That girl named Tilly.

Chapter Ten

Harry stared at his daughter in absolute awe; she spoke? Those three words were the first thing she had said in over ten years and they were questions. Harry fumbled over his words and looked around, not knowing if she had noticed the fiery embers that were once the answers to all her questions.

"Files...Mum...Stannie!"

Tilly pushed a knife against her fathers neck, pressing for answers and she was damn sure she was going to get them. Pushing the blade against his skin, a small slither of blood slide down the blade and glistened in the light. As his was still fumbling for his words, his fires flashed to the fireplace, and she noticed that. As she did notice it, her face dropped as she dashed towards the fireplace and sifted through the embers and ash until she found what she was looking for-the answers to her question about her brother: the paper was burnt and almost unreadable, and most people would have given up, but not this one.
Walking back over to her dad, she took the knife and held it to his neck again as she pushed the paper into his face, her breathing was heavy and she was angry.

"Read...explain."

Harry looked up at his daughter and then back at the paper, shaking. He loved the girl who was showing all the dominance in the world that was stood in front of him-and he always would-but he was terrified at that exact moment in time. His blood was frozen in his veins and his breathing had quickened as she pressed the knife harder against his skin, as he started nodding and muttering the word 'okay' over and over again.

"Okay, okay! Sweetheart, listen, I will tell you what it says but you need to be prepared to be broken all over again. It was a police report on how Stanley died. The tall thin man doesn't exist; Stan was murdered by you. That's what the paper says-it's says how you found a small knife from the kitchen draw and because you'd seen Stanley and me fighting, you wanted it to end and because I hurt him, you didn't want him to live like that anymore, so. That's the truth, one-hundred percent honesty."

Tilly started shaking, backing away from her father. No, he had to be lying. The tall thin man was real-he killed the mean old lady from the house across the street. She saw him-and he killed her brother.

"LIAR!"

She ran at him and plunged the knife into his leg, causing him to scream and cry out in pain. Matilda backed up, paper in her hand and still shaking like a leaf. As she read over the words she could make out, it did in fact state that she had killed her brother for his protection...and then it REALLY all came back. Turning back to the man in the chair, she stalked towards him, grabbing the handle of the knife, and twisting-making the man who raised her on his own shed tears, but she didn't care.
Tilly remembered the times he would come into her room at night; the times when she was a young child he would hurt her in so many ways that were different to the ways he would hurt her mum and brother. The way Harry would hurt his daughter in the name of 'love' was the most vile thing in the world and she would never wish anything like that upon anybody, never in the world.
She also remembered the time she saw her mother laying in the water with her blood dying the water a shade of pink. As she looked at her mother floating there, her father was sat on the toilet seat watching the child stare at her mother, and the hurt on her face was almost unbearable. As Tilly thought about all this, and she thought about it hard-so much in fact she didn't hear the chair behind her snap. She did hear the scream, however. Looking at the floor, Harry was pulling himself towards the door, a bloody trail following him. This idiot had taken the knife out of his leg which was causing him to bled out quicker than ever.
Shaking her head, Matilda grabbed her father by the ankle and dragged him back and pushed him onto his back, standing over him with one leg touching each of his hips.

"Matilda, baby, you killed people. You hurt so many people; but I will still love you no matter what. I am the only one who will ever love and accept you for who and what you are."

Matilda gave him a sharp kick to his right side, and then the left one.

"No...I...will...never...love...you."

Matilda slowly reached over and tried to take the knife off the table, but only to have her ankle pulled from under her, causing her to land hard on her back, winding the girl as her dad sat up and slowly pulled himself up-with the help of a chair for balance. As his daughter tried to breathe; he reached for the knife she wanted and stood in the same position as she did over him, the knife hanging loosely between his finger and thumb and his blood slowly starting to pool on and round his baby girl.

"I can look after you. You must accept this. I am the onl-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he collapsed and fell to the side. Matilda stood up and looked at him as he struggled to keep his eyes open. Crouching in front of him, she snatched the knife away from him and looked him dead in the eyes.

"I...will...be okay. After this, I am getting in that truck outside and driving away. This is the first and probably only time I'm ever going to converse with anybody for the rest of my life so I want you to listen; I killed Stannie to protect you, I know that now. But you killed mum because she wanted to protect me; and then you sent me away so I would love you the way you love me," she grabbed Harry's face and forced him to stay away just a little longer,
",But I will never, ever love you for the rest of my life."

And with that, she drove the knife through the heart of her father, watching as the life left his eyes. He slumped over and then he was gone. Simple as that. As she stood, Tilly felt complete and that she felt full again after getting vengeance for her family and learning the truth; but she also felt lost. Now that this chapter of her life was over, would she move to the city? Meet a man and settle down? No, she couldn't do that. Her mind wouldn't let her have a normal life ever, so what could she do?