Chapter 9：Back to the Past (2k views special): Rosalind's Parents Story

Caution: Blood, gore, abuse.

"My mother was one of the most beautiful woman in the village and my dad was the royal family's guard.

Their marriage did not start as a happy one. They were first cousins, her father's nephew. At that time, it was a mandatory engagement. The oldest son of the first daughter and the oldest daughter of the second son.

It's a little complicated.

So, they got married. It was a very standard wedding. They did all they needed to, thanked the guests and went to sleep in separate rooms.

My father was hardly home because of his work and mum did all she could to make the house feel like home. She became well acquainted with the neighbours and the shopkeepers, easily making friends with everyone she met. She was a very sociable person. Just not with dad.

Mum wished to make the most of her marriage and wished to get to know dad better. She grew her own vegetables and fruits along with herbs and flowers in her garden.

As the saying goes, "the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach" and that applied even for dad. Mum made the best dishes she knew whenever he was home.

He slowly began to open up and they were able to hold a conversation for more than five minutes.

Dad was an amazing person, he fulfilled his duties to the best of his abilities. This was why he become the royal guard, he seemed indestructible like he could do anything, he was just terrible at expressing himself.

From what I heard from his friends and family, he really admired mum. He just didn't know how to show how much he appreciated and admired her. So he did everything he could to ensure that she was safe and lived comfortably.

Like I said before, mum was a social butterfly. She got along with any and everyone but not all of them liked her as much as she did them. Some were jealous of her marriage with my dad and the status she now holds. They were just waiting for a slip up, and they got it.

I don't know what happened but, it seems mum did something that turned the whole village against her.

One day, dad had to go on a trip with the royal family, he was hesitant to leave mother alone but she insisted she would be fine. She wasn't.

That very night, some men broke into the house and did whatever they pleased to my mother. They also completely trashed the house and stole some valuables.

The next day, the elders of the village were called. My mother was reprimanded for not being able to defend the house properly, they told her she did not deserve a man like dad with his status and prestige, while she was seen hanging around other men, she didn't even get the chance to defend herself.

They told her she got what she deserved and did nothing to the men that touched her.

Mother ran to her parents immediately. Grandma told me she continually tried to kill herself and kept apologising for disgracing the family.

'What will he think of me now? He wouldn't want me anymore." Mother would sit beside the window, constantly crying. The nightmares kept her awake all night and even during the day. Just an hour of sleep was a blessing to her, peaceful or not.

Dad came back a week later to a house in shambles, the doors were broken, everything was was destroyed and blood stained the floor and walls. Panic stricken, he ran out into the road and asked all that passed by about her.

Every one of them have him the same pitying look and just walked on by. Some told him to forget her and find someone better.

Anger and frustration slowly building up, he grabbed a man and threatened him..

The man only told him that mum went back to her parents' house. Without wasting a second, he caught a bus and made the ten hour journey to her parent's house.

Entering the gate he saw her. The once lively face of hers now almost unrecognisable. She had become so thin and her hair hung loose, bruises still evident on her face along with some swelling and cuts.

She cried upon seeing him, immediately begging for forgiveness. Dad still didn't know anything that happened but he walked to mum and enveloped her in an embrace. He held her as tenderly as he could almost as if he was afraid she might break if he held her any harder.

Nothing mattered at the moment for dad except to calm his wife down and make her feel protected. He did not say a word but held her, as though promising that he wouldn't leave, no matter what and to reassure her that it was, indeed, him.

She told him everything, occasionally glancing at him, scared he would leave but his expression never changed and his arms still wrapped around her tenderly.

They sat like that, mum an emotional wreck and dad being her support, until she fell asleep. He wiped her tear stained face with the hem of his cloak and continued to stroke her hair until her breathing grew heavy.

Her parents watched in silence, their heart aching every minute that passed for their only daughter.

Dad entered the house and tucked mum into bed. Seated beside her he asked my grandparents, "Is what she said true? Did that really happen?"

They nodded.

His brows furrowed.

"Do you know who did it?"

"Yes. The four main families of the south side tribes. Specifically, the two oldest sons from each of those families." Grandma cried. "Please don't hate Elise. Sh-""

"I could never hate her." Dad looked at mum with the fondest expression grandma had ever seen on anyone. Then his expression turned dark. "There are other people that actually deserve it."

