Sacred Silence | A Tom Riddle Story

11: Just a little bit of trauma.

Eleven: Just a little bit of trauma.
((Definitely a trigger warning for this one! Descriptions of both domestic and child abuse in this chapter.))

Siobhan was five years old when her father first used the cruciatus curse on her. It happened right after her mother had yelled at her husband not to touch their daughter. She was only a girl, after all.
Dorian Selwyn had laughed a high, cruel laugh before casting crucio on his youngest child. 'If I can't touch her, she must suffer her consequences this way,' her father had yelled back at his wife.

He kept doing that whenever she stepped out of line or disappointed him. The older she got, the more frequently he lashed out in physical aggression anyways. Her mother rarely tried to stop him.

Right now, Siobhan was curled up underneath their big dinner table. Her father was screaming at her brother Cillian. She heard her mother scream in return for Dorian to let go of the boy. Siobhan heard a loud bang against the table above her, and Cillian fell limp against the dark wooden floor in front of her. She saw his unconscious teenage face covered in blood that was still gushing from his crooked nose.

'Where is the other one,' she heard her father bark. Her heart skipped a beat, and she tried to reduce herself to her smallest form. Fear spread through her body like a wildfire. She was only 7.

A large hand grabbed a fist full of her hair, and she screamed as she was dragged from underneath the dinner table. She started pleading, but her voice didn't rise above her mother's cries.

Before anything else could happen, Shiv woke up by a jolting movement underneath her. The train shook as she raised her head from Flo's shoulder. Juno was curled up on her lap and snored softly.
To her embarrassment, she felt tears dripping down her cheeks. These nightmares always came when she had to travel home.

Florance noticed them and looked at her a little worried.
'What's going on?' Flo tucked Shivs hair back behind her ears and wiped her tears away with her thumb. Shiv couldn't help but give a small smile at the kind gesture.

'Bad dream, sorry,' and she scratched Juno behind her ears. The cat looked up at her with a curious expression and started rubbing her head against Shivs hand in a comforting way. Juno had always been very in touch with Shivs emotions.

In front of Shiv and Flo, Milo was scribbling away in a notebook. His back leaned against the window with his legs stretched out in front of him, on the rest of the bench. Once in a while, he looked up at the two girls.

When he asked Shiv about her plans for Christmas, she shrugged and gave a vague answer about the party. Her stomach seemed to turn whilst speaking. Every december she was surprised again by her own nerves. When she was younger, she had always expected her 16 year old self to be tougher, less afraid of the demons that had hunted her as a child. Sadly, the demons just grew older with her and never left for long.

Milo noticed her discomfort and reached out a hand. Shiv declined, and continued petting Juno without taking her eyes off her lap. She didn't like people feeling bad for her or trying to comfort her. She was used to processing her emotions by herself, and she preferred it that way.