CONTENT WARNING
This chapter contains graphic depictions of physical and verbal abuse that may be disturbing to some viewers. I've included 3 dashes ( / / / ) to mark the start and end of the most intense section of this chapter.
Viewer discretion is advised.
—
Weiss shot up in her bed, hand clasping the scarred half of her face. She couldn't find any signs of blood, but her scar stung like a freshly cut wound. Even with the soft snores of her teammates nearby, it wasn't enough to drown out the memories roaring in her head.
She stumbled out of bed, using her Scroll to help navigate out of the room. The hallway was lit only by a sliver of yellow light from underneath the bathroom door. Yang's muffled cries echoed on the other side. Weiss held her breath and tip-toed past the locked door.
Alone in the kitchen, Weiss poured herself a cold glass of water. Her hand trembled so badly she didn't want to lift the glass from the sink, fearing it'd slip from her hands and–
Shattered glass.
Shattered mirrors.
Glass shards on the floor.
Glass shards digging into her back.
Mirror fragment in her face.
Red poured into her eye.
Red blackening her clothes.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Weiss abandoned her cup in the sink and collapsed to her knees. Was it too late to wake Ruby up and tell her she changed her mind?
If she was selfish and backed out now, they'd have to go along with Jaune's insane plan. If they all ended up dead or fugitives, it would be her fault.
But going back meant she'd have to face Father again. He was already upset with her from the charity concert, and she didn't want to imagine how furious he was now.
It was silly to believe the training at Beacon could ever protect her from him. What good did her training do when she let him use her as a punching bag? She'll just freeze up in the end and let him beat her like the coward she was.
Winter wouldn't have let him lay a single hand on her. She would've stood up for herself and showed Father who held all the power.
She would've never let Father carve open her face.
Her scar prickled with pain again. Weiss checked the time on her Scroll, almost bursting into tears when she saw it was only one in the morning.
Going to sleep now would lead to another nightmare, but the prospect of staying up by herself was equally as terrifying.
Weiss pulled up Adam's contact. Her finger hovered dangerously close to the call icon. It would be selfish of her to wake him up in the middle of the night. He was probably fast asleep like everyone else.
But he understood better than anyone what this was like.
Weiss didn't make a single move for what felt like hours, fighting with her need for company, and her fear of being a bother. Her breath caught in her throat when the horrifying memories crept to the surface like hungry predators.
She hit the call button, drumming her fingers on her knee as the phone rang. She held her breath when the ringing ceased.
"You better have a good reason for waking me up like this," he murmured sleepily.
"C-can we meet?"
"What happened? Did someone ambush you guys?" He sounded alert again. She heard blankets shuffling on his end.
"No. N-no one attacked us." Weiss took a breath. "Can I see you? Please?"
"I'll be right over. Stay where you are."
The call went silent. She didn't question how he knew where she was staying. Her Scroll slipped out of her hand, clattering on the floor.
Weiss shivered, the cold shadows in the house converged around her, squeezing the air out of her lungs.
It was just like that night.
Cold.
Dark.
She was so alone.
With nothing but Father's wrath and–
Weiss headed for the front door, not bothering to pick up her Scroll from the floor. The cold knocked the air out of her, shredding through the thin layer of her nightgown in mere seconds, but for a moment, it also forced the terrible memories to fall silent.
The world stood still as she followed the streetlights down the abandoned street. Her path stretched on for an eternity. Shadows stretched and followed her every move. The fresh layer of snow sliced into her bare feet like tiny razor blades.
She was trembling when she spotted him in the distance. Even with his hair covered by a dark hood, she identified the crimson interior layer of his coat anywhere.
"What the hell, Weiss?!" Adam snapped when he reached her. He slipped off his coat and wrapped it around her.
"I–"
"We're getting you somewhere warm first." He scooped her into his arms and hurried back towards the direction he came.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at a small motel at the edge of the city. The tiny room consisted of a single bed, a round coffee table pressed against the wall across from it, and the bathroom tucked away at the back. A dusty lamp stood on a nightstand squished between the bed and wall, washing the room in a dim yellow light.
