𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕊𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕡

23- Time to Live

"I'd rather be hated for who I am
Than waste it all giving a damn"

Grief was a funny thing. Making thoughts twist and turn, both the right and wrong way, the grieving process was not something one got themself into by choice. One would find that they were nearly a completely different person from when they started grieving, but they might not even recognize the "new" person they had become. However, they don't even know who they were before they grieved, that version of themselves has moved too far away.

Andromeda had never had to seriously grieve a family member because, well, you know. However, she felt like she had had to grieve her past selves as they were lost to the cruelty her family had put her through. Her innocence had been buried six feet deep for far too long for Meda not to be fueled with anger, resentment, and tears.

She had lost a number of versions of herself, but so what, right? Andromeda was a better person now because of all of it. It had made her stronger, more likely to enjoy the laughs life gave her.

No, no, no.

The fact of it all was that Andromeda had been deprived of things no child should have taken from them. So, even if all the memories rusted with grief and conversations glossed over with tears have, in fact, made her a better person somehow, Meda realized she didn't need to become such a strong person at a young age. She needed to be comforted when she cried and laughed with when something funny happened.

She did not need to live in fear for so many precious years of her life. The years she spent doing that were stolen from her, never to be given back.

Andromeda had gone through the five stages of grief too many times to count, almost like she had been in a constant state of grief.

Now, it was time to live.

She might technically still be trapped in the claws of her parents, but she no longer was giving the same amount of power over her. Meda took the papers from their clutches that stated she was their property—whoever thought giving them the papers in the first place should be demoted—and burned them like she should have done a long time ago.

Knowing in her head that she still lives under their roof reminded her to still be cautious, but her mindset now was much more freeing. Andromeda a few months ago would not have let Henri come with her on prefect patrols with her because it broke rules, but here she was.

February had just started, as smoothly as the month could. Henri had started coming along on the patrols because, even though she didn't say it, Andromeda could tell she was still freaked out about what happened over the holiday. She didn't blame Henri in the slightest—Meda was not looking forward to going home for summer at all—but she felt guilty because she felt she could've prevented the stress Henri was put under somehow. She didn't know how exactly, however, Andromeda was sure she could've done something.

"Mum said you can come over this summer if you'd like," Henri said, scuffing her shoe against the stone floor.

Andromeda smiled at the thought of going over to her house and didn't stop herself from fantasizing about it for a moment. Something told her this summer would be different, perhaps, this was due to her new frame of mind.

"That sounds lovely," Meda replied, opening another broom cupboard cautiously. "What would we do?"

"Explore the world!" Henri said, laughing as she skipped through the corridor. "I'd like to show you how I've grown up for the past sixteen years of my life."