Okay, before I start, guess what JUST GOT RELEASED TODAY!
THE FOURTH GAME YOU GUYS! FOURTH. GAME!
Markiplier already did a part, as well as some other YouTubers.
Oh, Scott...why can't you ever stick to one release date? /sighs/ Ah, well.
Anyway, go (watch someone) play through then read the fic...or read the fic then play through. Either way.
Late that night, I still didn't have an answer.
New questions had finally stopped coming, but the old ones were still swirling around in my head like flies around a carcass. Why does everyone have two parents and not me? Did something happen to them? Did they leave because of me? Did they die because of me? Am I adopted? Was I took from a cabbage patch? ...That last one doesn't seem likely, but possible.
Daddy and I are alone at supper today. Jasmine's mommy said she had to do chores and she couldn't eat with us, which sucks because I don't know how to ask questions like she does. I want to ask all of my questions, but I'm afraid to. She just asks them. I wish I could ask them like her.
"Hannah, are you o-okay?" Daddy watches as I twirl some spaghetti around a fork, drop it on the plate and repeat. He got a lot better after we left the park, but I can't tell if it's because he actually feels better or if he's just faking it.
A loud sigh escapes my lips and I continue to stare at my food. "No."
"What's wrong?" His bright green eyes feel like they're piercing through my soul the way he's scanning over me, yet somehow missing how I actually feel. Where am I to start?
I don't know what to say, so I stay quiet. That's what he taught me to do.
"A-are you sick?"
Now he's gonna start guessing...I shake my head.
"D-did I say something t-to upset you?"
No, Daddy! It's not you!
His frown deepens with worry. "H-Hannah, I can't read your m-mind."
Neither can I! "Jasmine…" I mumble, still looking down at my plate.
"Jasmine?" He seems a bit shocked. "D-did she say something b-bad?"
I nod. "She asked why I don't have another mommy or daddy."
His fork falls to the floor, followed by silence. The sudden drop in conversation startles me and I look up to find his body tensed, eyes focused at me but not on me.
"D-daddy?" I wave a hand in front of him, half-worried he'll go bolting to his room and slam the door shut.
It stays like that for probably hours- him staring out into space and me holding my breath. The tic-tock in the background only seems to emphasize every aching second of it.
Tic!
"Daddy?"
Tock!
"D-daddy?"
Tic!
"Daddy, p-please answer!"
He blinks a few tears away and refocuses his attention on me, as if he doesn't even know he spaced out. "S-sorry…" His eyes turn to the side, then the floor.
There's a couple seconds of silence before I decide to ask the same question. "Daddy, w-why don't I have another p-parent?"
He stares at me again and does the weird hiccup, but, surprisingly, doesn't run to his room.
Instead, he sighs. "I...I didn't-t want-t t-to t-tell you unt-til you were old-der…"
"What?" Tell me what? I'm scared. I don't know if I want this…
A few more tears fill up his pretty green eyes. I wish I had those eyes. Mine are green, too, but different...I don't know how, but they're different. Is that from my other parent? Do I even have one?
"H-Hannah…" he trails off. "You...y-you h-have t-to underst-stand this isn't-t your fault-t. You d-did nothing w-wrong-"
I didn't...wait! What about my gifts? You don't think those are wrong? And things I say? And sticking Barbie's heads in vinegar to watch them slowly dissolve? You were crying about that earlier and now you say it's not wrong?!
"-i-it happened b-before you were b-born." I can see his eyes go wide as he stares out to space again. A few more tears well up before he turns back to me and continues. "A-a m-man...h-he d-did w-what-t people do w-when they-" His voice cracks. "-love each other-ther."
"Daddy? Daddy, i-it's okay!" I don't know which I'm scared of more- him running to his room without finishing the story, or hearing the rest of it. ...But I do want to hear it, so I stand up, walk to his seat and wrap him in a big hug.