He set her down on his unmade bed.
"Do you need anything? Warm water? Extra blankets?"
Weiss shook her head, pulling his jacket closer to her trembling body. He sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her. She leaned further into him, welcoming his warmth.
She wasn't sure how long they were sitting until she'd stopped trembling, but she was still frozen to the bone. He never let go of her, keeping her in his protective embrace. When she found her voice again, she whispered a weak thank you to him.
"What the hell were you doing out there?" he asked.
"I had a bad dream," she murmured bashfully. It sounded silly when she put it into words.
"What happened?"
Weiss dove into the events that transpired earlier that night, starting from Jaune's suggestion to steal an Atlas airship. Adam didn't ask what relevance her story had to her current situation. He listened to her until she told him what she planned to do.
"I see," he said once she finished. "Did you dream about what he'll do when you go back?"
"No." She hugged herself tighter. "All that talk got me thinking about the night we were caught."
Adam looked like he had something to say, but he kept it to himself. He waited for her to continue. She felt his eyes studying the slender scar running down her eye.
"I don't remember everything," she continued. "It's a bit of a blur, but I remember the worst parts like…"
The world went red for a second. She trailed her shaking fingers down the rough texture of her scar just to be sure it wasn't bleeding.
"Like…like when he cut my face." She felt strangely detached from herself when those words left her mouth.
She'd never said it out loud in such a blunt manner, not even to the doctors who had asked what caused her injuries.
"It was one of the Faunus workers," Father had said on her behalf. "One of them got loose and managed to get their hands on her. I assure you there won't be a next time."
Weiss remembered nodding along to everything Father said. Even when the nurses approached her without Father present, her answer never changed.
"You can tell us anything, sweetheart," one of them had told her. "You won't get in trouble."
She knew their kind offers would be thrown back into her face once they saw the money Father was willing to give them to turn a blind eye.
But Father wasn't here to reprimand her for telling the truth anymore. He wasn't here to control what she could or couldn't say.
"It happened right after they forced me back to the lodge," she went on numbly.
Adam let go of her, carefully weaving his fingers between her own. His hold was so strong. She squeezed his hand, hoping to latch onto some of his strength.
"I'm listening," he assured her.
With another deep breath, she dove head first into the fractured memories she'd spent so many nights running away from.
( / / / )
.
.
.
Weiss wasn't sure what came first, the fist to the face or the foot to the ribs. Whatever the case may be, she was left flat on her back, gasping at the dark ceiling.
"Get up," Father ordered.
Weiss obeyed him. A second later, something knocked her head into the edge of her window sill. Stars erupted in her vision.
"Get up now!"
She swallowed the lump at the back of her throat and scrambled to her feet, catching herself against the wall when her legs buckled.
"How long have you been involved with that animal?"
"I-it was only once, I swear! I–"
Her lamp flew at her head. Weiss instinctively ducked; the window behind her exploded into thousands of pieces. The blizzard flooded into the room with a vicious roar.
The cold air burned her skin. She shivered, longing for the safety of Adam's warm hugs.
"Don't fucking lie to me!" He stormed over to her, his face contorted in fury.
If she lied again, he would only get angrier, but telling the truth wouldn't make him any less upset.
"I'll ask you again, you filthy little bitch, how long has this been going on?!"
"I-I've only been seeing him since our last visit!"
"Since your–!" Father's eyes widened. "And what exactly have you two been doing this entire time?"
"W-we were only playing games!"
He rammed her head into the window ledge. She cried out in pain, falling limply down by his feet. Something warm trickled down the side of her head.
Weiss touched the spot where her head hurt the most, wincing when her fingers felt something wet in her hair.
She couldn't hold herself back from crying when she looked down at her hand. Red stained her hand. Weiss whimpered as more red trickled down the side of her face - tarnishing her hair and clothes
"I can't believe my daughter would play with a fucking beast under my roof! And in front of your uncle too!"
