After that whole thing at his porch, Hilda then walks back home with a proud smile on her face as she just won over Frida and David and her frustrations and anger are satisfied.
She walked to the street where her house was located and with Dagger already right up ahead of her, she just giggled small before catching up with her to the door and as she opened the door, she then saw the doctor she got her checkup with, talking to Kaisa, consulting over Johanna's condition.
"Doc?" Hilda asked as Dagger just walked right inside without worry and went back upstairs.
"Hilda?" The doctor said as he turned around to see who said that and he said the same blue haired girl he just conducted a checkup on and got shocked as well.
"What are you doing here?" Both asked in complete sync of each other and when they realized that, they both just stared down at each other for a few minutes before someone begins to ask.
"Wait, you guys met before?" Kaisa asked, seemingly being confused over that the doctor knows her name already and the fact that they spoke in sync was mind boggling.
"It's a long story," Hilda responded quickly to her before focusing back to the doctor, "what are you here for?" Hilda asked as she stared down into his eyes.
"Your maid called me and...your mom is fatally ill." The doctor answered as he tries to at least keep her calm while also telling her the truth.
Hilda looked worried at him as she was immediately hit with this recent news of her mother getting sick while she was out fighting Frida and David. She couldn't handle the quick rush of information and soon begin to feel hurried.
"Did you conduct a check-up on her?" Hilda asked worryingly, for the first time since Twig, and she sat down on a chair to await anything.
"Yes, i-it's tuberculosis, if you are curious…sorry…." The doctor responded by telling her what Johanna is sick of and giving his pities to her so he could at least show some mercy for this child.
Hilda stood in shock, not a word, not even an expression, not a single reaction. Tuberculosis was a deadly disease back then and Hilda knows where this is going and she was hyperventilating quickly before collecting herself together and then she went upstairs.
She entered her mom's room with an extremely worried expression, not crying, but visibly sad. She hesitated on even interacting with her but after a few minutes of hesitation, she then sat down on the bed as her mom looked at her with a very faint and pale smile, as her lips were all covered in blood from coughing hard.
Hilda didn't know what to say as she was seeing this go about, she couldn't give her condolences or even an apology to her as she is seeing her mother getting weaker by the day.
"Did-...n't...m-..att-...er," Johanna mouthed as she couldn't talk due to her throat getting ever sore and incapacitating her ability to talk more than a few sentences due to the hardness of her coughs.
Even though Hilda didn't hear any of it, she understood what she mouthed and just placed her head on the bed while clumping her hair together as she doesn't know what to do in this time of emergency and crisis. As she lamented her regrets fully in the room, she began to sob for the first time again and seeing all of these signs, she contemplated giving up her pursuit of….anything.
While she continued lamenting, the doctor then sat down right next to her and placed his hand right on her shoulder to at least calm her down and comfort her so he could try to help with all he got.
As the doctor focused his sight on Hilda, she began to let some tears out, her blind eye couldn't move properly so it was always open for a tiny bit, however it could not cry or even sob as she looked to Johanna, who fell asleep.
"Hilda….." The doctor began but pulled back in hesitation because he's afraid that he might be interfering with some personal manners but he continued anyway, "I know it's hard but I think I could help." He continued with a soft voice to calm her down and at least wipe away some tears.
"...how could you?" Hilda responded with a skeptical question on his help, having doubted his usefulness back when Twig was dying.
"Look, I may be a little defunct with my work but I could bring her to the nearest big city so that we could help her out." The doctor explained as he sat down right next to Hilda who was sitting right on the floor with her back laid on the bed.
After finishing, he then felt a tight hug coming from Hilda, who thrusted her arms around his midsection and feeling tears coming out of Hilda's eyes. He understood her glee and patted Hilda in the back ad he encouraged her to let it all out before he could continue on how to do it.
Then the mood was suddenly interrupted however when Jared entered the room, he had a box under his arm and a smile on his face as he approached Kaisa.
He went over to Kaisa, who was cleaning some stuff in the tray right on the other side of the bed, ignoring Hilda and the doctor completely and then placing the box right next to Johanna's legs.
