Broken Bonds

IX. Do not piss Lia of!

"Son of a bitch! A disgrace to humanity! Your mother's greatest disappointment!"

Turned out, Rey wasn't wrong to fear Lia's reaction. But she would lie if she were to claim that watching her father's face morph into a terrified grimace as he tried to avoid all the cushions Lia threw his way, didn't make her entire week.

She would enjoy the show even longer, expanding her knowledge of swear words in the process. But it didn't take long for bed linen to run out and when Lia grabbed a candlestick from the nightstand, Rey knew it was time to intervene.

Not that she wouldn't enjoy seeing her father get whacked by it, but it was a good candlestick. Held the candles properly, not very heavy. It deserved a better end.

"Lia, pumpkin," Rey said, putting her hands up as she slowly crept between the one hundred and sixty-eight meters of fury and her father, "I think it would be the best if you put that thing down."

"Sure as hell. No way I will!"

Her loud response made Rey flinch, but she tried again: "Be reasonable. You wouldn't want to burn this whole house down, would you?"

The candlestick was dangerously leaning, thanks to the weird angle Lia held it in and there were already droplets of wax on the rug below her.

"This house? No. Of course, I don't want to burn this house down." The relief that flooded Rey's veins came too early because Lia added: "I want to burn this entire pack down!"

Great. Just great.

"That would be kind of counterproductive, don't you think? After all, we came here to help them."

Rey hoped that reminding Lia of her lifelong mission of helping people, would ease her serial killer tendencies. But she kind of didn't think through that the girl was deadly furious with the very same people And it turned out to be a mistake. A really big one.

"Don't even get started on that! After what he did? After what all of them did? They still had the decency to ask you for help? I swear I am going to rip out every single stitch I stitched on them!"

Rey shuddered as the image of Lia doing what she threatened to do, popped out in her mind: "That wouldn't be a pleasant thing to see."

"See if I care!" Lia yelled again. "The more pain, the better!"

Rey's father made sure to collect all the cushions Lia threw his way, and he relocated them out of her reach, while Rey was trying to convince her not to burn the place down. Once satisfied with his job, he said: "Look, I know you are mad. But ... ."

"Mad?" Lia scoffed. "You think, I am mad? Oh, no, I was mad when I only had a hunch, you did something to her. But now? Now, that I know exactly what is it you did, I am furious!"

"Please don't talk," Rey whisper-begged him, "Lia has this thing when the more the person she is pissed off at talks, the more her anger rises. It's easier to just wait it out without speaking."

"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but your little intervention is doing almost nothing to ease the situation," he whispered back.

"You know, I am standing right here, right?"

"Yeah, I know." Rey rolled her eyes after hearing Lia's question. "It is kind of hard to overlook you with that thing in your hand. Lia, please, let's just put that weapon of mass destruction down and talk like civilised people."

"With him?" Lia pointed behind Rey's back with her free hand. "Why should I have a civilized conversation with a barbarian?"

"Because you are a better person?"