Chapter 456
The floor... as if I had never overcome it... felt nice again to live in... to have close... Although Paul would pull me up enraged every time he found us sitting on it since there was a bed for a reason. And the need to cut our hair and wish to smile all the time so he wouldn’t do anything... like I did with Seth... felt as if inevitable. It roamed my head, every minute that passed as its length bothered me... feeling unnatural... amiss.
That was what my side, the part my soul demanded from this body started to require so some ease could come to me... but when it came to Marianne... we became unable to make a sound and move smoothly again as that was the way she came to be at his hands originally.
A part of me knew this wasn’t something that would stay permanently. Some of the sanity I had knew it since in my past life I was able to overcome it... I knew that all of these behaviours were sourced from traumas that came back in the shape of the best solution we found to counter them.
Regardless, I don’t really know... whether it was wrong or not going back to it... but it did make it all hurt less.
The more time we stayed there started to put into practice the little trick the Duke had taught us whenever we were left alone. It was the tiny piece of hope we had... and even though he wasn’t coming... it did help us gain some other kind of relief thinking even if we were lying to ourselves that someone was looking for us... And it was at a night I was using the trick with my fingernails the most. to the point that my fingertips ached and my nails had weakened that I learned who else was in this cabin.
However, in the surprise there was no oddity... because Theressa being with Paul in this... made sense to us after all. But as naive I had been... I was denying myself to fully believe it until it was apparent.
"... Marianne?... Marianne, are you there?" — In the dark since I was fond of the cold floor, she must have seen the empty mattress as she quietly came inside. Eventually finding us, that were too tired to react even from within. — "!... Oh... Oh, Marianne..... Sister..."
Cautious to not make a sound she came to my side, laying her hand on my arm that hurt even from the mere graze... yet I wouldn’t move... because it hurted more although I despised her touch and whatever she was planing... because she was crying... truly convincing with her expression which would have worked if only I didn’t know she was an expert in faking everything.
"Sister... what has he done to you... hic... he’s crazy... how- how can he treat you like this...!"
’.... as if... you didn’t do the same...’ — Too aware of her lies, I allowed ourselves to meet her eye. Because I knew now... everything Marianne had to go through at the hands of these two siblings. Because the days and weeks we spent in Paul’s hand imprisoned in this room weren’t only filled by his violence, but also filled with memories she revived and showed me.
"Marianne I am sorry... sniff... I am so sorry, sister... I- I will do everything in my hands...! I’ll help you escape from Paul...! H-he’s rotten... horribly... hic!..... I’m sorry sister..." — She said while crying on my bony shoulder... but nothing I could feel anymore because I wouldn’t believe her of all people... — "Father is certainly looking for all of us now...! I swear I will find a way, Sister... sniff... Sister... please..... something... anything... let me know you’re listening to me Marianne...!"
As I heard her speak, blankly attentive to the emptiness I felt in her word that were joined to the tremble in her voice, something from the true Marianne lit. Letting me know she felt as empty to the promises... And our tears fell unbeknownst to Theressa since her head was crying over our shoulder... to eventually open ur mouth to tell words that were solely Marianne’s.