Forest of Fireflies

Chapter 88

(Daniella's POV)

......continuation from the previous chapter

Father's mouth remained shut as he gave the servant another glance of worry. That was the only answer mother needed. She turned away with an open gape. As she took heavy breaths, she briefly glanced at me with glassy eyes. Although those dark orbs evoked the worst strain of pain possible, there was also a layer of disbelief embedded in them. Then, without turning around, she murmured in a low venomous tone, "When?"

"Two days ago," father replied, as he put his hands on the stomach of the pregnant woman. Although it made no sense, I gulped and looked away, feeling sick myself. Was this the reason why I couldn't perform light magic? Because my father had slept with someone else? Did he even love us anymore?

Decisively, mother turned back around and stalked towards them, heels dangerously clicking in fury. Then a sharp crack sliced through the air as she hit the woman with vigour. Father immediately shouted, "Regina!"

However, she silenced him by screaming demonically, "How dare you! You have a future ahead of you! You have a daughter who loves you, you have me- and you betray us?!"

"Do I really? Or is it a future that you want? Is it that you simply care about yourself?" Father retorted as he stood up. I felt a sickening weight sit in my chest. He didn't say that. This is all a dream. It has to be. This is not the man my mother has been describing to me, my whole life.

Mother rounded on him and despite the height difference, she made quite the spectacle as she argued, spitting everywhere, "Everything I've done, has been for you! All these years, I've never let go of you for one second, and, and, and the next minute you find yourself another woman?!"

"Regina, perhaps if you had-REGINA!"

Mother had thrust her hand into the woman, drawing out a red beating heart. She laughed off her tears as the woman cried out in pain. Lena was begging between raspy desperate breaths but mother took no heed. I knew mother's grip on the woman's heart was tightening as she groaned out in agony after each hurl of fury.

Father shouted desperately in response, "Please Regina! Forgive her! It was my fault, it's not hers! Don't kill her, don't kill our child-"

"QUIET!" Mother yelled as if fire rolled off her tongue. I swear I felt the touch of flame on my own skin the second her voice shook the hall to its core. 

Father ignored her and threatened, "If you kill Lena, I'll never look at you again. Let her go. Let her and the child live."

Mother initially paid heed to his threat. She looked at him, and there was several emotions that flew past those glassy pupils. However, she pushed away the sentimental ones and ignored his words. She kept squeezing the heart with a snarl, and Lena's face was turning white, devoid of blood. That's when father gave mother a glance and shoved her over. I ran towards her but from the forceful push she had received, she collided with the hard ground. "Mama!"

No one immediately rushed to her aid, except I. She hadn't expected that blow for she did nothing to prevent her fall. When she was getting up from the ground, her demeanour changed. "Mama?" I murmured shakily. She glanced up at father, with broken eyes and mouth agape. Then, in a cracked whisper, she repeated his words, "You'll never look at me again? You-"

"You're changed, Regina. You're no longer the girl I knew. I can't see her in you. You've murdered her. She's gone and replaced by this...by this monster they all fear."

"What did you just say?" mother uttered in a barely audible tone.

Father didn't reply. The air felt so heavy at this point, as if it was reflecting the pain and utter destruction of mother's hope. I felt it too, I felt my spirit weakening, as if some part of me depended on the magical remnants of true love. Mother staggered towards him but he must have seen it as an attack, for he shielded her from the pregnant woman as he side stepped.