My wretched sobs had continued to whistle through my ears during that dark and monstrous night. I bunched the t-shirt around my chest and hunched forward against some big tree.

I'd cried and wailed but it fell on deaf ears because there was no one around. Tears were streaming my cheeks indifferently because the pain apparently hadn't subsided. I could feel myself losing consciousness but I had tried to stay awake.

I started banging my fists on the forest grounds angrily and screamed as loud as my lungs had allowed. It wasn't a good move since the huge, thick slash across my stomach stung harshly.

My screams and cries and sobs stopped short as a gasp escaped my bleeding, parched lips. Everywhere my eyes fell on my body, it was either covered in dried blood or the leafy mud. I was very carelessly tossed away in some foreign, thick forest. I couldn't even tell if I was close to home or not.

Clutching my stomach, my breathing was coming out in short gasps as blood had started oozing out incessantly. Disturbing it was definitely not a good idea but a naive, young girl like me hadn't known that. I was burning and shivering at the same time.

A shrivelled "help" had left my lips before I saw a dark, silhouetted figure approaching me in quick steps. I leaned more against the tree, my senses on high alert as if I was in danger.

"Hey, what happened? Stay… stay… stay… with… me. Talk… talk-" The only thing I'd been able to make out was that a guy with a really imperceptible accent was making his way through the words. Or maybe, I was triple hearing them.

However I didn't pay him any heed as my head bobbled from side to side and eyes drooped as if someone had pricked them. His words had sounded like a broken static but I'd stopped decrypting what they were or meant. I was shutting down.

Shaking my shoulders, he begged me to come through but I was tired in all senses. I felt him hugging me and whispered something windily in my ear. "You're a weapon and weapons don't weep."

My eyes popped open as silent tears trickled down my eyes. Tilting my head, I glanced at the alarm clock perched on my bedside drawer. It read: 5:47 am.

Sitting up on my bed slowly, I wrapped the thick, cozy duvet around my cold, shaking body. Rocking myself back and forth, I closed my eyes.

"You're a weapon and weapons don't weep." The sentence kept on echoing through my head like a life changing mantra. These words never ceased to soothe down my frazzled nerves.

It wasn't a nightmare but I wished it was. The idea of a nightmare is still better than the reality. Because with nightmares, there's an underlying hope within us that it's not true or wouldn't be in the coming future either.

Whatever I had seen in there, behind my closed eyelids was very much real. A horrendous scene from three years back. Every once in a while they come back to haunt me like the worst film noir movie scenes.

These flashbacks don't always come to me but once in a while they do make their ugly presence known. In the beginning, they were unbearable. So as for my therapeutic cure, I decided to learn kickboxing. Or maybe I never wanted to go through the same thing again so I learned a way to defend myself.

Kickboxing helped me to cope up with my emotions a lot. However my strong facade could crumble a lot of times like today. The scars imprinted on me would burn to show that I had my demons to slay, especially the monster who began all of this. They might be ugly but they give me strength.

Sometimes before bad things happen, you couldn't imagine going through that fall. You think about how ruined it would make you feel. But here's the thing. When it happens, the bad thing I mean, you realize that it actually wasn't as bad as you imagined it to be. It's worse! Your life is actually shattered. But then you come out of it and start forgetting the important details. 

I could safely say that my brain had somehow managed to do the same. It deleted the worst of it all, the detailed descriptions to be more precise.

Sighing, I pushed the duvet off me and glanced at my alarm clock again. It was nearing 7 o'clock. Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I decided to take a shower and get ready. It was the weekend so I didn't have to worry about school. 

Once I was done, I donned myself in my pajamas and headed downstairs. As I was jogging my way through the stairs, I saw my mom grinning while leaning against the banister at the foot of the stairs.

I raised an eyebrow at her dubiously while approaching her slowly and cautiously. She seemed too bright for such an unexciting day.

"You're up!" She chirped, clapping her hands and there was literally a slight jump in her step.

Waking up early in the mornings and sometimes doing my kickboxing routine just as the sun rises are two of my favorite things. I do that four days a week but today I wasn't feeling like even lifting up a limb. Maybe all my energy was sucked out of me to even land a simple punch.

"You're up!" She repeated, as if sending a signal to someone.

Now I was really suspicious. "Mom…" I began, narrowing my eyes. "I know I'm up."

"And I know you know that you're up!" She continued exclaiming with a goofy smile on her features. She genuinely seemed happy.

"Then stop exclaiming." I laughed. "Or wait, is it my birthday today?" I asked, furrowing my brows in perplexion.

Her smile fell and she gave me a dry look. "It's on June 6 so no, it's not your birthday but on the bright side… you're UP!"

"Oh, my God, mom. Shut up." I chuckled. "What is this?"

"I have a surprise for you, honey," she said in a sing-song voice.

"But you just said that it's not my birthday?" I don't know where we were going with this. She was behaving really strangely and I couldn't tell if it was a good or a bad thing. 

"Surprises are… surprises for a reason. You don't always need a "birthday" occasion for that," mom told me as a matter of fact, rolling her eyes. "Now c'mon." Linking my arm with hers, she led me towards the kitchen.

For some reason, I wanted to feel happy for this surprise, I really did but I couldn't help but remember about my flashback each passing second. All I wanted to do was curl in a corner and cry or hurl things in an open space.

As I placed my foot on the threshold of the kitchen, the lights flickered on. I saw two figures standing up from their places on the barstool. One of them was Caleb while the other one was my dad. Now I might have said that I couldn't be happy with whatever surprise my mom had planned but I was wrong. I was happy to see him and maybe more than that.

His eyes were moistening slightly and I knew what was coming next. He's always been an emotional person. My looks could be all credited to him. The same red hair and cobalt blue eyes but my personality matched more with my mom than my dad. However, that just makes me adore him that much more.

"Dad!"

~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~

Word count: 1288
Total count: 14,324