"Kaisa, dear, could you slip into something more casual?" he said as he opened the box which contained what could be compared to a swimsuit… but, intentionally way too small for her size.
Hilda didn't even look, and the doctor simply pretended to have never seen that, but Johanna had a slightly different reaction. She was awaken by Jared suddenly barging in from the door, she collected all her remaining energy and grabbed the silver plate used to transport the medicine and threw it at the man, missing, but an impressive action nonetheless.
With that, the doctor and everyone else left the room, but Hilda wanted to have some time with her mom first before consulting with the doctor for more information.
As the door closed, the doctor grabbed Jared by his collar.
"You kids make me sick." he said, pressing the man against the wall. "Disturbing the ill like this, so disrespectful." He threatened Jared further, pressing his own chest into his to intimidate him further.
As Jared hurriedly tries to think of what he was doing, he was then just pushed to the floor to feel disrespected, like what he did.
"Is that entire thing of yours a game, or what?!" The doctor yelled as he began to verbally abuse the man by using generational insults used to hurl at the younger generations.
Hilda had to cut her mourning short to stop him from going further or worse. She was able to separate the two and have them talk to her on what happened from both sides so she could understand. Then she told Jared to finish what he was doing with Kaisa and leave the doctor alone.
After a while, Hilda then heard the door being opened as a bunch of male voices started greeting each other and a few people walked inside and met up with Jared. Hilda held her breath to hear better as she pressed her ear against the door as she also peered in to the rest of the house through the stained glass that made the door.
"You motherfucker…" Hilda whispered as Jared kept greeting more and more friends. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but they were very clearly male and very excited for something and she wasn't sure what they're excited about.
She slowly opened the door and stepped outside, closing the door as she left the room before waving a quick goodbye to Johanna before closing the door fully to meet with Jared and his posse.
Meanwhile downstairs, Maisa was done filling up the goblets with wine d other liquor as Hared and his friends just began their locker room talk in the living room and as she was finished, she walked over to them and placed the tray of goblets right in the table.
"H-here is the beer sir." said Kaisa with an uncanny discomfort in her voice as she trembled on how many guests are inside the house today.
"Thanks sweety, now why don't you sit down with us?" said by an unrecognized friend of Jared's as he sat down on the sofa and prompted her to sit along.
"I-I would rather not sir…"kKaisa said sincerely, this time she didn't only sound discomforted, but reluctant on what they're prompting her to do.
As Hilda saw it unfold in her eyes, she couldn't let it progress any further, she then called Dagger with a very quiet whisper that for the others might have come out as the wind, and as he arrived, she slowly started going downstairs with a very entitled posture and looking ready to take off their sights from Kaisa.
"Hey Hilda!" Jared greeted as he was trying to sound excited for her, "I am sorry for the surprise, I didn't have time to warn you pri-" As Jared was about to explain his excuse to her, Hilda suddenly interrupted him with a gesture, still, not even looking at him.
She took a quick look around the room as she reached the floor. First of all, there were a lot of people there she had never met in her life, or at least people she didn't know until now, which was somewhat worrying. Kaisa was wearing that suit thing Jared gave her earlier, feeling cold but sweating like she was in a hot spring from pure shame and immodesty.
"You could have at least given her something warmer." She said as she took out her coat and handed it to Kaisa, who gladly put it on.
"Well….thanks madam." Kaisa said as she started to feel a little more comfortable with the coat Hilda gave to her and as she looked at Kaisa enjoying her coat with a smile, Jared was right behind her, smirking with jealousy in his face.
To keep the conversation towards him and his group, he then snapped a finger right behind him to grab everyone's attention and everyone looked but they didn't know where the snap came from and their eyes are all over the place, making the situation more uncomfortable than it already is.
"Hey Hilda, how's your mum up there?" After a few minutes of awkward silence, Jared decides to crack open a question and hopes that this one will ignite the room again with noise about him.
As she responded back, everyone was interested in what was happening to her mother and as everyone asked for more, she then continued on explaining on how she lived her life with her mother from her perspective for a few hours.
