The Girl From The Woods ~ Natasha Romanoff × Adopted Daughter

1.

Tilda's POV:

I need to get away from here. I need to get away from him, I think as Dave throws me onto the hard floor of the basement. I've tried to live up to him, but no matter what I do, there's always something wrong and he always has a reason to hurt me again. Maybe it's the alcohol that affects Dave so much that nothing is more important to him than hurting me mentally and physically.

He walks up to me, grabs me by the shoulder and turns me around hard so that I'm now lying on my back on the floor looking at him. But I learned early on that I shouldn't look him in the eye.

Even when I was very young, there was nothing worse for him than a small child looking at him. Whether with a smile or a pain-filled look.
Whenever I looked him in the eye, he saw one more reason to punish me and hurt me.

Despite my already blurred vision, I tried to focus on the flickering light behind him on the wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dave raise his hand and felt a sharp pain in my stomach. Everything in me tried to stay quiet and not make a sound.

He raised his hand again and this time he knocked the air out of my lungs. Again, I tried to stay calm and quiet so as not to upset him any further.

I managed to do this until he punched me for the third time, hitting my ribs. I'm sure he broke a few of my ribs because I heard them crack and it hurt like hell.

I groaned and tried to escape from his grip. I tried to defend myself, to turn away, to kick him away, but all to no avail. He only got angrier and tightened his grip on my fragile body.

"You think you're clever, don't you? You think you can get away from me?" he said in a loud voice. I flinched at the volume of his voice and wished I was somewhere else at that very moment. He slowly dropped his grip on my body and slowly brought his hands to my neck until he tightened his grip again. If he kept holding my neck like that, I could get away from him and finally be with my mother again.

It's sad to think that I'm only 9 and already thinking about dying, but that's life. Anyway, that's what I always try to tell myself. You see, my mother was always with me until I was 7. It was always just mom and me. I didn't know my father and my mother never wanted to tell me about him because she said he wasn't nice to her.

I think what she wanted to tell me was that she was abused by my dad. It all made sense how she never wanted to talk about him, how she never let me get to know him, how she always got uncomfortable with men and how she always wanted to protect me from all men. But that didn't bother me much. off. I had my mother, who loved me more than anything, and my life was perfect.

Except for that one night when everything changed. I still remember my mother putting me to bed that night and singing me a lullaby as usual until I fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night because of screaming. It wasn't just simple screams, like when two people argue, no, it was kind of screams for help and screams of pain.

What made me most insecure was that I could hear my mother's voice in the voices. I wanted to know what was going on in the house and approached my bedroom door. The door opened with a slight creak and I was quickly standing in the hallway. I listened to the voices again and found out that they were coming from downstairs, from the living room.

I slowly approached the stairs and crept downstairs. But what awaited me there would give me nightmares for years to come. My mother was kneeling on the carpet in the living room, facing me. She had a large bruise on her face. Blood was running from her forehead and nose. Her eyes were full of pain.

Tears began to form in my eyes. She looked up and her eyes met mine. She widened her eyes and shook her head slightly. Her eyes filled with more pain and this time with tears too. She whispered a soft "go", to which I shook my head. "Please" was the only other thing she whispered until one of the men standing around her noticed me.

Actually, there were three men gathered around my mother, but luckily for me, no one had noticed me until now.
"Ah, who have we here?" said one of the men, whereupon the other two also turned to me.
"Tilda, run! Please, run!" my mother shouted as loud as she could. I tried to run away, but I didn't even get five meters before one of the men grabbed me by a nightgown and brought me towards the other men and my mother. He dropped me to the ground in front of my mother.
"No, please, let her go. Do what you want with me, but please let her go. She's only 7, please!" my mother begged.
"You really think I would miss the chance to finally see my daughter after 7 years and then let her go away again? You're really pathetic," said one of the men, who appeared to be my father.

"My daughter, come here. Come to Daddy," said my father. "Just keep your filthy hands off her! If you hurt her even a little bit, I'll kill you!" my mother hissed at my father.

"Oh yeah, you really think you have the power here? You think you have the power to kill me? You're weak. As weak as you were ten years ago!"

He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me so that I was standing. He pressed my body against his and held my head so that I looked in the direction of my mother.

"Kill her," he said coldly, whereupon one of the other two men pulled a gun out of his pocket and pointed it at my mother.
"No, mom!" I shouted before I felt a sharp pain in my head.
"Be quiet you ungrateful brat!"
I began to sob quietly. I don't want this, I want this to stop. I want my mother to get up and take me in her arms. I want the men to leave and never come back. Everything should be as it was before.
"I love you" were my mother's last words before the man pulled the trigger of the gun and a bullet hit my mother in the head. She fell to the floor in front of me and the carpet slowly began to turn red.

I was shocked. I didn't know what to do. I stood there petrified and looked down at my mother's lifeless body.
"Stop staring and come with me"
I couldn't move. I was rooted to the spot. I couldn't think, I couldn't walk, I couldn't cry. I just looked at my mother and wondered what had just happened.
"I said come with me!" He grabbed me by the arm and yanked me after him.
"Just as stupid as your mother. Could she teach you anything besides being stupid? Answer me!"
I flinched at his loud voice and looked at him with a frightened expression. I tried to say something, to answer him, but once again nothing came out but air.
"You're useless, just like your mother!"