"H-Hannah, p-please sit-t down." Large gasps of air run through his lungs. With my head pressed up to his chest, I can feel his heart beat rapidly.
"H-Hannah, please...s-sit down." I can hear his breath hitch. But I don't want to let go! Hugs solve everything, and you really need a hug, Daddy!
"Hannah, I s-said sit down." His voice grows stern and I immediately let go, but not without looking up at him. My feet don't move anymore than that.
"I s-said sit down!"
His hand raises, falls, and leaves my cheek burning. It instantly withdraws to cover his open mouth so that all I can see are his wide, terrified, pretty green eyes.
My own arm graces the same cheek, and even gently, it stings.
...Daddy just hit me.
"H-Hannah!" he stutters out. "I'm s-so s-sorry I-I d-didn't-t mean t-to-!"
That doesn't stop it from hurting! That doesn't stop me from letting loose an ear-piercing scream followed by many, many tears. That doesn't stop me from bolting to my own room, slamming the door shut and locking it.
Once in, I throw myself on the bed, wrapping the blanket around me tightly. Daddy said he never hit me because I was a good girl and didn't need to be. But now he did...does that mean I'm not a good girl anymore? That has to be it. Daddy said it's not my fault, but what? What's not my fault? That I have no parent? If that's the case, then where are they?!
I freeze when the door knob jingles a few times.
"H-Hannah, p-please...op-pen the d-door…" He's sobbing, or at least trying not to.
I still don't budge.
After a few more tries and pleas, Daddy eventually left. I ended up crying myself to sleep that night.
"Daddy?" I cried, heavy footsteps padding down a hallway that seemed to stretch into infinity. Red liquid dripped down the walls, more of it oozing down the further along I went. Someone's voice echoed throughout the hall, but it was much too quiet to make out what it was saying.
The darkness grew thicker and thicker the closer I got to the end. Eventually, the lights faded completely and I was left without a way to see. I eventually reached something tall and wooden. The voice seemed to be coming from right behind it, so after feeling around a little, I found a metal knob. It was a door! Better yet, it wasn't even locked! Except there was this awful feeling of dread coming from it...I wanted to turn around and run, but then I would just be back in that endless, pointless hall. So, terrified out of my mind, I opened the door.
Light poured back into the hallway from a thousand candles strewn about the room. The voice had died down as soon as I was able to see, but that was at the back of my mind now.
What really grabbed my attention was not the silence, the candles or even the purple door I had just walked through, but Daddy. My eyes immediately drew to Daddy, him slouching on the cold, stone floor in the most lifeless way I could picture, though I could tell he wasn't dead; there was a violent trembling in him that made me start shaking, too. His clothes were gone, and about a billion cuts made their way over his body.
I ran straight to him, tears already welling up. No, no! I only have one daddy! Please, please don't make me have none!
"D-Daddy…?" I carefully kneeled beside him. "Daddy, a-are you ok-kay?"
"H-Hannah…" His voice was so quiet and shaky. "I-I need-d y-you t-to look…"
"What?"
His hand reached out, gracing the cheek that had been damaged earlier. "I-I need you t-to promise you'll l-look…"
"Daddy p-please d-don't d-die!"
He reached behind him and pulled out a small silver mirror. "L...look…"
Wiping the water from my eyes, I took the mirror and stared into it. There was me- short, floofy, plum hair with bangs stopping just at those emerald swimming pools, same small nose that was on my dying father, lavender-colored skin… it was all there.
"O-okay daddy." I brought the mirror down a bit. "I look-ked."
"No, look."
Confused, the mirror was brought back to my face and I screamed in horror. A purple man was standing behind me. He reached out, snatching me up by my sides and slinging me over his shoulder with an evil laugh.
"D-daddy!" I yelled as the mirror fell from my grasp. But when I looked at him, he was sprawled on floor, unmoving.
The mirror landed next to him with an ear-piercing shatter, the shards scattering in all different directions. One flew just inches from my face…
...and I woke up to the sound of my own screaming.