Father and daughter sat across each other at the dining table, the air thick with silence while Rozie set two cups in front of them along with a jug of water, bowing slightly to Hadin before exiting the dining room, leaving the two to discuss. The two of them sat in silence, Hadin pondering what to tell Mia while Mia wondered what explanation her father would offer to her. The silence stretched on for a few more minutes before Hadin finally decided to speak up, breaking the tense silence; "I suppose I should start from the beginning," his voice was flat and uncaring, like he was talking about the weather and not about something that would subvert her worldview.
"That would be a good place to start," Mia replied, her mind still reeling from his earlier display of strength.
"Our family is old. Older than you know," he paused temporarily as he mentally filtered through volumes of information, discarding what he deemed irrelevant for this discussion. "Our family presents itself as two thousand years old, but in reality, we are closer to five thousand years. The family is ancient, and throughout those years we have one duty that we have put above all others," he paused to fill his cup with water and took a sip to wet his throat before continuing, "Monster hunting," the moment the words left his mouth, he saw the confusion on his daughter's face, followed by anger as she came to the conclusion that he wasn't taking her seriously.
"Dad," she started carefully, her fingers wrapped around her cup as she tried to reign in her rampaging emotions, lamenting the absence of her mask and the drugs it administered. "Monsters? That's the explanation you're giving me? That we're a family of Van Hellsings?" her voice thick with indignation at the fact that not only was she was being lied to, but that the lie was clearly obvious with no thought behind it. He hadn't even bother to come up with something believable. "Of all the things you could have told me, you chose that?!" her voice rose as she rose to her feet, hands slamming on the table in a display of barely restrained rage. "I've defended you against Susan, Alex and everyone else who's ever said anything bad about you! I've done everything you've asked of me and more! I deserve to know the truth damn it!" her voice cracked as a network of black veins spread out across her face, the patches of discolored flesh pulsating rapidly as she stared down her father. Hadn't she done enough to warrant his respect, much less his honesty? She'd done everything she could think of to earn his recognition, and still, he didn't see her as someone worth being honest to. The very least he could have done was use a believable lie, not something that was clearly out of a fairy tale.
"Sit down," came the command, his impassive voice cutting through her rage and thoughts, her body responding instinctively before she knew what was happening. "You're still prone to emotional outbursts. How disappointing," her thoughts were broken by the apathetic voice of her father, "You're able to lift a seven-ton tractor, possess superhuman senses, and somehow you draw the line at monsters being real," Hadin pointed out, stopping to take a sip from his cup.
"That's because it's an obvious lie," she countered, her rage barely restrained as she wondered how far he was willing to go with this. "Whatever is going on isn't tied to some monster hunter fantasy. It could be a result of a chemical imbalance, or a genetic mutation, or maybe human experimentation," she started, listing possible causes for her condition, bringing up everything she had come across during her years of research.
"I don't know what your reasons are, but the fact that you didn't even bother coming up with a more plausible lie," whatever she was about to say was cut off as she watched her father reach into his jacket and pull out a revolver. Before she could ask him what he was doing, he took aim and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet to the center of her forehead.
Mia was no stranger to guns. Everyone on the farm had one; from her distant aunts and uncles to her cousins that hadn't even figured out how to walk in a straight line. She was even less of a stranger to what a speeding bullet did to a human skull, and as such, she harbored no illusion as to what would happen once her skull and the bullet met. Closing her eyes, she braced for the end with a simple question; why?
What came next wasn't the sound of her skull being split open like a ripe watermelon, but the sound of steel hitting steel as the armour piercing round smashed into her forehead with enough force to knock her head back and nearly tip her over, followed by a sharp stinging pain that reminded her of the worst migraine she had ever endured.
The room was silent as Hadin laid the gun on the table while Mia stared at the ceiling for the few seconds it took for the pain to fade. Once she felt like her skull wasn't going to shatter if she moved, she finally reached up to her forehead and wrapped her fingers around the protrusion she felt sticking out of her skull, pulling it free with a wince and a sickening squelch. There in her hand was a crumpled metal slug stained with flecks of her own blood. She stared at it for a couple more seconds before finally speaking, her voice shaky as the shock finally gave way to horror, the fullness of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks, "You shot me"
"In the head," Hadin picked up the gun once more and opened the chamber, allowing the spent cartridge and the unused bullets to fall onto the dining table. "With armour piercing rounds" he picked up one of the bullets and held it between his thumb and middle finger for her to see it properly.
"One; you took an armour piercing round from a 500 S&W magnum to the head at close range," he started off calmly as he slid the bullets back into the chamber, "Two; the bullet barely managed to pierce your skin," he snapped the chamber close and placed the gun on the table. "Three, your wound has already closed," he picked up the gun and shot her again, the bullet smashing into her forehead and sending another wave of pain through her.