"Son, don't do it." Grandpa tried to stop him. "God asks us to ask for forgiveness so that He may grant them to us. We should forgive too."

Dad still continued to walk towards the door. "Then they'd better ask for His forgiveness fast, because they'll be meeting Him soon."

It was heard all over how dad completely massacred those men. Their bodies and pieces of it were scattered all around the roadside and hung from their houses, blood stained the roads so red, even the dogs were scared to approach it.

No one dared to stop dad, they said that he looked like a mad man. He also had the royal family on his side. They let him off with a light warning and he returned to mum the next day.

She was waiting for him in the corridor, hoping against hope that he would come back to her, and he did. When she saw him at the gate, she ran into his open arms, their embrace conveyed all they could not say and they kissed for the first time since their wedding.

That night was also the first night they slept together and they continued to do so for the next year.

Dad tried to sell the house and land but mum wouldn't allow it. It was his ancestral house and she wanted him to keep it. He could never say 'no' to her so it was a loosing battle, but he built stronger walls, fences and doors. Whenever he left, he placed a guard in the house with mum.

But when mum was seven months pregnant with me, something happened.

A civil war broke out, another tribe wished to take our land and had begun killing any innocent passerby they saw that was not of their own.

Dad stayed in the house, guarding mum and me. The royal family was safe in the capital, dad requested to protect his family .He and two of his friends guarded the house. It became a shelter for those that needed it. They housed as many people as they could.

Mum ran around taking care of the wounded and hurt, but everything was too much for her; the screaming, blood, gunshots and deaths; that she went into premature labour.

The war reached a truce and dad went to settle it with the leaders. Rushing home as fast as he could when he heard mum was in labour.

As mum was giving birth, dad got shot in the head the moment he entered the house. One of the men they saved actually belonged to the other tribe.

When mum gave birth, I didn't cry. The midwives began to do what they could to make me cry, mum was crying with me. Two of dad's friends were there with her at the time.

One of dad's friend told me that mum shouted something that sounded like "Adrill. She had a faraway look in her eyes as she kept shouting, "Save her! I don't care! Save her!"

She instantly fell silent then with a rush of strength, mum pushed herself out of bed and began searching for dad, calling out for him incessantly. One of dad's friend, who had a medical background, stayed behind and helped the midwives, while the other followed mum.

Everything was in utter chaos. Everyone was screaming and running around, trampling on one another. He could not keep up with mum and kept getting dragged back by the crowd, yet mum made her way easily.

Dad's friend told me that she was delirious, almost like she knew he was dead. He tried to call out to her but she couldn't hear him over everything.

He heard a scream and pushed as much as he could, calling out to her. He saw her collapsed on her knees, the bloodied body of my father Infront of her.

Slowly she crawled towards his lifeless body and held him in her arms. She cried and cried. He said that he could not bare to look at her and turned his head away, something he said he forever regretted.

The room was now empty, the garden and some parts of the house are in flames.

Outside was like hell came on earth. The sky and ground red with blood, smoke, ash and fire. He said that it was an absolutely horrifying sight.

"Do it! I don't have anything to live for anymore!"

A gun shot resounded through the empty household as a cry escaped my mouth. Shrill and piercing.

Dad's friend shot the man who shot mum.

Running to them, he realised that it was too late. They lay in each other's arms, looking completely at peace.

Renforcements came at that minute, the war was over. But the losses were enormous. Many children became orphans that day and many parents became childless.

But humans do what they do best, they picked themselves up again. Rebuilding their village from the ground up.

My grandparents took me in and, because of the number of deaths, they ran out of space for burial so they buried my parents in our backyard. Which now is my garden.

I always feel so close to them here. Like they are looking after me.

I wanted you because, when grandma told me stories of my parents and how my mother told her of what she felt when she saw dad, the moment I looked at you I knew exactly what she meant.

So, like dad. I'm not going to back down just because something bad has happened to the person I love. It just means we'll have to struggle a little bit harder. But I'm up for it."

Rosalind took a deep breath and looked at Titus, "That's it. Sounds kind of ridiculous right?"

"No. Not at all." Titus looked up at the pink sky then to Rosalind. "You and your family really something else."

A smile softly graced her features, "Thank you."