Meanwhile, back on the porch, Amelie and Henrie have already arrived but when they do, they see David and Frida waving a huge piece of cloth up and down on a dying flame on the street. Confused, they approached them but due to their sudden appearance around the place, Frida and David were a little surprised that two shadows formed up while they were trying to wipe out the fire but they looked up and it was Frida's parents and both were relieved.
"What happened here and why are you guys doing that?" Amelie asked Frida on why she was waving a cloth to take out the fire with Henrie leaning back down with her to anticipate an answer too.
Frida was still tense from what happened, Hilda was always a bit of a violent type, but she was starting to threaten to burn down property around the town. But as she exhaled out of her nose, she then placed the cloth over the flame, dying out real quick but leaving a blackened spot on where it landed.
Then she was ready to answer any questions they have as she began to answer them as they were walking back inside the house.
As they walked in, Frida and David started to help them unpack their stuff and move in. Meanwhile Stephen was walking down the street, as drunk as always, and just as he arrived in the house, he could already smell the smoke that actually didn't come from the porch but, being drunk, believed that it came there.
As he arrived, he then saw the cloth and the burnt out area where Frida landed it, confirming his belief that a fire had broken out.
"What the FUCK, did they do?!" he screamed as he slammed the door open and proceeded to grab a nearby bottle and bash it to the table, sending shards all over the floor, leaving behind a cracked bottle to remain on his hand.
Frida quickly went downstairs as she assumed she would be the one cleaning whatever he broke but as she walked down, she saw that Stephen had just arrived pissed.
"A-Any pro-" Frida asked but stammered at the intimidating body language that Stephen is expressing right on her.
"Which one of you tried BURNING DOWN MY FUCKING HOUSE!?" Stephen screamed with the screams of 5 men and pointed his index finger at Frida hard, thinking that she may have burned a part of the house. "IS IT YOU?!" Stephen exclaimed as he walked closer and closer to Frida and keeping the shattered bottle right up her throat.
"Oh-o-oh yeah...it w-wa-was h-Hil-" Frida stammered as she's trying to give him an explanation on what happened while also defending herself from about to get stabbed by a bottle or being accused of burning down a house.
"OH YEAH, YOU FUCKERS!?" Stephen scolded at Frida, thinking that she's lying about it to protect herself, and decided to pin her down to the wall so he could get her to tell "the truth".
Meanwhile upstairs, David just heard it all go down and the shattering shards of the bottle that Stephen bashed reminded him of how his father was stabbed back then by Hilda after the local church burned down, bringing him into another state of shock that Amelie and Henrie noticed.
As David laid in the floor feeling helpless from his memories invading all over again, they tried to calm him down but due to the fact that they can't ignore their daughter getting pinned to the wall by a white man, they could only watch as he slowly descends into another state of fear.
Thankfully Mary came over and did stopped the thing from going violent but Stephen just slapped her out of the way before focusing back on Frida but thanks to Mary's help, Frida escaped Stephen's grip and went upstairs to tell David she's fine but then he started chasing her upstairs, bringing the entire ordeal into the entire house.
As Frida ran inside, she slammed the door shut and kept her back on it until she found the lock but the lock of the door was on the outside and due to Stephen's strength, he was able to push the door through, pushing Frida to the floor by the force and now with a very aggressive Stephen right on her sight, she feared what he could do to her.
But he didn't focus on her, not yet. He redirected his focus on David, whom after recovering from his state of shock and fear, now had to deal an even bigger threat than an invading memory. He looked up to him with pity, begging to be spared from whatever the hell happened downstairs but Stephen just couldn't get enough.
He's tired of having to fix his son into the man that he wants to be and even if he doesn't, at least he wants him to not be ridiculed over it and seeing him laid in the floor in fear, he just have had enough of fixing him and decided to just push him to the limits, no matter the cost.
He gripped onto David's arm and gave a death stare to Amelie and Henrie, halting them from intervening in this new phase of the ordeal, then he focused back on Frida, who ran quickly downstairs and hid herself in the kitchen to hide away from Stephen's wrath.