He snatched a framed picture of their estate from the wall, hurling it across the room. The picture frame shattered into thousands of sharp fragments.
"Do you have any idea the shame you've brought to this family?! Do you have any idea how much you've embarrassed me?! After all the work I put in to get here!"
His foot met her stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs.
.
.
.
Glass.
Her entire floor sparkled from broken glass shards. Weiss didn't know she had so many glass objects in her room until she watched them all get smashed or thrown into her.
Father was still screaming at her, but she couldn't hear anything over the roaring wind.
Everything hurt. Every trembling breath she took sent a sharp pain in her chest. Weiss wondered if she'd somehow swallowed a piece of glass. Maybe that was why it hurt so much to breathe.
"Get. Up."
Weiss didn't want to move, but disobeying Father would only make the situation worse. She got back up, her head spinning from the sudden change in position.
"Stop crying! You knew exactly what you were doing! Stop trying to act like you're innocent!" Father demanded.
Weiss tried - she tried everything to stop herself from wailing like a baby, but nothing worked. It only made her cry harder.
"I SAID STOP CRYING!"
"I'm trying!"
She shouldn't have talked back. His fist knocked her back onto the floor - to the glass-covered floor. She cried out for help when the glass fragments sank into her back like knives.
Though she screamed at the top of her lungs, no one came to help her.
She was alone with a monster.
.
.
.
Weiss didn't have the will to fight when he grabbed a fistful of her hair and dragged her to the full-length mirror.
"Look at yourself! How can you call yourself a Schnee?!"
Lavender never showed her how to cover up this.
Weiss couldn't recognise the girl in the mirror. Her left cheek ballooned where Father's fist had hit her. Red tarnished and smeared the right half of her face like paint. Smaller cuts marred her arms, hands, and parts of her face, leaving them burning and red. There wasn't a makeup brand in the world that could hide her injuries the next morning.
"YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!"
"Y-you're right. I-I'm sorry, Father," she wheezed, hoping he'd stop and let her go back to bed if she appeased him enough.
"Why the fuck did tarnish yourself with a Faunus?! Do you want to embarrass me so badly you'd fool around with a bunch of low-life criminals!?"
"N-no, I–!"
"Or maybe you're trying to sabotage the Schnee name! Is that it?! After everything I did for the family, this is how you pay me back?!"
"N-no I promise! I-it was a mistake!"
"A mistake!" Father laughed, throwing her back on the ground. "A mistake is thinking my daughter had more self-respect not to embarrass me in front of my guest. If your grandfather was alive to see this-!"
The rage in Father's face tightened.
"What you did is unforgivable!"
Father threw something at the mirror so hard it exploded into a thousand pieces, crumbling onto the ground like sand.
"What made you disgrace my family like this?!"
Weiss couldn't think of a lie. The pain she was in made it hard to form a single thought.
"ANSWER ME NOW!"
She only needed one believable excuse. One lie was all that stood between her and the end of Father's rage. She cried when her mind failed to come up with the answer she needed—
"DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, YOU FUCKING—!"
"H-he's my best friend!" Weiss blurted out of panic. She knew that was the wrong answer as soon as the words tumbled out.
.
.
.
His weight crushed her stomach, sinking the glass fragments deeper into her back. Every breath was a losing battle.
She fought against Father's hand, but no matter how desperately she pushed back, the mirror fragment inched closer and closer to her face. The wind howling outside couldn't cover her screams when it carved into her flesh.
.
.
.
Weiss lost an entire eye. She was sure of it when half the room had turned completely red.
She didn't know what she was seeing at first. The horrible burning on the left side of her face occupied most of her attention. It took her a moment to register the glowing White Glyph that held Father's hand suspended in the air.
Why was Winter here?
Weiss searched the dark room for her sister. She saw no one.
"Shit," Father cursed, but he didn't sound angry anymore. He sounded frightened.
