I N T E R L U D E
D I A N A B L A C K - 1 4
DIANA TOOK THE LONGEST way home. Her home was a long way from school already but she wanted to take her time, savour her loneliness, and make peace with her racing mind. She could see the outline of her house from a distance and heaved a weary sigh. Her neighborhood was so sparse that the next house was a mile away. She hated living so far away from everyone because it made her feel claustrophobic. Her family constantly choked her by shoving their shitty feelings down her throat. Then expecting her to reciprocate. Fuck that, Diana thought.
When she got to the front door, she was practically grimacing. Face screwed tight in irritation and everything. If she wasn't as lethargic as she felt, she would have turned back around and gone straight to the library.
It was always worse going home when Aria was away at Reading Camp. It was going to be the worst summer of her life. She struggled at school and she struggled at home with her parents and brother. Hugh was horrible to her since she was his only target. Her father had become posion to her eyes and ears, and her mother? Despite being the only person she loved in that house, the cloud of sadness that often followed her often depressed Diana.
Diana was rarely early back from school, but it was the last day so school was out. She pushed open her front door and froze.
She heard noises.
She tiptoed across the landing and into the kitchen, careful not to startle anyone. The noises had become more audible and she could decipher the sound of a man and woman. It was sounds of plensure. She gagged. It had to be her parents.
She froze at the thought. But her parents had fought again and mom had gone to stay with Gran.
Curious as a sneaky cat, she took the few steps she needed to know the noise was coming from the living room and peered in.
The sight before her could have killed her. Literally pressed a barrel against her chest and pulled the trigger. Her heart was in her throat. Her eyes were oceans.
Naked limbs entangled together, pushing and pulling apart. It was horrifying. Not necessarily grotesque as you couldn't truly tell which part collided with what. They were behind the sofa, making noises like animals in a cage. It was wanton, forbidden. Nothing that his daughter should witness.
What had struck her the hardest and made her suffer was that she could see the dark hair of the woman. Her manicured hands were tangled in her fathers mane, and Diana could see a pair of elegant shoes and white dress discarded on the sofa edge.
Her mother had blonde hair.
"No.." She gasped, as all her fears came to reality. She knew of her fathers affair but she had wished it to be false. A trick of the mind. "No!"
As soon as her voice echoed round the room, the bitter pair sprung apart. Suddenly, her fathers head popped out from the other side of the chair. His face was red, from anger, shame or list, Diana couldn't tell. He looked like a child, a child who had been caught playing with fire.
Her hands flew to her mouth.
She was trembling with anger that stemmed from the roots of betrayal. She couldn't believe that her mother suffered everyday, had become a ghost of who she once was because her father was fucking another woman.
No, he was in love with another woman.
"- I said leave!" Her fathers voice pierced through her thoughts like a bloody knife. She jolted from the force of it. He had never roared so loud. "And wait for me in the kitchen."
It wasn't a request.
Diana willed her feet to move but she only stumbled against tension and bumped into the dressing table by the door. She gripped onto it to stable herself. Her breathing was erratic. Her hands shook. Her eyes spotted. This was the kind of anger that the devil himself prepared and handed it to you with his fiery hands.
"Who are you?" Was all she could whisper. The woman hadn't arisen from the sofa, obviously caught like all deer in headlights. "Why my dad?"
The woman hadn't appeared.
"Diana, get out!" Her father roared, standing up like a pole. He was a huge man, intimidating to anyone but her.
She looked past him like he was translucent and bored her eyes at the sofa. "He's married, he has kids, he has everything he's ever wanted! Why ruin us?"
Like thunder, her fathers voice crackled and popped. It exploded her out of her skin. "Diana, get the fuck out or so help me I'll teach you a lesson you'd never forget!"
He was angry with her?! Diana visibly shook at her fathers tone. He sounded so ugly. He sounded angry, guilty and ashamed. And he was channeling all of the negative emotions at her.
Her eyes slid from the furniture and onto the dead man she once called Dad. At his dead eyes, dead hands, and dead heart.
She nodded, frightened now. "OK."
