Drabble:104
POV:Third Person
Dimitri tries to avoid thinking of his father. But he still has some memories of that man, about how he'd come over once every month-sometimes twice-and stay for a day or two, sometimes even three.
Dimitri remembers how he'd always come bearing presents for them-crayons and dolls and books and chocolates-from Moscow and how he'd brush kiss the foreheads of Karo and Sonya (and later Vika) and ruffle Dimitri's hair. And then, he'd take Olena into his arms and spin her around the room, making her laugh.
Olena, for her part, lived for those visits. She'd cook up all his favorite dishes and flit about the house happily, making everything just-right. She'd look at him adoringly as he complimented their kids, and lay her head on his shoulder as he told them stories, and he would caress her hair and smile at their children, sitting around them in the den.
It seemed so perfect, such a picture of happiness….
And then night would fall and the beast would come. Screams and roars would echo through the house, along with sounds of thumping against the wooden floor and glass breaking. All casualties of the monster's anger. At least that's what Olena told her kids for years-to protect them. She told them that a monster would come, trying to hurt her and their father would protect her from it. But the monster sometimes hurt her, leaving her with dark bruises and teary eyes.
The children, for their part, would all climb into Karo's bed and huddle together those nights, trembling and waiting for their father to destroy the beast. Waiting for silence….
But years passed by, and the children began to question Olena's story. Why did the beast only show up when their father did? Why did Olena lock herself up in the room whenever their father left? And why did she refuse to come out for the next several hours, leaving her mother in charge of her children?
Dimitri had always been inquisitive. And so one night, when the monster began to roar in his mother's room, he deliberated, standing at his sister's door (ignoring their hissed advice to stay put and leave the fighting to their father). Only when he heard his mother's scream did Dimitri creep towards his parents' room and creaking the door open noiselessly, peer in.
The sight he saw-his battered mother lying on the floor, his father standing over her with his belt in his hand-filled him with revulsion. He wanted to charge in, to make his father suffer, but his mother's eyes found him. And stopped him. Begging him not to intervene. Yet. So, he closed the door of the hellhole and walked away, his childhood disappearing with every step he took.
Dimitri bided his time, training in his academy, fuelled by the drive to be better, stronger. To put an end to the abuse going on behind the closed doors of his home, to be able to meet his mother's eyes again.
And one day, he couldn't wait anymore. Charging into his mother's room as soon as the screaming began, Dimitri held his father by his collar and dragged him to the dining room. Once there, Dimitri tackled him to the floor and began raining punches and kicks on his father, letting go of all the hurt and pain and humiliation, avenging his mother. He beat the monster in blind rage and then threw him out the door, promising to finish him off if he ever even saw him in Baia again. Then, he'd gone past his gaping, crying sisters and hugged his mother, and cried….
Yeva had separated them after an hour and tended to their injuries, brushing Dimitri's hair back and whispering 'moy voin' (my warrior) as she looked at him proudly. Olena had hugged him and cried in his arms, apologizing with her eyes for forcing her baby boy to grow up.
That night the Belikova women slept in Karo's room-around Olena-and Dimitri spent the night lying on the floor, reliving the horror he'd dealt. His father never returned, and Olena never laughed that golden laugh of hers again. As for Dimitri, that night had left its mark on him….literally. There was forevermore a scar on Dimitri's left hand between his knuckles from where they'd clashed against his father's teeth.
All fathers should help transition their sons from children to men, but Dimitri wished things could have been….different.
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And if any of you are fans of the Divergent trilogy, brace yourself for the sucker-punch of a lifetime. Allegiant will wrack you and wreck you.