He tilted his wrist back, lifting the piece of the mirror out of her face. The White Glyph disappeared once the mirror shard was no longer cutting her.
Did she do that?
"Dammit." Father looked around the room, finally seeing everything he'd broken. If Mama still cared about Weiss, she would be upset he ruined so many of her things.
"Look what you made me do, sweetheart." His voice sounded hoarse now. "I hope you know better than to tarnish the Schnee name next time. I won't tolerate something like this happening a second time."
"Yes, Father." Weiss could barely manage to speak herself. Her throat hurt when she tried to talk. "I'm sorry, Father. I won't ever disobey you again."
"Good." He rose to his feet and dusted the glass shard off his clothes. "Now, I'm going to deal with the mess you made. Stay here, and don't tell anyone anything."
He was going to bribe any nearby guards into silence.
Weiss didn't feel any better when he finally left her room, closing the door shut on his way out.
The blizzard continued rushing in from the broken window, completely numbing her hands and feet. The only warmth she felt was from the warm liquid pouring down the left side of her face.
Weiss tilted her head to her left and immediately felt dizzy.
Red.
She only saw red.
There was so much red pooling beside her that it made her sick.
Weiss got up to her feet and staggered away from the red puddle, but it followed her no matter where she went.
Red stained her clothes so badly that they looked black. Red dyed her hair and left it sticky. Red dripped off her chin and onto new spots on the floor.
Red.
Her entire world was bleeding.
She caught her reflection in a broken mirror shard on the floor. Bile crawled up her throat as an incessant buzzing went on at the back of her head.
The left side of her face was soaked in red.
It was all coming from her.
Her legs buckled. The buzzing in her numbed the pain of glass shards cutting her knees. Stars dotted her vision as she slipped into the darkness, collapsing into a sea of glass.
.
.
.
( / / / )
Weiss was still holding onto Adam's hand, squeezing it as if her life depended on it.
"I'm going to kill that fucking bastard." That was the first thing he said. And for once, Weiss didn't have any objections to his idea.
"A-and guess who's going back tomorrow." Weiss laughed humourlessly.
"You don't have to do this."
"But I want to for the sake of my team," she insisted. "Qrow will be going with me, so I won't be alone but…"
His hold on her hand tightened.
"I-I let him hit me right before I left for Mistral. I-I thought I'd be stronger after Beacon, but he hit me again! And I let him! W-what will I do if he tries–"
Weiss couldn't bring herself to keep talking.
She was shaking again. It grew worse with every laboured breath. No matter how much air she took in, it was never enough. The lump clutching her throat was making it so much harder to breathe. She was drowning.
"Is it okay if I get closer?" he asked.
"I-I don't mind."
He closed the distance between them, tucking her head beneath his chin before wrapping his arms around her. Her tears blurred the room into a conglomerate of lights and colours.
"I'm right here," he whispered. "Let it out. You're safe with me."
The last of her composure shattered. She buried her face into his chest and wept, her hands desperately clinging onto him. Weiss couldn't control it no matter how hard she tried. Years of letting it fester like an infected wound all came crashing down on her like a broken dam.
Adam rubbed circles on her back when her cries intensified. She welcomed his touch. It was the only thing that melted the ice buried deep inside her.
Weiss was completely drained when she ran out of tears. All she wanted now was to black out and forget about the world. Adam kept her in his arms even after she fell silent. At least in his presence, she felt safe.
"You know what the worst part is?" Weiss breathed. Not waiting for an answer, she continued, "I never thought he was evil until I saw the truth about the SDC. I never thought what he did to me was wrong."
"You do know what he did isn't normal, right? Dads aren't supposed to do that shit."
Weiss shrugged. Maybe it wasn't his normal, but it was her normal.
"Hey, look at me."
She reluctantly pulled away from their close embrace to meet his eye. He looked at her with such intensity it left her speechless.
"What he did to you was wrong. Plain and simple. No kid should have to endure that. You didn't do anything to deserve it.