As he dragged David with him downstairs and slamming the door shut behind him, he began calling out to Frida around the house with slangs and vulgar language about her race, making the situation worse than it could possibly get.
Meanwhile back at Hilda's house, Hilda wished she could just lose at the porch as seeing the situation unfold in the house, she's starting to dislike it extremely quick as she can see their advances on Kaisa, who is still oblivious to their true intentions.
As she just waited for them to either get out or just be done with it, Jared then suddenly went out of the couch with his shot glass and was preparing to make a speech. Before he started, he drank down the shot before landing it on the table before beginning the speech.
"Well, well boys. Looks like we had a fun afternoon." Jared began his speech with an overview of what they just did in the afternoon, which was quicker than what Hilda anticipated but she stayed relaxed due to knowing where his speech is gonna end up. "And as the sun is about to set on our glorious nation, let's just celebrate as the middleman and raise our glass!" Jared then exclaimed his patriotic support for the country while Hilda rolls her eyes as Jared and his friends raised their glasses up in the air while chanting 'God Save the King' over and over again.
As they chanted around the kitchen, Hilda then moved her position from the edge of the sofa to the middle of it where she can interact with Kaisa, just drinking down some tea on her teacup while she watches them from chanting to playing a drinking game on how many times Britain won a naval battle.
"Hey." Hilda whispered into Kaisa's ear and she was a little surprised but giggled it off before focusing her attention on Hilda. "Do you even know what they're trying to do?" Hilda asked her if she was aware of what they were achieving and she shook her head, implying her innocence and modesty right at Hilda's face.
"Okay…" Hilda said as she turned to the other direction to begin thinking of what she can do to at least save Kaisa from what is going to happen to her if she let it off and after a few minutes and hearing them moving on to a beer pong game, she finally knew what to do.
"Hey Kaisa," Hilda said as she tapped her shoulder to get her attention and she did turn around to hear Hilda again, "maybe you could keep giving them alcohol but don't drink one yourself and then you can go clean up the mess later." Hilda explained her plan to Kaisa and she was agreeing but she didn't know why, she just liked following orders, but she did it anyway.
She went over to the barrel of liquor that the boys ordered for their party and as she refueled a lantern and lit it open, the barrel was just wet but not leaking, then she grabbed a bunch of goblets that they used earlier and began to slowly grab the red wine that was inside.
She pushed the lid over and the wine was still edible for use and Kaisa placed the wine in each cup to the brim by dipping the cups into the barrel and then slowly grab wine out of it before carefully placing it in the tray and continuing this for the other 4 goblets but after that, she was finished and then walked towards them with the goblets.
"H-hey, sir, would you like more… alcohol?" she said, with her typical shy smile along with her exhausted breath coming out of her nose as she struggled in holding the tray tight.
"Y-Yeah….. Maaaybe……" Jared said, clearly more drunk than he should be. "I'll take them, just go back to the couch and when we're done, we'll be ready." Jared finished with a smirk and a wink at her.
Kaisa then smiled and proceeded to get more but just as she was about to hand it to Jared, he forced the bottle on her mouth, basically forcing her to drink half the bottle as him as his friends laughed and with Kaisa already resisting to chug down a few liters of the wine, trying to close off her mouth with her tongue as best as she can.
'Wha- "Kaisa tried to protest but she couldn't resist the grip that Jared held around her and kept the bottle in her mouth.
"Just shut up and drink already, not like your father's gonna get mad." Jared drunkenly said as he tried to force her to drink more and more of the bottle as Kaisa kept resisting.
Kaisa knew very well she couldn't outmatch his strength, so she just started drinking the entire thing until the whole bottle was empty, yet, she felt very sober. After that, she pushed him off as she was trying to comprehend how she drank a liter of wine yet still feel sober but she chose to dismiss it and continue her way.
"Uhhhhh hey, why don't you guys get some more?" Kaisa nervously laughed and grabbed a couple more bottles, equally distributing them to Jared and his friends before awkwardly going back to the couch and sitting down like she got abused.
