As tense as it was, the situation brought Dina back in time, to an unpleasing memory. Flashbacks woke in her mind, unleashing a feeling of pure horror. The image of her mother taking her to the forest roamed around in her head, making her heart beat faster.
"UGH!" She screamed in agony as she clutched her chest. Her knees failed her and brought her down on the floor, shaking and sweating. From the horrors, her view turned blurry, and hallucinations kicked in.
"M-mother?" She mumbled as she saw her mother standing before her.
"Mother?! You're... alive!" She exclaimed with a smile, then quickly stood up to go to her.
"Mother!" She joyfully called, but little did she know, the joy was led by lies. In a flash, the mother stood in place, headless, then the head rolled over and stopped next to Dina's feet.
"H-hugh!" Her voice cracked in terror.
Out of nowhere, white thin strings surrounded the body, tied it up, and then squeezed and cut through the mother's flesh. In a second, she was sliced to ribbons, and her body parts and blood flew in the air. As they hit the floor, part by part, Dina's ground shook. The thuds were like bombs falling from the sky. With her eyes aggressively shaking, looking left and right, up and down, she opened her mouth, held her head, and screamed her lungs out. Her voice volumed up every time she spotted a cutten part, and her eye rained like a heavy storm.
"MOTHER! M--MOTHER!" The poor girl was awfully broken.
As she stood alone in the dark, she cried and sobbed with her heart shaking in fear.
Suddenly, two arms came through the dark smoke then were put around her. They embraced her softly, then gradually tightened. Dina woke up from her nightmare and her view was cleared. From a place full of smoke to a normal bedroom. Slowly, her fears faded away and reality was brought back to her.
"Dina?" A voice softly spoke. She turned her head towards it to find her father in front of her.
"Fa-father?"
"It's me, don't worry." He comforted her with his hand massaging her head.
"Father!" She whined and hugged him back.
"Oh, my sweet angel."
"Fa-father you-you're alive!" She exclaimed as she sobbed.
The two hugged each other tightly for a moment until their hearts were at ease, and after that, they went to the living room.
"How are you feeling, Dina?"
"I've seen better days, Father. However, I'm thankful you're alright. Can't ask for nothing more than that." The young one was exhausted, and could barely talk.
The father looked at his daughter with eyes starving for an explanation, so he slowly approached her.
"Dina?" He quietly called. "Is it alright if I ask you about what happened?"
"Oh...That..." She looked down with shame on her face.
"I understand if you don't want to t--"
"It was my fault." She answered.
"What?"
"I tried to pull my right eye out, then--"
"WHAT?!"
"I know it may sound crazy I just...I'm... sorry."
"Why would you do that to yourself?!"
Dina looked away, unable to face her father. She was embarrassed to tell him the truth.
"Why, Dina?! Tell me!"
"I... I hate my eye." She hardly spoke.
"WHAT?!" He shouted with anger. "Why would you hate your eye?! It's beautiful!"
"Are you serious, Father?!"
"Yes, I am!"
"What's beautiful about this... this black stone shoved in my eye socket? It's hideous!" Dina covered her right eye with her hand and looked away.
The parent felt sad for his daughter. He held her by the wrist and tried to move her hand.
"D-don't" She begged while pressing hard on her eye.
"Dina." He gently moved her hand. "You must never be ashamed of the way you look. Being different doesn't make you less than others. It's the complete opposite. It makes you special. It makes you who you are."
"But... but others hate me." She whined.
"It doesn't matter. What really matters is that 'you' love yourself."
"How do I do that, Father? How do I love myself while the world disgusts me? Nobody wishes to befriend me, be close, or even look at me! None of them ever tried to give me a chance... This-- this smoke scares them away I-- I feel like a monster!" She sobbed.
"Then give yourself a chance."
"Huh?" She observed him for a bit, unable to answer. "I don't understand, Father."
"If nobody gave you a chance then don't do the same. Give yourself a chance."
"Give... myself a chance? How?"
"Look." The father gently turned his daughter's face towards her hand.
Dina looked at her hand surrounded by smoke and observed it carefully.
"Fix your eye on the thin waves of smoke floating around your fingers as they form beautiful shapes."
"Huh?" She gasped.
"See! People, at first glance, tend to judge others by their looks, but when they get to know them better, they end up liking them, if not loving them. In some cases, they might still hate them. But that doesn't matter."
Dina, in amazement, wasn't paying attention, she was watching the smoke around her hands. Her father smiled then held her hand.
"Let me show you what I see. Here, when you move your hand around like this, you see how the smoke draws these beautiful waves around? Look, look!" He moved her hand like a painting brush, filling the air with pretty shapes and waves of smoke.
Dina was smiling with a warm heart and a blown mind.
"I never thought I could do that!"
"Oh, you can do more! Here, stand up and swing around like a ballerina." The happy man stood up bringing his daughter with him, and gently swung her around. As she spun, the waves did as well and surrounded her like flying ribbons.
"That's my girl!" The parent was full of joy as the daughter laughed in happiness.
"See!"
"Oh my God! I'm-- I'm dizzy!"
"Careful!" The father held his daughter and sat her down slowly.
"Feeling better now?"
"Y--yes, Father! I haven't had fun like this for a long time!"
"And there's more fun to have, you just need to give yourself a chance. This way, you'll figure out what differentiates you from the others around you. So then, you can judge whether to hate yourself or love it."
To Dina, those words felt soft as cotton and warm as spring. They were light as a feather, yet heavy as a mountain which broke open a door in her heart. A door that she had long ago locked and chained.
"Thank you, Father." She moved closer to her father and tightly hugged him.
Suddenly, the father flinched.
"Oh! I almost forgot! What was that 'thing' that was about to slice my neck?"
Dina froze in place.
"I don't know how to explain it to you, Father."
"Try! I must know!" He insisted with his hands clutching on his daughter's shoulders.
"I... I never thought I'd see one of those things again." She mumbled
"Again?! You saw it before?"
"Y...yes."
"Where?!"
Dina gently removed her father's hands from her shoulders and moved a little to the back to gather her thoughts.
"I saw many of it, actually. Back then, when Mother and I were in the woods."
"With... Elina?"
"They were five. Five of them surrounded us in the forest."
"Did they...?"
"Yes."
The father's eyes opened wide and his heart beat fast. His breathing became heavy and his body started shaking. The memory of him hanging on the wall with a beast standing before him ready to slice his head off made him tremble. He glurped as he held his neck, then asked quietly. "Where did it come from?"
Dina remained quiet as she nodded her head.
"Hmm...I say we give Mother a short visit." Dina agreed with her father and the two got themselves ready to go. Eaten by questions, they quickly drove off to the grandmother's house, starving for answers.