all too well [druig]

fourteen

Mara came back from the fields with a wide smile on her face.

Despite her mother being at the camp, she was having a nice day interacting with all of the villagers and helping them bring back crops for them in order to make a nice supper.

The pouring rain had ceased and the sun had reappeared and was shining bright on her face and her still damp hair, slightly drying it.

Her heart was skipping happily at the interaction she had before with Druig when he had caught her with his strong hands and he had called her sweetheart once again.

She had grown to love his flirting and his nicknames that were reserved only for her.

She was about to go back to her cabin to take a shower and then she would have to tell her mother about Sam and Kinsey which was unfortunately not a topic she was too happy about even now.

When she walked into her cabin she noticed a deathly silence coming from her room. In the other rooms, she could hear hushed whispers and giggles but felt extremely uncomfortable about the lack of sound coming from her room.

She walked in and immediately she saw the back of her mother holding a paper with her hands shaking vigorously.

"Mother are you okay?" Mara questioned as she started towards her mother and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Her mother twisted around to stare at her, a horrified expression on her face.

"What is this?" she sounded sick as she held the paper and shoved it towards her daughter.

"What is what-" the girl paused as she read the words on the paper.

'Threatening....choking....torture....couldn't breathe....slit my throat'

Her mouth dropped open and she wrapped her arms around herself as a sudden wave of fear washed over her.

Mara couldn't tell whether her mother was angry or saddened or a mixture of both.

"Who did this to you? Was it that one guy Druig that we saw upfront?" Estelle Astor's voice was low and dangerous.

Mara stayed silent for a moment, her heart beating madly in her chest as she tried to come up with a good excuse, but her mother quickly got the gist of it.

"So he did do this...he is going to be so sorry for messing with my only daughter," she looked like a demon about to possess a poor innocent soul as she started walking towards the door.

Mara got in front of her and put her hands on her mother's shoulders, attempting to stop her.

"Mother stop this... it was a mistake we're friends now it's fine," the brown-haired beauty tried to reassure as the older woman cast her stony eyes onto her.

"It's fine? He threatened, choked, and tortured you and so many more disturbing disgusting things that you mentioned on that paper. This doesn't even sound real," Estelle's voice was raised an octave higher as she stared at her only child with disbelief.

"I told you it was a mistake and we've made up, there is no need to bring up past events. It wasn't even that important anyway," Mara tried to keep her voice steady.

Estelle pushed her daughter off of her roughly as she grabbed her phone and started typing furiously.

"What are you doing?" Mara asked worriedly, her throat going dry as she tried to look at her mother's bright screen.

"Hiring a hitman, you're welcome," Estelle ran a hand through her blonde hair and sighed, her cheeks were turned pink from yelling and her anger.

Mara's heart sunk as she stared at her with her brown eyes wide with fear.

"Stop!" she panicked as she snatched the phone from her mother's hands, throwing it onto the ground resulting in the expensive phone smashing into millions of pieces, the glass specks scattering across the hardwood floor.

One of the glass shards flew up and grazed Mara's cheek causing a thin red line to form.

Mara and her mother both had shocked expressions as they stared at the smashed-up phone on the floor.

Estelle flicked her head up to stare at her daughter in surprise.

The affluent girl felt her mother's anger marinating.

The tall blonde woman grabbed Mara's shoulders and pinned her against the wall, causing Mara's head to roughly slam into it.

The girl's head spun due to the impact and she felt a buzzing at the back of her head from the pain.

Estelle kicked the door closed, locking it in the meantime, and then went back to holding Mara.

"You're hurting me," Mara whimpered as she felt a sliver of blood fall from her hurt cheek to the floor.

"Mara Astor, all talk but can't even throw a punch," Estelle mocked.

"Lately you have been so irritating and your horrible attitude issue, forcing me to send you here. Obviously, it has only made you worse," her voice radiated strong anger as Mara tried not to cry.

She had been crying too much recently and she really wanted to stand up to her cruel mother.

"I come to see your only two friends gone and to see you flirting with an older man who I can only imagine is doing disgusting things to you," Estelle let out a high-pitched laugh that rang across the room, making a chill go down Mara's spine.

"And then I find this...this paper and then find out that that man did those sickening acts towards you and now you're telling me to not punish him?" her mother's warm breath fanned across her face.

Suddenly, the older woman grabbed Mara's jaw so that she was facing her.

"Look at me when I'm speaking to you, little bitch," Estelle snarled.

"Leave me alone," Mara slapped her mother's hand off of her chin.

Her mother immediately snarled, slapping her daughter across the face, resulting in a loud smack. 

Mara raised a gentle, shaking hand and felt her now swollen cheek as her mom once again laid another hit to her face.

The girl did nothing except shut her eyes as her mother kept hitting her.

She was used to this. She just had to close her eyes and distract herself. Think about anything else.

She liked to humorously call this abuse their bonding.

As she felt the pain pelting her body she held back her tears that were starting to spring from the amount of pain she was feeling.

Right before her mother could lay another punch onto her bruised body, the door slammed open.

"Get off of her right now!"

---

hey everyone!

we're so sorry for the delay. there is a lot of stuff that has happened this winter break with people getting sick and more so we apologize for the delay. we know that some of you have been asking for a new chapter so here you go! hope you're all having a nice holiday!

lots of love, asiya and jordan <3