Kirsi glanced at the ginger boy sitting beside her, debating weather or not to tell him. Well, if they're gonna know of her then they aught to know of some of the other local lilies.
"FYI, my lil sister's the lily that terrified you as a kid." Kirsi added, shoving a cookie into her mouth.
"What?" Colby turned to Kirsi with wide eyes.
"Her name's Asta." She continued. "She's lived in the wood behind your house for quite a few years. Was very close with a teen guy that lived there before your family moved in."
The trio looked at her with surprise. As far as they knew she was an anomaly. Most Lilies aren't fond of teens and adults, especially men. But a mild look of confusion came to Oliver, like something about what she said was familiar to him.
"I think I remember you mentioned something about your sister living in that area of woods once before, but never elaborated on it." Oliver said as she nodded.
"Just how often do Winter Lilies interact with humans like this? This isn't all that common, right?" Ronan asked, shoving a forkful of cake in his mouth.
"You're right, this isn't exactly normal for us. My sisters and I are a bit... odd? Compared to others at least." She tapped a claw against the marble countertop thoughtfully. "But over the last century or so it's gotten more common. More lilies are secretly integrating themselves into human society. It seems to've gotten easier for us to hide among you thanks to the latest change in media portrayals. It seems like there's a growing fan base for us thanks to a lot more positive an' peaceful interactions in recent years."
"Seriously?" Colby seemed like he didn't quite believe her.
"Oh yeah! I saw some of that when I was researching lilies and wasn't too sure of what to make of it." Ronan pipes up. "There's a lot of comics, stories, art and merchandise being sold. But I thought it was all being sugarcoated and overly exaggerated."
"Wow... Um... Anyway about your sister? Mom's mentioned before that the house was fairly cheep due to the deaths of the previous owners." Colby hesitated a moment before asking. "Did- did she have something to do with that?"
"Yes and no." She says, thinking for a moment. "Are you sure you wanna know?"
They all agreed, insisting she tell them what happened back then. Colby especially wanted to know what the story was. He subconsciously scooted closer, right on the edge of his stool.
"Okay well the family consisted of the mother, father, two older sisters and little brother. She met the son as a little boy, shortly after his second older sister, Amelia, had moved out. Both girls had left as soon as they turned 18. Ottilie, the eldest, even moved across the country with her fiancee to further escape their parents." Kirsi explained.
"Sounds like a pretty dysfunctional family." Oliver commented. "Their parents must have been really overbearing for one of their daughters to move that far away just to have her freedom."
"Overly controlling actually. And unfortunately, this left the poor boy alone with his parents, now with him as the center of their attention. Leading them to start micromanaging everything in his life. They made him miserable and constantly stressing over every action he did before even starting elementary school." She corrected. "Luckily, my li'l sis got close with him pretty fast. She was all he had left to keep himself stable, she was like a third older sister to him. She was the only friend his parents couldn't chase away."
"Couldn't he move in with his sisters? Didn't anyone notice?" Ronan asked, a bit perplexed.
"No. Quite the opposite actually." Kirsi frowned, jabbing at her icecream in frustration. "His parents were pillars of the community. The 'perfect nuclear, god fearing family' in the eyes of outsiders. The hard working father who was a minister at the local church and his kind, beautiful wife who worked as an elementary school teacher. A family with rebellious daughters and a shy, timid son. They put on the perfect act, making Ottilie and Amelia seem like problem children and delinquents trying to cause trouble. Their parents always played victim and the community fell for every lie. They hid their misdeeds well."
She looked between the trio with an icy glare as the temperature in the room began to drop. The cold, emotionless demeanour Lilies are known for momentarily showing. However, her eyes held nothing, but disdain. Her voice dripped with venom as she said, "Every red flag and warning sign was ignored. Humans can be so very blind, only seeing what they want to."
She huffed, shaking her head as a chill ran down the boys' spines. She shifted in her seat, trying th calm herself as her tail thumped the floor in irritation. A few berries being knocked loose and rolling away as the tip swiped the stool legs.
"When he was around eight the physical abuse started. The mother found out that her husband was cheating with a receptionist at the church. She didn't want the scandal to be made public by her. The newfound hate may result in her causing a scene. She didn't confront his infidelity, but kept it secret. So, she decided to take her anger out on her son. The son she never wanted, but was forced to have since her husband didn't believe in abortion and thought it would make them look bad. They were known as avid pro live advocates by locals." She paused, noting their looks of unnerved expressions before continuing. "He was an... unwelcome surprise since she only wanted daughters. Daughters she treated like dolls rather then people."
"Det forpulte drittsekk!" He snarled, under his breath. "Kjerring!"
