Bending Light

19~A Rather Deserved Explaination

~Not-that-spoilery reference to a character not mentioned until later books (hope you don't mind)~

"If we don't find that book, their lives will be in danger," Abraham warned anxiously.

"I know, I know," V replied, pulling volumes out of a bookcase and dumping them on the floor.

The floor shook as their pursuers neared, stomping down the hall in unison.

"Damn Nazis," V swore, sweaty fingers making it harder to grip the books.

"I'll get them," Abraham sighed, standing to the side of the door.

A crash interrupted them and V snatched a book, sliding to the floor and underneath a table, pulling out a pistol and aiming as the door slammed to the floor...

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    It was only 8 AM, and (Y/N) felt like punching a wall clean through. Just thinking about last night's conversation was enough to have her in a fighting stance. She couldn't believe how utterly wrong her mother was about her.

  In order to take out her anger in a less destructive way, she punched one of The Priest Hole's poorly stuffed and worn pillows. It felt good, but almost every part of her conversation deserved a punch.

  We just knew how close you both were to your grandfather, and you were supposed to enjoy this vacation. It took you lots of planning and we could tell that you had been really looking forward to the trip. We didn't want to take that away from you.

  Out of the entire conversation, she had loathed that utterance especially. So much was wrong with it.

  For starters, (Y/N) was the one who was close to their grandfather. To say the least, Elise thought their grandfather was a complete lunatic. She almost never contacted him, and every time she did, she would come back talking about how he was crazy through and through.  Punch 1. Music to (Y/N)'s ears.

  Secondly, her mother always said we. It was almost certainly her mother's decision to leave (Y/N). Her dad probably had no say in it. He almost never did. Her mother made every decision for every person in the family. Any argument resulted in immediate punishment. Her father was basically treated like a child, so even if he did agree, her mother didn't have enough respect for him to count him in an argument. So whether it was to deflect blame or not, her mother always said we when it was most certainly I. Punch 2 made (Y/N) start to feel a bit better.

  Thirdly, her mother knew that (Y/N) would have dropped everything to go to this funeral, without any complaints. It wasn't like it would have messed up anything- they bought every ticket and reserved everything as they went instead of planning the entire trip beforehand- so her mother probably didn't want to deal with two kids "acting up" although she knew (Y/N) and Elise would have behaved themselves. And even if her mother had cared about (Y/N)'s grandfather, it wouldn't be enough to go without her reputation. She had almost certainly gone to make sure she didn't look bad. In fact, she was so self absorbed that it probably had never once crossed her mind that her children's reputations might be damaged. Not that (Y/N) cared a mite about her reputation- it would just be a good arguing point. Punch 3,4...a long series of punches. (Y/N) lost count and still didn't feel much better. At this point, she would almost give anything to hear Millard bothering her. At least she knew how to make it stop.

  I know you're upset and emotional right now, but it was for your own good.

  Yeah right. THE ONLY THING YOU CARE ABOUT IS YOURSELF, PIG! (Y/N) mentally screamed. She threw the pillow at the wall. The stuffing exploded out and the pillow deflated, like her. She didn't have the strength to punch or scream anymore. She just wanted to go home and sleep. Her mother probably wouldn't care if she swam across the Atlantic to get there, so long as she didn't have to pay medical bills for shark bites or jellyfish stings. If either of those animals lived this far north.

  (Y/N) wanted to go home so badly, but she couldn't go anywhere because she had been grounded. By her stupid mom. Even though she didn't do anything wrong except make a scene. She had taken her steak knife and started to stab it into the table to make her point. Besides the table, the only thing it would have damaged was her mother's reputation. Which of course mattered above all else, so she had been sent up to her room with the knife still in her hand.

  Almost everything she did or saw was reminding her of her mother. There was only one place that (Y/N) could be free of her. She grabbed the knife off of her bedside table and gritted her teeth. She wasn't taking any chances.

Luckily for her, the second floor wasn't too high from the ground and there was a drainage pipe next to her window. She opened the window and shimmied down the drainage pipe with the knife in her mouth mostly thinking about how stupid and cliché it was. When she reached the cobblestone path, she navigated her way through the buildings and up the hill. From there, she just needed to remember where the cairn was.

Every rustling leaf reminded her of the man that came after her that night. She drew her pitiful steak knife and wished that her school taught combat classes. Sadly, the whole nonviolence movement also took away important self-defense teachings.

Every step towards the cairn was a step away from her mother. If humans could sense freedom, it would be almost completely surrounding her.

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this short chapter. It was going to be shorter. For some reason I really enjoyed writing it. Some pieces are going to start fitting together soon. The next chapter will hold some remorse after (Y/N)'s anger and I will try to update sooner than 3 months. Have fun & Happy Holidays!