2.| ✮𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝓑𝓲𝓵𝓵. ✮ {𝓑. 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂}

\𝓉𝓌ℴ\

"Listen, Circ, you've never failed me before. I need you to get help. Go to whoever you can who will recognize you and know I'm in trouble. Actually, here-" she pulled a pen out of her pocket and ripped a square off of one of the love letters. On it, she scribbled, "At my mum's house. Need help. El." She gave it to Circe and whispered, "Go!" Then, she unlocked the owl's cage.

At that moment, Stephen came barreling down the hall, roaring about owls in the house. Eleanora stood and backed into the living room. Stephen followed, looking like a wild animal.

"What did you do to my mum?" Eleanora said through gritted teeth.

"I didn't do anything," Stephen spat, grabbing a fire poker as Circe soared away. "Your bitch mum does it to herself." Eleanora continued to back away until she collided with the wall behind her. Stephen shot her an evil grin. "End of the line," he kept coming closer and closer slowly, holding the fire poker with menace. Eleanora felt around the wall behind her for some escape. "I've been wanting to beat all the... unnatural- out of you ever since you announced you were going to that ruddy school." Eleanora grew more frantic, feeling around until her hands hit- the window latch. "Now, I'm a good christian man," Stephen went on. "And all that 'magic,' all that... freak stuff... it just goes against my beliefs." Eleanora managed to crack the window open. "And we both know how I deal with things that don't align with my beliefs." Stephen raised the fire poker just as Eleanora turned to open the window, but she was too late.

There was a blinding pain in her left shoulder and her vision blurred for a moment. She staggered away from the window, but didn't fall. She turned to Stephen with a defiant look, tears blinding her. She wouldn't give up that easily. Not when her mother was lying unconscious- at least she hoped she was only unconscious- on the floor a few feet away. Stephen brought the fire poker down again, but Eleanora dodged, trying to punch him in his large stomach. He caught her arm and held it so she couldn't move, taking the opportunity to raise a large, booted foot and kick her as hard as he could in the stomach. All of the air left her lungs and she felt her ribs crack. She fell onto her hands and knees, gasping for air, and Stephen kicked her in the side, sending another spasm of pain through her body.

He turned his back on her for a moment then, giving her enough time to crawl on her stomach towards her mother. She gasped in pain as she rolled Eveline over. She wasn't dead. She was breathing. Her forehead had a deep cut on it and was bleeding profusely, but her eyes fluttered open. Eleanora leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"The window," she said. "You'll escape through the window while I distract him."

Eveline shook her head. "I'm not leaving you-"

"Mum, now is not the time. I can handle myself, you need to get out of here. The window's open. When I get up and distract him, you climb out."

She didn't have time to argue anymore. Stephen had turned back to her, holding the poker again. Eleanora hoisted herself onto one knee, and then pushed herself up into a standing position. She wavered a little on her feet, but didn't fall. When she risked a glance down at her mother, she saw that Eveline was army-crawling towards the window. She took a step towards Stephen.

"I could... hex you- you know," she said in a pained voice.

Stephen swung the poker back like a baseball bat and in a moment, Eleanora was doubled over, clutching her stomach in agony. She didn't have time to recover from this hit, though, because another one came to her head, and she felt a waterfall of blood erupt from her face. Her nose was definitely broken. Somehow, she had managed to stay standing, and she took another step towards Stephen, squinting towards the window to see if her mother was out yet. Eveline was crouched under the open window, watching Eleanora with a pained expression.