Fireflies And Butterflies (ON HIATUS)

16║First Advice

With a badly drumming heart, Czarina sharply turned her head to the side and saw her mother's murderously looking face. She gulped, stumbling backwards as she tried to return to her room. Her mother marched to them with booming, angry footsteps. The first person her mother attacked was Lulana; she slapped her and her head whipped to the side.

"Give me your spare keys and get out of my sight!" Reine roared, reaching out her hand. Lulana sat the key in the heart of her palm and walked away with a bent head. Czarina watched as her mother glared at the other servants and yelled, "what are you lowlives looking at?! Have you come to find satisfaction in my misery?! Get out of here!"

Multiple words of apologies came out of the servants as they scurried away. Czarina yelped as her mother entered the room and banged the doors shut. She pleaded to the heavens for someone to come help her.

Reine looked at her daughter as if she were worthless scum. "You're a sick, disgusting child!" she yelled as she tossed the key at Czarina. It slapped her face and dropped to the floor. Reine leapt at her daughter and gripped her neck. With monstrous eyes, she squeezed her hands around Czarina's neck, choking her. "I should silence you this instance and end my shame. You're a disgraceful child! You can't do anything right! Was me conceiving you a mistake?!"

Czarina held her mother's hand as she started loosing breath. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she furiously tapped her mother's hands. "I can't..." She wheezed loudly. "I'm not... breathing."

Reine shrieked and brutally unhanded her, tossing her forward in the process. Czarina stumbled a little and fell against her bed. Her eyes twirled and her ears rang, filled only with the sound of her mother's silent rants and her dog's barks.

"I don't know what to do with you anymore!" Reine yelled.

Czarina, through her distorted vision, saw as her mother tried to step closer to her but was stopped by the person who threw the doors open and dashed inside. The person gripped her mother's arms, holding her back.

"Reine that's enough!" she heard Dumbledore yell.

"Let go of me so that I can teach this brat a lesson! Unhand me!"

But Dumbledore didn't let go until he totally dragged Reine out of the room and far away as possible. When her mother's voice became nothing but a distant, muffled sound, she began to cry, curling into herself. Czarina wheezed and dry hacked as she cried out every tear that her body could muster. Some time later, she stopped crying and simply stayed slumped against her bed.

Nobody came to check up on Czarina for a while, and it only made her feel worse and even more hollow. Her dog even stayed a few steps away from her, silently watching her with his head on his paws. At some point he began whimpering softly like he was crying for her, but couldn't come closer and give her the comfort that another human who understood her could give.

But soon, that comfort came in the form of Aidenn. The man stayed by the entrance for a few seconds before he gently walked into the room and knelt down beside Czarina. Aidenn hesitated a little before he hugged Czarina.

"It's okay," he whispered, patting her head as she started crying inaudibly. "Everything will be fine."

His words made Czarina's crying to seize up. She gritted her teeth and weakly pushed him away. And then she glowered at him with red, teary eyes that were swollen. "What do you mean that everything will be fine? Nothing is fine and how is it ever going to be when I have a mother who's like that?!" she cried out in a hoarse voice.

Aidenn sighed and folded his arms in his laps. He looked to the side and softly said, "please don't say that. Everything will turn out fine."

"It won't! Not when I have a family who can't accept me! It won't!" Czarina gripped her hair and leaned her head back as she stared at the ceiling. "I wish that I didn't have this family. I wish that I had a family who could accept me for being me. I wish that I could live life the way you and your husband do... like you don't care about what people say. I wish I had your courage then I..." She left the word hanging, heaving a tired sigh. Czarina kept her eyes on the ceiling until she dropped it on Aidenn's face when he said nothing after her outburst. She scoffed and brushed her fingers through her scruffy hair, staring at him with glazed over eyes. "You know you really suck at comforting someone. Who sent you?"