Monday, March 10th

Before my abduction, before all those events, I used to watch many Disney movies. I loved them, mostly Sleeping Beauty. But not anymore. Now it is difficult to me to watch one without remembering my captivity in Tero's company. She loved those movies. Those were her only window to the world. Maybe it was their magic what made her bitter, because she looked around and she did not find herself in enchanted castles, green forests or the beach.

That afternoon she was practicing hairstyles on me while she hummed one of the songs from Tangled. She had a portable CD player by her side, but she seemed to have that music in her head and turned it off to sing it. She wanted to make me pretty. She combed my hair slowly, carefully, so focused she looked like a proffesional hairdresser. I let her do. Nurse, as always, watched us. If I hadn't already known her, it could have been said she was our lovely older sister.

Something was wrong. I saw her looking out the window and react in a strange way to something. She glanced at Tero, then at me, then back through the window. She hesitated. Finally, she headed inside of the house and came back with a backpack she put on her back. She walked to the door fast as a lightning.

"Where are you going, Mimi?"

The woman stopped and looked at Tero, who kept her eyes locked on my hair.

"We ran out of milk, honey, and if you want me to make you those yummy cereals I have to get more of it."

"Liar."

I looked at Tero, frozen.

"You're going away and leaving me alone."

"It will be just a momento, dear."

"You're a liar. You're leaving and you're never coming back. You're another coward."

She still didn't look away from her work. She talked with the same calm one says it's raining outside. I saw the color on Nurse's face vanish.

"You don't love me anymore."

"I do love you, Tero, my precios..."

"Then, why are you leaving?"

"I'm going nowhere, sweetie, I've told you. I'm only going to get milk."

Tero finally turned to her.

"Do you promise?"

"Of course, honney."

"Pinky swear?"

Tero showed her her Little finger. Her big eyes stared at the Nurse without blinking until she made her succumb. Adults have it very difficult not to yield to children. She removed the backpack, left it aside and crouched down to be at her level and join their fingers. Teto smiled at her.

Only I saw she dropped the comb and her hand looked for the music player.

I almost got hit in the nose but it did hit Nurse in the head. She let out a whine and fell flat on her face. There, before she had the chance to get up, Tero kept hitting her with all strength that little body of hers had. She hit again and again like an animal.

When she stopped, blood had darkened Nurse's hair and she didn't move.

Tero turned towards me. I felt my heart stop. I approached my hands to my chest in an impulsive gesture of defense.

"One less liar" she muttered, dropping the player and approaching me.

But I didn't want her to comb me anymore.

"T-Tero..."

She frowned.

"What's the matter?"

"Y-You just killed her…"

"I know."

And then she did something disgusting. She approached the dead woman, pressed her index finger on her broken head and put it inside of her mouth. She smiled at me as if she had just tasted a pie. 'A terrible nation, who fed on the blood of its people", came back to my mind.

"Will you leave too?"

"...N-No. Not me."

"You tried once. How do I know you won't?"

"Because I promised you I'd stay with you."

Tero turned her head to the corpse and saw a sour expression on her face.

"I hate them...I hate them so much...They're nothing but liars, all of them! Traitors!"

Not going to lie, I had noticed she had been acting strangely for a couple of days. Maybe it is my perception, after having access to the complete story and filling the gaps, but I think she already knew something was going wrong. She didn't smile that often anymore. Could she feel too how her own people saved their own skin, how one by one they were incarcelated? Out there, she was losing allies, her project was being abandoned or spoiled. She was getting weaker. And that irritated her. There is nothing worse than a sick child.

"She said she loved me, and she wanted to leave me! I will leave them...I don't want to be locked up in here any longer!"

I was too scared to resist. I let her grab my wrist and drag me harshly to the kitchen. There, she opened the fridge to grab a spray bottle of cream. I didn't understand what she wanted to do with that, until I saw her putting it inside of the microwave and turning the timer around. Then she opened the gas. She grabbed the backpack and made me run out of there.

"Tero! What are you doing?! I screamed among many other things.

"I hate this house!"

I didn't have time to think much more. When we were almost reaching the door, the explosion took place.

I recovered consciousness under some rubble. I found the exit and saw I had some ugly wounds, but I would survive. What about Tero? I found her near me, lying on her stomach. I called her, helped her stand up. She was confused but alive. She looked at her own body, the bleeding injuries she had. She was great for what just happened, but she was disturbed. That had to be the first time she ever bled, she ever felt pain. She screamed.

"Tero, calm down...Calm down, please…"

She rewarded my concern with a punch.

"DON'T YOU EVER TELL ME WHAT TO DO! NOBODY IS GOING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO ANYMORE!"

The house was destroyed. The wooden floor had collapsed over the basement. The place where I had been held captive for more days than I could count. When I returned home and was with the disposition needed to hear the details about my abduction, I knew the Doctor was in there, severely harmed, with a brain injury, and could have been saved if it wasn't for the collapse.

"NOT YOU! NOT ANYBODY! IF YOU EVER TELL ME WHAT TO DO AGAIN, I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!"

The movement didn't know what they did creating Tero. Many nights I've asked myself if her actions were motivated by nature or the isolation she suffered and the people who indulged every whim of hers. I can't deny there were times when I felt sorry for that little girl.

"YOU ARE THE LITTLE BIG WHO OBEYS AND I AM THE ONE WHO RULES!"

The remains of the house were burning. The fire spread quickly. What was left standing could fall over our heads.

I looked at Tero. I watched her monstruous wrath. Those yellow eyes filled with madness, with no love for the world she planned to dominate or the people who created her.

Whoever is reading these lines, whoever you are, I hope you don't judge me harshly.

She was smaller than I was. Although she had the rage and the strength that gives, I was older.

I pushed her to the flames. That is what I did.

She let out terrible howls and I didn't want to look.

Still to this day I include a plea in my prayers for God Almighty to forgive me for what I did. It was ugly. But at that moment I believed I was doing the right thing. Tero could never see the outside world. Nobody could ever know about her.

I ran away from there, outside, to the snow. Some parts of the ceiling fell over my head, but I got nothing serious. Breathing pure air after so much time being locked up and in anguish felt so...I cannot describe it. But when I found myself there alone and free, I let out a long sigh and fell on my back. The screams ceased, thank God.

But then I heard some unexpected screams.

"Liechtenstein?!"

I stood up. Dizzy, I looked around me. I only saw smoke, my sight was blurry, but...

"Liechtenstein!"

A figure appeared in front of me. It was a boy with a ponytail. He looked at me wide-eyed, but there was something in them, the shape of his face, that...

"Liechtenstein!"

That voice...It couldn't me...

"Switzerland?"

I took some steps in his direction, he stopped barely a few centimeters away from me.

He was Switzerland. My brother. His appareance was slightly different, but there was no doubt about it. His green eyes, which reminded of the prairies in Springtime. His hair like gold. His slight smell of delicious melted cheese. I couldn't help touching his cheeks. Warm, soft.

"I knew you were alright…" that was his voice, smooth like chocolate.

Switzerland...

Is it possible to describe the happiness one feels when they meet a loved one again, when after some misfortune they return to their arms?