I laid in bed and gazed up at the ceiling, lost in thought. Hours had passed, and I was in another dimension, missing a chunk of life that I needed to live. It was like I was on a fast-moving train, only for my mind to derail at the last second.
A wooden rapping-like noise came from my door, turning the handle to enter.
"Are you ready for your second day of chemo, kiddo?" Dad shuffled into the room, carrying a binder within the hook of his arm. He indicated to the unicorn ring binder, resting it on the bed. "I gathered up your work and placed it in a folder. I thought if the loose papers were in one place, it would be easier for you to study while you're away."
I inspected the glittery unicorn hardback, cringing at my ten-year-old self. "Thanks, Dad." The lack of emotion in my tone showed my lack of enthusiasm for studying and the conversation I was about to have.
Pushing the binder to the side, I fixated on the glittery colours of the folder. "You lied for seventeen years, knowing my life was at stake. How could you?"
The atmosphere shifted, creating palpable tension. Dad took off his navy peacoat with a sigh, letting it fall from his shoulders. "She had no right to tell you."
I avoided eye contact, not wanting to see the warmth evaporate from his face. "No, she didn't. Do you know why?" As I grabbed the bobby pins from the bedside table, a few fell onto the floor. "Because you're the one that should have told me, not Fiona."
He sat at the end of the bed and angled his body towards me, lifting his right knee onto the mattress for comfort. "I made a mistake when I was your age. I thought I could outsmart the vampires by starting a revolution. Nobody ever liked their rules, and when they took innocent lives to support their own, I took matters into my own hands."
"That sounds like something an idiot would do." I snorted, remembering Edwina standing against the vampires and how that turned out.
"Trust me, when you hear about people you grew up with vanishing in thin air, all fingers point to them." Dad rubbed his palms up and down his trouser leg in a rhythmic motion. "They killed somebody dear to me all because I started a war between vampires and humans. I purposely found trouble, got into fights and sought a revolt against one of their kind and let me tell you, that didn't go down well."
My mind went back to Ethan and how he was about to stand trial for self-defence. It was a matter of life or death, all because of the lack of human rights.
"So, how did you do it? How did you leave?" I slipped the bobby pins into place, keeping the wispy hairs from tickling my neck.
"I studied the vampiric system, and their hierarchy, having leads on several vampires. They work in pairs, groups, and some work alone. Samuel is one of them." He was testing me, seeing how much information I knew.
Once he saw I was unfazed by the name, he continued, relaxing against the footboard. "Wolves surround the perimeters of Shadowbrook, working with vampires to keep the humans in check. I caused a diversion, setting a foot trap for one of the wolves, giving me enough time to disable the barrier."
"It can't be as easy as you say it is. I don't see anybody else leaving the same way," I said, surprised Dad studied vampires for this long without saying anything.
Dad choked back a sigh, loosening his tie with nimble fingers. "To be able to pass the barrier, I had to use bait. A vampire's supernatural healing abilities won't affect the border."
I waited as he continued, wiping the thin layer of sweat from his philtrum. "Once the person crossed the threshold, the invisible border would electrocute them." He averted his stare as his eyes glazed over, focused on his repressed memory. "I found an old man who had no wife, no kids and no stable future. He was a butcher, but there wasn't a need for poultry, and time was against him, too."
"You killed him?" The beat of my heart slowed, aching from the heaviness of his confession. The man who I adored sitting in front of me wasn't the same man back then. It was like hearing about two different versions of the dad I looked up to.
He hung his head, defeated and buried in decades of guilt. "Shadowbrook had no place for me, and you shouldn't belong there either."
He was wrong, and he knew it. Dad made a choice and had to live with what he had done for the rest of his life, but I had to pay for his ultimate mistake.
Dad gazed up at me with sorrow-filled eyes as his words strangled in his throat. "I should have told you sooner, but I never wanted to bring you into this mess."
Bringing my legs to my chest, I wrapped my arms around them for comfort. Even Cuddles couldn't give me what I needed. "Does Mum know?"
"No, she doesn't." Dad twisted the gold wedding band around his finger. "Once I escaped, I tried rebuilding what I had left. My parents - your grandparents - died when I was small. Shadowbrook was far gone, so when I met your mother, it was my fresh start."
It was all too much to process. "I hate that you kept this from me for so long." I understood the lengths he had to go to to escape but murdering an innocent man made my dad as guilty as the vampires.
Why does somebody have to get hurt to fulfil somebody else's desire?
A knock on the door interrupted the awkward silence, causing Dad to flinch. The ginger-haired nurse popped her head in, smiling as she announced that visiting times were over.
Dad stood up, fetching his jacket in slow motion. The way he rubbed his bottom lip, pondering how to fix the mess he caused, stirred a weakness in me.
I didn't despise him for what he did, but the way he went about it struck a chord.
He is still my dad.
"Wait." I tugged the sleeve of his peacoat and enclosed my arms around him. The familiar smell of polish from his jacket reminded me of home. "Tell me what to do. How will I leave?"
It was the million-dollar question that rested on my lips, itching for a release. There was a risk of being stuck in Shadowbrook without my dad, and that was disempowering.
"Stay away from the vampires, and whatever you do, don't go out after dark," he whispered.
It's a little too late for that.
His posture turned rigid in my arms as he broke the embrace. "I will do all that I can to make them disappear for the both of us."
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A/N
WordCount: 1,176
Erika's dad, Richard, finally came clean about his past life in Shadowbrook. Was he right to keep his past from her, knowing it could have repercussions for Erika?
