that morning was still at the front entrance. It was pitch black outside and she could hear her father's snores from the open window of his bedroom.

Linterna slowly, silently, stiffly made her way to the far side of her family's property where her father's private library stood. She unlocked the door and tossed the bags of her books inside. She hadn't missed a single one. Losing a book from her room would be the same as losing a part of her brain forever. Every memory she had was neatly written in every page of those books. She valued them more than her physical state at the moment.

Linterna made her way back to her home. She was spiteful. Engaged. Hatred seeped out of her very being. Just this once she thought. Just this once will she let the all consuming devil known as hate guide her. She spent so many years building up this sickly deformed monstrosity of a feeling. She did what she's thought of doing over and over and over again for years. She took all the flammable liquids she could and poured them all over the wooden floor of the home she wasted so much of her childhood in. She started with the upstairs where her father was still passed out snoring as loud as could be. She migrated her efforts down to the downstairs drenching everything.

A single knocked over lantern. That's the final thing she saw before the chaotic symphony of raging flames overtook the house. Everything. Everyone. It will all burn into ash.