Hilda saw it all go down and seeing the plan backfire, she chose to stay silent for a while before opening up to Kaisa, trying to inform her of his intentions for her but she only cared for orders since she was raised to be an obedient person by her family outside of Trolberg but it was relieving to get a conversation off from someone.
Then as the sun begins to set below the horizon, Stephen then dragged both David and Frida outside near to a tree in the backyard. He tossed David aside towards the fence and as he continued to drag Frida towards the tree with a few inches of rope on his hand, Frida kept resisting on his grip on her collar but she was eventually tossed to a tree and her hands tied down to be prepared for a whipping.
But he's not doing the whipping, no, he wanted David to do the thing so that he can see that he has chosen to be a better man by following to his command and by following the socio-economic trend of the time and then he could be fully changed.
He went back to David on the fence, still hurt by hoe hard he threw him to the side, and got him up and dragged him over to the tree with a lantern being hung over it and Frida tied to a tree. As he saw Frida tied up, he instantly froze from all thoughts and just stood there without a thought moving from his head. Then as he just stood there, Stephen grabbed a whip he made hastily and then shoved it into David's hands.
"Now son," Stephen said with an extremely noticeable shift in his voice, from yelling to a serious deep tone, it terrifies David from even knowing what to do, "I know this may be harsh, but all I'm doing is to make you a better man, or at least not be ridiculed for not being one." Stephen explained why he's doing this to him as to try and clear up the cruff in between him and David but David couldn't respond, he's too shook by what is happening on the first day and his full focus is on Frida.
"Now go out there and prove yourself that you can still be a man!" Then Stephen returned to his scolding and shoved him towards the tree with the whip on his hands to see if he would actually do it or not.
As he got himself back up slowly, he then looked at the whip that Stephen made, it was all hastily cut and the rope ends wasn't fully cut but he knew this was a morally wrong thing to do but being conflicted with helping Frida and following his father's wishes, he couldn't do anything and as sunlight slowly burned through the sunset, both cries were slowly beginning to sound loud.
As he turned over to Frida, he began to hear some gibberish out of all the crying but he could make out some words and sentences from her that he could hear.
"David...please," Frida pleaded as she's slowly crying out for a little mercy, "...just do it…..don't worry, I won't mind…" Frida said as she just accepted the fate that many of her race experienced during the time of the century.
"You heard her, now give me a big one and your big man will be proud!" Stephen shouted from the backyard, telling him that Frida accepted, he should begin and it'll all be over.
Even with their cries from both sides, David still couldn't choose who to follow as their cries now begin to sound like voices in his head as he begins to start feeling delusional over having to choose a side and as the sun was slowly sinking, he then snapped from out of nowhere.
While this is all happening, Frida then closed her eyes and began to silently pray for forgiveness to give herself hope for what was about to come and as she heard footsteps towards her, she thought this was it and awaited it and then the whip cracked.
*WHIP* David threw the whip and it made a loud sound, shuddering Frida closer to the tree as she expected a loud hit from her exposed back but she didn't feel anything. She returned to her senses and tried seeing what happened by looking around the tree but she couldn't see David in the now approaching night.
As Stephen was seeing it all go down, he then could make out David picking up the whip and going forward and in his mind, he thought he finally chose a side and as he heard a very loud whip from across the quickly establishing darkness of the night, he thought he finally did it and got up to see Frida to see if her back was laced with a whip mark.
As he carried his lantern towards the tree and checked Frida's back with his lantern, he saw that there were no marks on it and he immediately turned to David to see where he had whipped the whip.
As he wandered around the backyard, waving the lantern around to find him, and after minutes of wandering around the huge backyard that he owned, he found David right where he laid and then immediately brought him back over the backyard porch and sat him down.
He was knocked out but Stephen thought he got asleep from all the whipping and congratulated him even though he wasn't conscious yet.
Then, after getting pushed to the side hard by Stephen while he dragged David and Frida out, Mary came back out with a lantern and quickly rushed to the tree which she recognize even with the limited light because that's the only tree in the backyard.
As she arrived and began cutting out the ropes with a kitchen knife, she also checked Frida for any whip lashes but as she checked, she didn't find any.
