Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Diary - 4. Scene 04
2nd January, 1995
Dear As Yet Unnamed Diary,
The sun is just appearing between the trees, so there's finally enough light for me to write.
My improvised bed held on well. As hard as it was to build, at least it was worth it. Things would've been so much easier if I could just ask the trees for help like I used to, but I managed anyway. I didn't plunge to my death mid-sleep, so I consider that a success.
I woke up long before the sun rose, though. I dreamed about yesterday. My step-father's face was everywhere, his grin turned to surprise turned to fear when I fought back his hold on me. The only difference was that, in the dream, mum arrived in time to save both of us.
She reasoned with my step-father in a way that I couldn't. She made him realise he was making a mistake working for the demons. My step-father fell on his knees. Asked for forgiveness. He loved his family, and would renounce his old boss to be with us. We forgave him, and our family became happy and whole again.
It's now almost a day since everything happened. You made me feel a bit better yesterday with the jokes about your name, but the dream dispelled whatever little light I had.
I don't think I'm ready to describe everything that happened yet. It'll make everything so much more... real... in a way that even losing my powers can't match. But I want to do it. As much as it hurts, I can't allow myself to forget it, to pretend killing another fairy wasn't horrible, gruesome, and my worst regret.
One day, years from now, when I manage to rebuild my life somewhere away from the forest, I want to look back to the things I wrote in here. I want to be able to remember everything that happened. I have to carry my crime with me for the rest of my life, no matter where I end up. So soon I'll write it all down before the details go away. I don't think I'll be ready for it when the time comes, but then...
Will I ever be ready?
Yesterday, I didn't give my step-father a chance to rethink what he was doing. Morumpi Matamatá died a traitor, a misguided fairy who thought serving the demons lords who enslaved us would lead him to greatness. I should've found another way to change his mind. Like our Mother Deity teaches us: we can change anything as long as we live. Only death is permanent.
I'm sorry I didn't give him a chance of redemption. But I panicked. He said horrible things and tried to take me away and I — I had to defend myself. That's not wrong, is it? I didn't want to be taken away like my father. All I could think back then was that I couldn't end up like dad. I couldn't let him do that no matter what.
But then it got out of control, and I lost everything anyway.
I'm going to stop writing now. You're making me wonder if I did the right thing in the end.
Nessa is getting confused. Would she really have been able to avoid doing what she did? Did she do the right thing?
Those questions might be easier to answer when we have more context of what exactly happened. Someday Nessa will be able to tell the full story, and then all will become clear.
Or will it?
In case you’re curious about everybody's names: the main character is called Nessa. Her mother is Nelma. The step-father is Morumpi. And the brother is Oraci. All the names will appear eventually, there’s nothing secret or spoiler-y about them. The only reason they haven’t appeared yet is because Nessa is unlikely to refer to her family by name, so it’ll take some very specific situations for her to mention them.
The next scene will appear on Tuesday. If you’re too impatient to find out the answer to Nessa’s moral dilemma, though, you can become my patron and read a whole week’s worth of chapters ahead of everybody else (link on my profile).
- 7
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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