Through The Storm

s e v e n

{F l a s h b a c k}

"It isn't any of your concern, Liz!"

"But I ought to know who she is! You can't just parade around Bracken with a stupid slag in tow and expect me not to demand answers, Ned. You're my husband, damn it!"

"She's a friend and a right good one at that. I know what you's thinking and you've no reason to doubt me like that, so just push off."

A loud thud echoed through the room as a stool was thrown down in fury. 

"You are not going to see that girl anymore, is that understood, Ned? You're making me the laughing stock of this godforsaken village! Is she so much more important than me?"

A cackle ensued that was as dry of humour as the forest soil of water during a drought. "Fancy havin' a wife like you, someone who only shows up when her name's bein' tarnished in town. Else it's just, "Ned, do this" or "Ned, do that" and tha's that."

"So you're all up in this girl's face just to spite me?! She's half your age, you sick man!"

In the corner of the cottage in which this terrible battle of words raged was a young girl, huddled up in a ragged blanket on the cold floor. Next to her slept a baby boy, his eyebrows furrowed in his sleep. The girl did not sleep. She was wide awake, trying to shield herself from the arguments and their poison. 

The baby began to shiver. The winter knew no mercy. 

"Mother? Father?" the girl interrupted in a timid voice, sitting up. 

"What is it, Ashryn?" The sharp voice belonged to the woman who had, prior to this, been hurling insults at her husband. The voice did not soften for her child. 

"I'm terribly sorry to disturb you, but I think Blake's shivering... may we please use your blanket for tonight? It's truly very cold, and-"

A snort interrupted the girl's plea. "You need a blanket? Then go out and earn one for yourself tomorrow, kid. What are we goin' to use if you use the blanket tonigh?"

Ashryn flinched. She loathed her father. She loathed her father's voice. She loathed her father's accent. She loathed that she too couldn't go to Education, just like him. She loathed that he was a spitting image of what her future looked like to her. 

"B-but Father, he's just a baby-"

"Don't you argue with your Father, you horrid child. Get back to your corner. And if you care so much, give the baby your blanket."

So that was what happened. 

Ashryn never forgot that night. It was the night she swore to herself that she would change their fate. Not her family's. Just her brother's and hers. And as she shivered violently enough to match the tones of her brawling parents, she knew that she would never allow herself to become like them. 

Though the dirty little girl in the corner of a measly hut didn't know it then, but her anchor and her life's purpose had been decided in that instant. And it slept in two, ragged blankets by her side, blissfully unaware. 

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Hello, dear readers! I'm back. The midst of exams isn't the best place to be in, but it'd been too long since my last update, so here's Chapter 7! I know this is much shorter, but this is a flashback that hopefully gave you some insight into Ashryn and Blake's past. 

I won't say much more, except to request you to please vote if you liked this chapter! And you'll be seeing more regular updates soon. Maybe a double update today?😏

As tradition demands, here's the thought for this chapter:

"Sometimes it takes an unbearable breakdown to have an undeniable breakthrough" - Madhura Bhide

Keep that in mind always. It's rather empowering, isn't it?

Thank you for your patience during my haphazard updating 'schedule'; each reader seeing some potential in this story means more to me than you know. 

Much love,

Annada❤️