The door slammed behind her so hard that it splintered. Her fingers were reddened and her palm calloused from how tight her fists were. Had her father had beaten her to near death, she was sure she would take it a lot better. Her emotional pain was insurmountable.
Diana sat at the kitchen table and waited.
Waited.
Waited.
Cried.
Waited.
"D, my darling, hear me out." She heard after a moment, and she wanted to slap him. "It's not what you think. Your mother can never know about this, it would kill her."
Diana didn't look up. Her eyes were blurred and snot had clogged her nostrils. She was in pain. "She's already dead. You killed her."
"Oh, darling. I'm so sorry if I broke your heart. Let me just explain."
She shivered in disgust at his pathetic tone. She wanted to detatch herself from the present and so she remembered the game she used to play with her dad where they would share the world. She had given him he sun, moon, and every living thing. He had given her heaven.
"I take it back." She sniffed, tears rolling down her cheeks like waterfalls. She had moved beyond the point of holding anything back. "I take back everything I gave you. The stars, the sun, everything. I would give you Hell but you're far worse than that. I hate you so much. Jesus."
Her fathers eyes grew sad. He looked forlorn and desperate. His lips pulled apart in a faint gasp, and she could see his hazel eyes melt. If Diana listened close enough, she could hear his heart break. He was no longer a father figure in her eyes. He was nothing.
Diana was shaking from head to toe. Her legs were shaking underneath the wooden kitchen table. She couldn't move anymore. The only fuel was her broken heart. "I've never hated anyone more."
His voice cracked. "D.."
Diana shook her head vehemently. She know that whatever was to come after those words was supposed to soften her blow. "Whatever you do, don't lie to me."
He whispered in defeat."I promise."
And when Diana looked up with eyes filled with enough tears to rain on an island, she locked eyes with her. Her. HER.
She was standing behind her father, eyes wide with apologies and remorse. But within them, satisfaction swam. This was what she wanted. Looking at her made Diana want to hurl but at the same time, marvel. She was beautifully familiar.
She looked like an older version of someone she knew. She was distantly familiar, like a painting you've seen in hindsight. Diana raked her eyes all over the devil wearing angelice elite gown and wanted to die. She looked so put together. So confident. Diana could tell that this was what the woman wanted. She wanted to be caught. Her red-stained lips were pulled into a small smile.
Diana hated that she was conventionally pretty.
"I know her." She whispered involuntarily.
Her dad looked sick all of a sudden. His already pale face had turned a pallid grey. He dragged his eyes from his daughter to his lover. There was nothing like love in his eyes, only regret. It was a contradiction to how the woman looked at him.
The woman spoke as though she had the audacity to. "Diana, we've never met." Her voice was soft, but not in a good way. In the way that made you cringe. Soft like flesh tissue. She turned to Diana's father. "I understand why you might think you know me though."
"M-" Her father started but the woman stepped forward.
"Damien, she needs to know." She announced. Turning to Diana with a smile plastered on her grimace, she said in smooth crisp English. "It's lovely to meet you despite the circumstances, Diana."
Diana was a rock at this point. Unfeeling. Unmoving. Inanimate. The scene unfolding before her was almost comical. She felt like she was having night terrors.
"I'm your aunt, love."
This was the information that blew finally blew Diana away. She was disgusted. Her aunt? But she didn't look like dad. But then again, why the hell would Dad be with his sister?
Diana dry heaved. "I'm going to be sick."
The woman only laughed. Her father had blended with the background. As though he were a shadow of the woman. He didn't look huge and intimidating anymore, just a sad, bad, coward.
His voice was small as he shook his head, brown hair cropped shirt against his scalp. "No, darling, not in that way."
How could he even call her any kind of endearment after this?
"Oh heavens, no.." The woman exclaimed, finally understanding her disgust. She took a few steps forward and sat on the chair closer to Diana. "I'm not related to Damien. I'm your mother's older sister."
Dianas let out a shaky gasp. She could barely see through the rivers in her eyes.
The woman stretched out her manicured hand towards Diana.
"I'm Mirabel but please, call me M."
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AN: Finally, more dots to connect.