"And I don't give a damn if it's your dad or your friends, no one should ever lay their hands on you like that again. And it's not your fault he hurt you. You didn't let him do anything. He's been taking advantage of your fear."
Weiss could only manage a nod when more tears burned her eyes.
No one had ever said that to her before. Mother hardly noticed when she was discharged, and Winter only showed her concern by doing her favours. She never pressed too hard on the story Father fed them.
"T-thank you." She managed a weak smile.
Adam helped wipe the fresh tears from her face. His fingers glided across her right cheek before moving to the left. He hesitated, his hand hovering just above where her scar ended. His eye searched her face for permission.
"It's okay," she assured him softly. "I don't mind if it's you."
He still waited a moment before touching the left half of her face. His hand was so gentle. He dried her face in slow movements and always kept a watchful eye on her for signs of discomfort. She almost burst into another fit of tears from how careful he treated her.
"Thank you for trusting me with the whole story," he whispered. His thumb feathered across the bottom half of her scar. "I know it wasn't easy."
Weiss snuggled her head against his chest again. "I wish I wasn't so scared about it still."
"There's no shame in feeling scared. That kind of thing sticks with you for a long time, but you don't have to face it alone anymore. I'll hunt him down if he lays another finger on you. One word from you and I promise I'll make his life a living hell. "
Weiss laughed lightly. Hearing how far Adam was willing to go for her warmed her chest.
"Is there no way to keep you from going back tomorrow?"
"It's either that or crash an airship into the middle of the sea." She sighed. "I can't be selfish right now. I won't let my friends get in trouble or worse..."
"Weiss, this is more serious than being selfish."
"I want to do this for them. Even if it scares me, I have to…" She wouldn't forgive herself if they got hurt because she decided to take the easy way out.
"I know it doesn't feel that way now, but what you're doing is incredibly brave," he said softly. "You're so much stronger than you think."
Weiss didn't think of herself as being very brave or strong. Compared to what he went through, her problems were minuscule.
"Whatever happens, you won't be alone. If I catch wind of the mission going sideways, I'll come to you right away. You'll be on my mind until I can see you again."
"Thank you, Adam."
His hold on her tightened. She closed her eyes and welcomed the warmth of his embrace. The steady rise and fall from his breathing, the warmth pressed against her cheek, thawed the remaining fear that clung to her heart.
"You must be tired," he breathed.
"I'm exhausted." Weiss wasn't looking forward to the miserable walk back. All she wanted was to fall asleep in his arms.
"You can rest here if you'd like. I'll sleep on the floor."
"I'll stay if you agree not to sleep on the floor. I'm not going to kick you out of your bed."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't mind. Besides, it's cold tonight."
The bed was big enough for them to sleep comfortably together. She lay on her side, waiting for Adam to click off the lamp and climb into the sheets. Even when he lay beside her, she didn't dare to close her eyes.
"It's still hard to sleep, isn't it?" he whispered.
"S-sort of…"
"I understand."
She blushed when he tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear, bare fingers brushing lightly against her cheek.
"You can come closer if you want," he offered. "For me, it's hard to be alone when I'm thinking about the past. I understand if you'd like some company tonight."
She scooted closer to him until she lay comfortably against his chest again. He draped an arm over her waist, pulling her closer.
"No matter what happens, I'll be right here," he promised.
She nodded and closed her eyes, allowing the smell of pine needles to guide her into a dreamless sleep.
End of Act 2
Apologies for any small typos. I'm really tight on time this morning so I'll do another read-through when I get home from work!
Thanks to StarStream2005, Gleaming Onyx, Shreshtho8, Iwr1918, LiteralWhiteTrash, Able and Table, a Guest reader, Anon, Unsung Senpai, GhostHaloRWBY, and YisusHassan for the reviews!
To answer GhostHaloRWBY: yes I have! I have that song stuck in my head now lol.
To answer YisusHassan, no. I wrote this before V9 came out and had no intentions of going beyond V8.
See you all tomorrow and take care!