Flora. {Credence Barebone}

Chapter Twenty-Three.

Flora flinched as she heard the door click locked behind her. She and Oleander had walked the halls of MACUSA in silence, until he found an empty room to his liking. Flora felt the tightness on her neck disappear as her father locked the door behind him; but the painless moment didn't last long.

Before Flora could turn to face her father, she was thrown forward, towards the wall opposite the door. Her body slumped against the mahogany desk which stood before the wall, and she threw her hands out to balance herself. Her fingernails scratched the wooden surface as she tried not to crease forward in pain from the bruising her midriff had just received.

"Now Flora," Oleander spoke, his tone mocking. "Show your face, I haven't seen it in so long."

Flora tightened her grip on the desk, refusing to do her father's bidding. However she didn't get much of a choice.

If she wasn't waiting for it, Flora wouldn't have heard Oleander mutter "Imperio" under his breath.

Flora didn't struggle as her body turned and moved towards her father's looming figure; there was no way she could resist the command coming from her father's wand in a yellow-green mist.

Flora came to a jostling half, and both Cuthbert's stared at each other steely, soft brown eyes meeting harsh blue.

Oleander slowly raised his fir wand so that the tip pressed against the soft skin under Flora's chin.

"Have you lost the power to speak since we last met?" He asked, menacingly, his greying eyebrows raising. "Because you certainly had a lot to say then."

"Let me go," Flora stated, referring to Oleander's firm hand which had found its way to her forearm, holding her in place.

"And is that all you have to say?" Oleander spoke, his voice dripping with malevolence. His face was so close to Flora's that his warm breath dispersed across her paled face.

"You have nothing to tell me about your little adventures in the past weeks? Nothing to tell about where you went when you left my home without my permission?"

Flora's gaze didn't falter as she continued to stare back at her father's cool blue eyes, desperate not to show him how terrified she truly was.

"You are telling me, that after your disappearing trick, and that wretched friend of yours, Elsie Adler, trying to cause mayhem in MACUSA, you have nothing to say? Nothing to say, after the shame you have yet again, brought upon the Cuthbert name?"

Flora faltered a little at the mention of Elsie, and her mind flashed back to Walter, in a bed in the infirmary. She felt terrible for the worry she had caused them; she had never meant to cause anyone harm by leaving her home, she had just wanted to get away from the tyrant that was now facing her.

"There is enough shame in the name Cuthb-" Gaining her composure, Flora had begun to reply to her father before she felt a sting across her cheek. Oleander had lashed her with his wand.

"I hope you know, Flora," he raged. "That I didn't look for you. Your pathetic vie for attention was lost on me. If I had wanted to find you, you would have been found."

Flora scrunched her nose before replying, more confident than before.

"And I hope you know, father, that I didn't want to be found."

"You insolent girl!" Oleander spat. Flora stumbled backwards as the force of her father's hand pushed her firmly.

"You will not speak to me that way! You have brought enough embarrassment to me, what with your pitiful attempts to work, running away.. your mother would be ashamed."

Gaining her balance, Flora looked up to her father's raging eyes slowly. The mention of her mother was something she had been expecting, but she somehow still wasn't prepared for it, and Oleander knew that.

"As if what you did to your mother wasn't enough," Oleander spoke, cold and calculating, knowing he had the upper hand.

"Stop," Flora whispered, raising her shaking hands slowly to her face.

"All she ever did was love you Flora."

"Stop," Flora repeated, her voice gaining volume.

"All Rose ever did was love you."

"Stop it," Flora spoke, her quivering hands clawing at her own reddened cheeks.

"And what did you do, Flora?" Oleander moved towards Flora with a cunning poise, knowing he had her in his grasp.

"Stop!" Flora shrieked, throwing her hands to her sides before thrusting them forward, desperate to keep Oleander and his vicious words at bay.

"You killed her Flora, your own mother."