As soon as Dandelion stepped inside the house, immediately felt that something is odd. All the lights were open, but none of her parents seemed to be up: no one was nor in the kitchen, nor in the living room.
She quietly closed the entrance door, and as silent as she could be, she headed towards her room. She knew she was not supposed to arrive home this late, not even mentioning her damaged and dirty dress… she knew she will find herself in big danger if her parents find it out. So, she made everything in her power to reach her room as unnoticeable as she could.
She quietly went up the stairs, avoiding the noisy, old slats, and walking on her tiptoes she passed her parents' bedroom, opened carefully her door. Stepped in, closed the door back slowly, making sure to reduce lock's clicking sound. Turned on the light in her room, so that she could see, turned around, and her blood froze in her body.
Both of her parents were in her room, waiting for her. Her mom was sitting on her bed, her father in her chair. Both were staring at Dandelion, and none of them spoke. Dandelion felt her mouth drying out, her heart was beating so loud, that she was sure even her parents hear it, her chest became heavy, her stomach shrunk.
"Hi dad, hi mom" she said hoarsely.
"Where have you been? Your mother was so nervous about." spoke her father.
"In the town, I was babysitting Alia's daughter."
"You perfectly know this is not what I was asking." Dandelion's hands became weak, her legs were barely holding her body. She knew she screw it up: she should have answering anything, but this. Frightenedly watched her father raise up from her chair, his eyes became dark and even more furious. She knew she is way more danger now than she was in one minutes ago.
"Answer my goddam question!" His father made two steps forward, now only two centimetres were separating them.
"Where were you?" repeated himself.
"I-I was coming home, when a wolf attacked me." she knew her father would not buy it, but she wanted to answer honestly.
"I was coming home from the town, when a big, brown wolf started to chase me."
"A wolf, right? And of course, you could escape. Of course. And I am going to believe it, you think? Ha? So? Where were you?"
"I was-"
"I want an honest answer this time. Don't you dare to lie to me ever again." Dandelion's father interrupted her. But honestly, she was glad that he did not let her finish, because it meant more time. It meant more time do think about what her father is expecting her to say.
"I climbed a tree." she had no ide what she should answer, so Dandelion just sticked with the truth, even though she knew her only option is to answer what her father wants to hear.
"That is reasoning your look. But you should be more grateful for us. We adopted you, take you in, to our house, fed you, dressed you, gave a roof above your head, and this is your gratitude." at the end of his sentence, Dandelion's father were already shouting, splitting saliva with every third consonant. His pointing finger was so close to Dandelion's face, she was worried with the next movement he will poke out her eyes.
But she did not dare to move. She was so scared, her angry father frightened her every time. The wall was touching her back, she had nowhere to step back. Her parents were in her room, she had no chance to go, and be alone: she had to wait till her parents are leaving her room. She felt like her safe place is occupied, she felt like her private space is take away entirely. And her mother….
Her mother was sitting in the background in silent, and she did say nothing. Her face was expressing sad and disappointed emotions, but she just stared to the ground, did not even blink. But it was always like this. She never interfered, she never stepped in. She never argued with Dandelion but did not protect her either.
"You were out, doing nothing, right? You were resting all day, was reading your stupid books, and did everything so that you didn't have to come home, and work: help your parents who were so kind hearted to take you into their house. But no, you are and ungrateful, cold-hearted, selfish girl, who thinks that everything is going to be done by themselves, right?"
"But dad, in the morning you said, that today there is nothing to be done, what I would be able to do as well."
"How dare you?" shouted his dad, and slapped her across the face.
"How dare you lie into my two eyes?" another slap
"How dare you make up excuses by lying to me about what I said?" he slapped her again, harder than before. Her lower lip cracked open, and she was seeing stars.
"You are an unworthy, ungrateful dirty child. Look at yourself! You look like a dirty pig. So, discussing. Instead of coming home immediately, and help your mother, you decided to hang outside in your beloved forest, and destroy the dress, what's price I was working for with my two hands." and he slapped her again. So hardly, that she fell onto the ground.
"Stand up! AND LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" thus he grabbed her upper arm, shook her up from the ground, till she was standing again, as slap her. She was trying to protect her face with her two hands, but it just made Dandelion's father even more furious. At this point, he was slapping her repeatedly.
And Dandelion's mother, Rosa? She was still sitting on Dandelion's bed, with a very sad face expression, and was just staring to the ground. She was too weakhearted, she was never able to stand up for herself, or for the girl who she adopted nineteen years ago. Her biggest dream was to get married, and have a big, loving family with five children.
And then, after high school she fell in love with her future husband, John… she was so in love with him back then, that she did not recognise the red flags. She was romanticizing their fundamentally bad relationship; thus she failed realizing that John was not the fitting person to achieve her dreams, nor someone, who could be a good spouse to raise children with.
And after they got married, she had her womb removed due medical emergency. She was so devastated, so depressed… she could not heal from the loss of her fertility. Rose begged and begged to John for adaptation till he agreed, and they adopted Dandelion when she was one years old. And even though Rose loved her daughter more than anything, she was emotionally too weak to interfere when John became very aggressive and angry.
As always, even though she was so worried, and sad, she did nothing to stop her husband from beating up their daughter. She spoke with Dandelion several times, told her to pack her stuff, and leave, so she can have a better, independent life somewhere, but Dandelion did not want to leave. She loved her mother, she even loved her father, loved the forest, the meadow, even the corn field. She tends to underestimate her own suffering when her father was not mad at her, she always thought that she should stay, because these beatings are not that bad after all, and when John is in a good mood, they are a happy family, so what is the purpose of leaving?
But as soon as her father started to become angry, and she freaked out… or whenever he was hitting her, she cursed herself for choosing to stay, and promised herself to leave every time she was beaten up. But the end of the day, Dandelion was always staying. She always stayed, even though her mother saved money for her over the years and made sure Dandelion can stay at Rose's childhood friend's house at the other end of the country till she finds a job and an apartment. She was living the hell of the abused ones: she was entirely happy when her father was nice to her, she felt she does not even deserve this big of a grace. Plus, she could not leave her abuser. She did not see chances in the outside world, even when her mother was providing her with actual opportunities. She had a mental block in her head, what never let her leave.
Usually, he calmed down after twenty minutes – half an hour ranging, but this time his anger did not seem like reducing, her aggression escalated instead. He was hitting Dandelion everywhere he could and was shouting at her with a splashy mouth: cursing, swearing. Dandelion had no idea how she'll survive this amount of beating, is it continuing for a few more minutes. She was crying, her hands and back was numb from the beating, she suffered to breath. Her ear started to beep, when the beating stopped suddenly.
For a minute she did not dare to move, but her curiosity won over her fear: she turned her head to the direction of the middle of the room. She saw her mother with a dropped jaw, and when she turned her head to the right a little bit more she discovered the reason of the stopped beatings. Her father was smashed to the wall, the mysterious man from the forest was holding him by his neck up so high, that his feet was not even touching the ground.