Life of Duck

20: Truth

     I hear chatter. My eyes are closed, and I can't seem to open them. I don't have the strength. Suddenly, I feel like there's a lot of eyes turned towards my direction. It makes me nervous. 

     I'm finally able to open my eyes. I see blurry figures standing over me, looking at me. Were they waiting for me to do something? I blinked my eyes a few more times and I could see everyone properly. "Oh my, I thought you'd died," a person quietly gasps from the corner, I assume. "Good thing they didn't pull the damn plug," a woman mutters. I hear footsteps, and the people surrounding me (there were 3) backed away from me, giving space for the other person. They were a doctor, I noticed, once I saw them close up. "Is your memory alright? Do you recognize anyone?" he asks. 

     "Those people looked familiar, but not really," I respond in a quiet voice. He writes a few things on a clipboard and hands it to a man. "It seems they've recovered very well, far better than other patients I've had," the doctor tells him. "You're free to take them home."

     I got carried out to a car. As the man drove, I sat next to a girl, a little shorter than me. "I'm quite confused, would you mind telling me what's going on?" I ask. "Uh, we'll tell you when we arrive home," the woman (in the passenger seat in the front) says. 

     After a while of driving, we get home. I walk inside, holding the woman's hand. "So, can you tell me now?" I ask, looking up at her. "Right, I suppose you don't remember," she says. She picked me up and sat me down on a seat near a table, and sits next to me. 

-TW: Child abuse (not intensely described I think), possibly unrealistic things bc I didn't do my research, and alcohol. Read at your own risk, thanks. 

-Here's the explanation, since you might be confused: Y/N's father (in this story) died in an accident, and the mother reacted very poorly to this, becoming abusive. Possible reasons determined were stress, inability to properly handle losses, and denial. Neighbors reported hearing Y/N's mother talking to herself as if she were speaking to the father. Sometimes they heard screaming and glass shattering. One day a neighbor came over and saw that Y/N was badly hurt, with many scars, cuts, and bruises. The mother had a broken bottle of alcohol in her hands. Y/N was unconscious and sent to the hospital, while the mother received a life sentence in prison. Police searching the house found a cabinet containing several bottles of assorted types of liquor. It belonged to the father, as the mother herself never drank alcohol. The strange world Y/N was in, with all the ducks, was their brain's response to the intensive trauma and physical damage. Their brain set Y/N in that happy world, as a way to cope. The strange dreams Y/N began to have in the world were memories bringing them back to reality. They were adopted by the family who picked them up at the hospital. 

(526 words. I did not expect to create an ending like this for a story about ducks. It ended up turning to some very dark themes. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this trash story. You can give story recommendations on the next part, and do you think I should do the prequel of this?)

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