Kirsi nodded, "When the beatings got to be too much to handle he would go crying to my sis since his dad didn't care. Always saying that its his own fault she did that to him and to man up. A few years later, in middle school he started getting bullied. The school and his parents did nothing. But as weeks turned into months his father grew sick of hearing his complaints. His father started punishing him whenever he heard a word about it. He called the boy a spineless coward and told him to man up. He'd say that men don't cry. He thought if his son showed any weakness it would reflect poorly on him. So, he stopped going to his parents. He bottled up his emotions, he evan started hiding things from Asta. Only rarely confiding in her when he felt like he might break."
She paused, gnawing on her spoon. She seemed hesitant to keep talking, but swallowed her nerves with another chunk of icecream, "Some time later, in high school, the son snapped. He never made any friends in school, adults turned a blind eye and he was invisible to everyone else. Asta was the only support system he had, but as he got older he had fewer opportunities to sneak into the woods to see her. This took a major toll on his mental health. She often told him to be patient, that he could leave as soon as he was 18. He just had to hang on a little longer, he couldn't. One day, after school, it happened. He snuck into the woods and left a multi-page letter for Asta, divulging everything he'd hidden from her, his innermost thoughts as well as his goodbye to her. Thanking her for being his best friend for so long and he was sorry, but he'd had enough and he'd miss her the most."
She took a deep breath, the more she spoke the harder it was to spit out the words.
"Did he run away? Did he go live with one of his sisters behind his parents' back?" Colby asked.
"Asta showed me the letter and we came to that conclusion too, but that that wasn't the case. And he couldn't contact his sisters since they both decided to cut contact since their parents kept harassing them. Amelia had even left country to attend university to further distance herself. He didn't even know where Ottilie lived despite she was still in the country, but if he did his parents would have gotten it out of him one way or another. His sisters were honestly scared of what their parents might do." Kirsi sighed. "We felt bad for them, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place with basically no options to help him."
"Why didn't your sister do something? I mean, lilies usually just wait a few months at most when they hear about a child being abused? Why didn't she step in?" Oliver asked, brows furrowed in confusion.
"Yeah. I wondered that too. Even our aunt asked her about that when she visited two winters after they met. We could all tell it would turn physical at some point, but she wouldn't intervene. Though, she did want to on multiple occasions, she'd vent to me about it too. But it was that boy who made her promise, sometimes even begged her not to do anything to his parents." She glared at her float, picking it up and gulping down the last of it. "He also didn't want anything to happen to her. Humans have picked up on the kind of people we go after and why. With his parents' reputation the community and the media would have painted it as a crazed lily attacking an innocent family. And since no-one would know which of us did it, that would have put all of us in danger. Would've been nothing short of a witch hunt. She was just waiting, hoping she could show the community the monsters they really were and get the green light to put them six feet under."
"So? What happened? Did he lash out at his parents instead?" Ronan asked.
"No. That letter wasn't just a confession of what he'd hidden from her..." Kirsi bit her lip, a sorrowful expression etched on her face. "The next morning, there were police all around the neighborhood. His mother had panicked and called them. The night before he... He'd taken his own life."
The group looked shocked, not expecting such a drastic response. They glanced between each other, each wanting to say something, but let her continue.
"Asta was enraged when she found out that same morning, especially when she realized that they seemed glad he was gone." She paused. "They didn't even go to his funeral a week later. Yet, his old bullies came to pay their respects with some other classmates and teachers. The bullies actually were actually sad that he was gone, seems they ended up on decent terms with him, but still occasionally teased him. Asta had actually gone there disguised as a human and had a long talk with her. They admitted to regretting bullying him, a few even found out what his parents were like after seeing his scars in the school locker room. They seemed just as outraged as she was. Before they left they told her that he was fortunate to've had a best friend like her and he probably wouldn't have hung on for so long without her. A few were even jealous that he had such a cute and caring girl to support him."
"Jeez! Even the bullies were nicer then his parents." Ronan sighed.
"Well, the fact that they didn't care enough to be at their son's own funeral was all it took to set her off. This was the final straw for her, she didn't care what anyone would do after. She was on the war path, and I've never seen her that enraged since." She said. "So, she snuck in the house the night after the funeral and killed them. Not the usual freeze 'em solid either, she wanted them to regret every awful thing they did throughout his life. She made that night an absolute waking nightmare for them. She blamed them for losing her best friend, and she let them have what she wanted to do for years!"
They looked at her with a mix of shock and sorrow.
Kirsi sighed, "Afterwards she shut herself away for months grieving. I never saw her cry so much, it was a struggle just to get her to leave her nest to eat. I stayed with her for most of that time. Listening to her reminisce about the good times they had for hours apon hours. He really ment a lot to her and she hated herself for not noticing sooner and saving him. But all of that only made her more determined to protect in the future, not let something like that happen again."
They all were silent when she finished her story. No wonder Kirsi is so protective of me and Kasper after knowing what her little sister went through, Oliver thought.
"I- I think it's about time... I should give her another chance." Colby said as Kirsi smiled at him. "Thank you for telling us. For telling me."
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