The Things We Do

Chapter XXII: Selene

Soren closed the door as he left the bedroom. "You didn't have to yell at him." Selene snapped as she swung her legs out from under the covers to sit next to her sister. "He doesn't need to be here for this." Aurora stared into Selene's soul. "Here for what?" Selene asked. "I couldn't wait any longer. I want answers now. What exactly has mom done?" Selene shrugged. "I'm not sure." she said as she brought her arms down. Aurora grabbed her hand. "We're going to talk to dad." she started pulling Selene away. "Again, why now?" she asked. "Because I missed a lot and I need to know what to think of mom." They walked past Soren and out of the house as Selene mouthed "I'm sorry!" to him.
They knocked on the door of their childhood home, and heard nothing. "Dad?" Aurora yelled. He came to the door. "Sorry, I'm just conscious of who I let in at night after, well you know. Why are you two here anyways?" He seemed to be fully awake. "Have you not slept?" Selene asked. "I haven't been able to sleep well since we got back here. I'll be fine, what can I do for you two?" he asked as he motioned for them to enter. They went in and sat on the couch on either side of him, still not wanting to sit in their mother's chair. "We came to ask about mother. I want to know everything, it seems like we both missed a lot. Start from the beginning, we deserve to know it all." Aurora barked. Their father, intimidated and reminded of his late wife a bit, told them everything.
He spoke of what happened to her when Luna had her prisoner for a time. He spoke of her long recovery that tragically never ended. He spoke of Mirirejar rebels and how she attacked so fearlessly, and violently. He spoke of the dance they shared that night and how they slept on a bench outside after. He spoke of how she was forced to marry Ideus, and how much she didn't want to. He spoke of the night a few days before the wedding when he confessed his love. He spoke of the wedding itself, and how she kept looking at him instead of her new husband. He spoke of her murder of Ideus, how she tried to cover it up. He spoke of the letter that she had told him to burn, but kept instead. He spoke of their unacceptable relationship and how they hid it. He spoke of how she exposed Luna and Soleil's relationship and turned her back on one of her closest friends and that friend's new girlfriend. He spoke of how the fight between her and Arlie all started, then the immediate aftermath of Arlie's death. The cryptic titles, the intense promotion of Scheven, the rushed wedding between her and himself. The pressure to have Aurora that they ignored for so long then were crushed by it. They were pressured to have more children in the case that the eldest turned out to be a tyrant too, and finally fought back about having more children after Selene was born. He spoke of the sides of her that only he had ever seen. Her life-long anxiety, madness from Mirirejar, depression after Arlie's death, and the anger from past trauma. These sides of her had to be hidden from the general public, and especially had to be hidden from her children. She dumped some of it on him, but he could tell that even though they had been lifelong friends and had a marriage that lasted thirty years she still hid things from him.
Selene took all of this in as her heart grew heavier and heavier. Many thought that she lived a peaceful and happy life, but far from it. Crippling anxiety had plagued her mind for as long as Beau knew her, but it had always been swept under the rug. As Selene's mother's mother herself once put it, "Imperfections must be swept under the rug to preserve the image of great Princess Anastasia Archier." It pained Selene's father to respeak those words, knowing how much they rang in his wife's ears. Everywhere she went, even though her mother died when she was a teenager, she thought of those words. They crushed her, and though Selene's father did everything he could, he could never piece his wife back together fully.
He went one step further and told them all that he knew about Arlie and Soleil. He had been around Anastasia his entire childhood, but when they became teenagers she had been forced to spend more time with Arlie and Soleil, who were already close. The four grew to be close, and now they were all dead but him. Selene and Aurora did their best to comfort him, but they had done too much. They decided to sleep there tonight, and their father finally drifted off in his own bed. They went into their childhood bedroom and laid down on their old beds, staring at the ceiling as they thought about what their father had just told them.
Selene rolled over all through the rest of the night but she couldn't fall asleep. Soon she saw the sun pouring light into the bedroom, piercing her eyes as she remembered that Soren was still waiting for her. She heard Aurora get out of bed and so Selene did the same. Once they made sure that their father was alright, Selene went back to her new home to tell Soren what she had been told.