As she carried Frida back to the porch, she looked up and saw the horrified faces of Amelie and Henrie upstairs, watching it all go down and seeing that Frida is fine, placed her back down and let her go upstairs to tell them she's fine as her attention refocused on David.
Thankfully Stephen was burning through a liquor bottle, thinking that he thought his son had finally made a choice, and was again in his sleepy phase of his drunkenness that allowed Mary to check on the unconscious David.
As she was examining every bit of him, she first checked the back and discovered something rather striking. She saw a whip lash of sorts on the middle of his back and looking at the hastily made whip, it kind of makes sense why he was unconscious, it was a whip but it was also more of a hit.
After thinking this through, she had now just realized the full truth. David had chosen to whip himself instead of following either side and she carried him off the chair and ran back inside to try and find a way to get him conscious again.
As she turned his body around to see the back she pulled back the shirt and saw that the lash was a little deep but observed that it was deep enough that it blocked the spinal cord, therefore making him unconscious.
As she began to think on how to deal with this, Frida's family walked downstairs as she was just sitting there with David's back exposed to the light. Frida slowly approached and started looking for any more signs of aggression as she dealt with being dragged and tied before but thankfully Mary is a nice and sincere woman and she allows herself to go closer to her..
"...what happened?" Frida asked as she looked into Mary's blank but obviously saddened face.
"He…..he whipped himself." Mary said as she took a brief pregnant pause before thinking about what she can do for him to bring him back to consciousness.
Frida was then just speechless at what David did to himself. She knows he can handle it and just do what was told but she didn't expect him to choose this decision. She just went over to the other sofa and just sat down, both hands holding the rim of her nose as she breathed in and out to calm herself down so she can comprehend what drove him to this.
Then Amelie approaches Mary and placed her hand on her shoulder and then gave her a look that says that she knows how to deal with unconscious people.
After being given a comforting look by Amelie, Mary then moved herself aside from the couch to a stool where Amelie would sit down and begin massaging the lash, slowly bringing the moved bone back up to the spinal cord while also rubbing medicinal alcohol all over his back before placing his shirt back down.
"...how did you know that?" Mary asked after watching Amelie perform a successive operation on bringing him back to consciousness slowly and is eager to know how she does it.
"I learned it from…...medical school because it was mandatory at the time when I was a student and I was taught this by a nice teacher." Amelie explained. "You know, maybe you could try and teach your husband how to properly manage his alcoholism." Amelie also suggested as she saw how alcoholism can drive a man to insanity after what happened and told her that she needs to help him out.
"Thanks…..I'll try." Mary thanked Amelie for her support and for the answer as she got herself up and stroked David's cheek to see if he could feel it.
"David…...it's your mother, Mary." She started off with introducing herself to him as she feared that he might've lost his memory from getting hard hit by a whip whose ends aren't even cut properly.
As she waited for a response, the only thing coming out of him was him snoring, implying that his brain was back and running but it made itself asleep.
After getting a response, Mary then walked over to the Falkenbergs and gave them a small check with a few pound sterlings on it as a thanks before leaving the room to keep an eye on Stephen, who is still sleeping right outside, leaving Frida to take care of a sleeping and snoring David.
After a few minutes of Frida trying to get him awake, he finally opened one of his eyes, too numb to feel the pain but able enough to feel where he was lying on.
"What….. What happened?" David asked as he was able to slowly get up from the ottoman and sat himself up, feeling dizzy and experiencing back pain while trying to get his mind working again.
Frida looked at him with a smile as she was happy to see him back up again.
"Nothing, just go back to sleep." Frida politely reminded as David started to feel drowsy for about a few minutes before falling on to the nearby sofa, laying his upper half on it while the lower half landed on the floor.
As everyone was now back to their respective rooms, Frida was left alone in the living room, whose silence was only countered by the sound of crickets and cicadas around the house along with the burning lantern fuel surrounding the room. While looking over David, she too began to feel sleepy and as the hour passed, soon fell asleep right next to the couch where David fell asleep, leaving the room to themselves as the night passed with each passing hour.