Unpleasant surprise - part 1/2

The rough fingers, marked by countless needle pricks, didn't deter her from staying focused on her work. She had lost count of how many times she had undone that same section where the stitching insisted on going awry. The thin, shiny fabric was starting to fray from being handled so much, but Anna's patience was something that never let her down, so she continued. Bent over the piece of clothing, the zigzag of the thread dancing and settling in place almost distracted her from the back pain that was starting to creep in.

More than just a hobby, creating her own cosplays had become some kind of therapy. In her little fantasy world, she could, for a few hours, escape from what bothered her outside her room. Even though she could never escape her own mind.

On the contrary, often, when the silence became deafening, all she heard were voices telling her how inadequate and guilty she was. Images that insisted on coming back, scenes she ended up reliving in full - in feelings, sounds, smells.

***

The backpack, loaded with homework, felt even heavier with the accumulated fatigue of the week. Fortunately, Mr. Fowler had taken pity on his exhausted students who could barely copy the material, and he let them go earlier that Thursday. Her hunger and sleep were now competing to see which would overcome her first when she finally reached home at the end of the street, her feet dragging and wanting to run at the same time.

"Mom, I'm home!" she absentmindedly announced as she crossed the threshold, tossing her sneakers haphazardly into the shoe rack.

She hurried up the stairs and noticed that the kitchen, just like the living room, was empty. The second floor also seemed deserted, and Anna tried to remember if her mother had mentioned going out that afternoon. She headed for her room and stopped with her hand on the doorknob. A loud noise, something hitting the wall, caught her attention at the end of the hallway. The sound came from her parents' room, and she worried that her mother might have fallen or was feeling unwell.

"Mom?"

Anna might should've listened to the voice in her head telling her to turn back. She should have stopped right there, ignoring the muffled sounds that - she now heard clearly - were coming from inside the room. She should've prevented her hand from grabbing the cold doorknob and turning it hastily, opening the door at once. If she had done all that, maybe she would be spared from that image that would burn in her memory for many years to come.

The familiar sweet scent permeated the air nauseatingly, her empty stomach twisted with her racing heart, and her shaky legs remained frozen in place. Her eyes didn't blink, unable to look away from the scene illuminated by the dim sunlight streaming through the curtain gap.

The platinum blonde hair was tangled over the bare, bronzed back of her mother, who gripped the headboard tightly. Her hips moved slowly and rhythmically on top of a man’s head, whose excited body Anna could see lying on his back on the bed. His hands were spread, gripping Brenda's buttocks, and Anna noticed the gleaming ring on his finger.

But that wasn't her father.

Her father was far away, on a business trip to Hong Kong - she had spoken to him via video call earlier that morning.

Her mother's moans grew louder, and Anna found the strength to move her feet and leave, escape from that room tainted by the stench of betrayal, slamming the door behind her.

"Anna?!"

The girl heard her mother calling her, but she ran as fast as she could and locked herself in her room. Her numb legs turned to jelly, and all that remained was to slide down the wall and throw herself on the floor. Her backpack fell with a dull thud on the floor, and Anna hugged her knees while listening to the distant commotion that had taken over her house. Hurried footsteps, bumps into furniture, urgent whispers. The sound of a car engine.

And silence.

A silence so deep that it made her ears ring and her head throb.

What would she do?