CURSED BY LOVE

Victoria's POV

Flashback

I watched as my mother twisted her palms.

Murmurs rose and fell in the dining room while the men had been sitting for hours now.

"Sweetheart, take them the fresh pot of coffee," said mother.

I walked towards the edge of the dining room while feeling disgusted with the cloud of cigarette smoke hovering over the table.

I wish this scent would fade away, yet it's impossible knowing that it was held captive by the closed windows and drapes.

"Wolves are conquering everything," said my father, stopping abruptly when he saw me in the doorway.

"Would anyone like more coffee?" I asked, holding up the sterling pot.

Some men looked down, but others coughed.

"Young lass you're turning into a beautiful butterfly," said a friend of my fathers from the village.

"And I heard that you're talented."

"Indeed, she is!" father said. "She has a very unique style and she's exceptionally smart," he added with a wink making me blush uncontrollably.

"So, she takes after her mother then," joked one of the men and everyone laughed.

"Aye, tell me little girl," said the man who sat at the far end of the table before sipping on his coffee and staring back at me.

"What do you think of this king who hated witches and humans to death?"

"Well," interrupted by my father quickly.

"That's not really conversation for a young girl, now, is it?"

"It will be conversation for everyone, Victor, young and old," said the man who look depress and heartbroken.

"Besides," he said, smiling bitterly.

"It's not as if the king didn't announce it all throughout the villages? Knowing that we are hunted and killed, can we still consider letting are children die unaware." My father shifted in his chair.

"What do I think about the king?" I paused, avoiding eye contact with my father.

"I think King Luke and his son Lukas are bullies, I think we should show them that they shouldn't be allowed to come and take what they pleased and-"

"That's enough, princess. Leave the pot of coffee and join your mother in the kitchen."

"But it's true!" I pressed. "It's not right."

"Enough!" said my father.

So, without pressing the arguments, I returned to the kitchen, stopping short to eavesdrop.

"Don't encourage her, Clad. The girl is so headstrong, it scares me to death," father said.

"Well," the man replied, "now we see how she takes after her father, don't we? You've raised a real warrior."

My father was silent.

The gathering ended and the men left the house at alternating intervals, some through the front door and some through the back.

End flashback

"Mother, look at the moon, it can mirror the same harrowing emotion that I have within me right now." I gripped the window while having different thoughts and some hopeful ideas.

I felt numb, yet I am trap within my own sorrow. I am denying the truth and acted like everything wasn't real.

"Father, can you see me right now? Can you see your princess crying? Maybe you'll laugh at me knowing that I am not strong and I wasn't even ready to see the moon like this," I murmured before staring at my hands.

My hands are now painted with pain, a dark red paint that I wasn't able to clean yet.

------

Flashback

"She looks pretty," I said standing at the side

of my grandma's coffin and I felt my father's fingers tapping on my shoulder.

"Father, does she know I'm here?"

"She does," father said, putting his arms around me.

"She's watching from above." I looked up toward the moon and then back to my father.

"Remember when you have a firefly, and we let it flew? And remember during summer, when we flew the kite?" I nodded, because I remember that winter night. I tried to save this little firefly knowing that it was cold outside and it might die.

I also remember the joy I had when my father teleported both of us into the mountains and we played kite. Even though it takes too much of his energy when he is teleporting, he still won't think twice, knowing it can make me happy.

"The summer came and I yelled to you that it was time to let the firefly go. And the wind came and I yelled to you that it was time to let the kite flew. The string started unwinding, and the wooden spool spun through your hands, remember? The kite went higher and higher. I had forgotten to tie the string to the spool. Do you remember what happened?"

"The kite disappeared up into the sky," I replied.

"Exactly, that's what happens when people die. Their spirit flies up into the sky," my father said.

"Maybe Grandma found the kite and the firefly," I eagerly muttered, and he nodded.

"Maybe," he murmured before combing my hair with his fingers.

End Flashback

I bitterly laughed, "So you've found grandma as well with my kite and firefly, right?" I asked almost a whisper.

But I don't know why, but something crawls within my heart.

I am suppressing my screams, yet my heart was already broken and screaming from within.