Seeing that his point had been gotten across, Hadin waited for Mia to pull the crumpled bullet out of her forehead before he resumed his explanation, "As I was saying; our family has watched over this city for the past five millennium, eliminating monsters while making sure to cover up their existence as well as ours. We have also been managing the other lineages and the resources that come with the territory," his next words were interrupted by Mia who had a confused expression on her face.
"Lineages?" she asked. "Whose lineage and why exactly is it our job to manage them? And how does this have anything to do with my condition?"
"Patience," his normally apathetic voice was tinged with the barest hint of annoyance at being interrupted. "A lineage is what we use to refer to a collection of families who share the same significant ancestor," he replied. "The more significant your ancestor was, the more power, respect and resources your family commands. For example, the lineage of Zeus,"
"Zeus?!" Mia interrupted his explanation once more, her voice thick with disbelief. "Zeus is real? Like the Greek god?" her facial expression an indication that Hadin would have to delve further into his explanations.
"Yes he is real. At least his descendants are. And no, he isn't a god," Hadin reached for his cup, only to discover that it was empty. "He was one of us and the humans of old treated him as a deity, something that we used to control the people and prevent them from going into full-blown panic or worse. To make a long story short, every supernatural figure you've heard of; gods, monsters, magic sword wielding kings, magic, wizards and witches are all real. And they fall into one of three categories; knights," he pointed to himself, "Monsters, which we refer to as blithed. And blithe hunters," he pointed a finger to Mia.
"Hold on," Mia interrupted once more, the information weighing heavy on her mind as her father's revelation destroyed the world she had grown up in. "So, you're a knight, you hunt monsters, and I'm a blithe hunter because…." her voice trailed off, but it was clear what she was asking.
"Because your body is eighty percent blithed," Hadin answered calmly, outwardly unbothered by the implication of his words.
"I'm sorry," she interrupted as she struggled to understand what Hadin had just revealed, "But this is…this is wild," she wanted to say more, to ask more questions, but her mind was unable to come up with anything. "How," was all she managed to finally croak after a while. "How did.. I don't understand," her words jumbled over one another as she tried to comprehend what she had been told.
"It was after your accident," Hadin sighed as he mentally wished that this discussion wasn't happening, "You were nothing more than a mangled pile of brain matter, flesh and bone kept alive by sheer will, genetics and the small spark of magic that you had begun to develop," his voice was steady, betraying nothing as he recalled the event with crystal clear clarity. "By normal standards, you were supposed to be dead at best, or stuck in an endless state of suffering at worst. So I did what any father in my situation would do; I called in a few favors and did what I could to save you."
"And that was replacing my missing parts with that of a monster? A fucking monster!" she yelled, rising her voice at her father for the first time ever. "Of all the things you could possibly have done, of all the options that were at your disposal with literal fucking magic, turning me into a monster was literally the only fucking thing you could come up with!" she screamed at her father for the first time in her life, rage overwhelming every other emotion in her.
Both father and daughter stared at each other in tense silence; one as cold and unfeeling as ice, the other a raging inferno of anger. Minutes passed with nothing but tense silence between the two before Mia let out a sigh and looked away, unable to maintain eye contact with her father anymore. "Do I really mean that little to you that you couldn't even bother to use magic to heal me?" she asked softly, her voice filled with indescribable pain as she turned away from her dad before he could speak and made her way towards the door.
"Where are you going?" she heard him ask, her heart twisting as she heard him address her in the same voice. The same flat tone that had never once conveyed pride or comfort. The only voice she had ever wanted to hear pride from. The only voice she had….
She pushed her emotions down and quickly wiped away the tears that had begun to gather around her eyes. She wouldn't cry. Not here. Not where he could see. "I'm going for a walk sir. To clear my head," she winced internally as she heard how weak she sounded, nothing like her father. Pushing the door open, she made her way towards the vast expanse of trees that existed just beyond the borders of the farm; her sanctuary where she could let out the things she kept bottled in.
"Ensure you return before the sun sets. Do not break the curfew," his words caused her to stop in her tracks, a myriad of emotions warring in her. In the end, she chose to swallow her feelings and responded to him in a curt voice.
"Yes sir," with those words she closed the door behind her and took a few uncertain steps before breaking into a full sprint which led her to the edge of the farm and over the thirty-foot wooden fence with a single leap, the sunlight reflecting off her falling tears.
The world blurred around Mia as she sprinted through the forest, her body guided by instinct more than anything as her mind was preoccupied with the various revelations that she had received. She had wanted answers, had dedicated a portion of her life trying to understand what was wrong with her, and now, now she wished she had never sought out those answers in the first place. However, what hurt more than anything was the fact that her father, the person she had tried so hard to be like, so hard to impress, hadn't even bothered to try to fix her and instead, had chosen to turn her into a monster.
Her breath hitched in her throat as she tried to choke back her sobs while her tears blurred her vision, causing her to trip over a rock that was hidden by the dense foliage. Yelping in surprise as she tumbled to the ground, she crossed her arms to shield her face and mask, her momentum turning the fall into a roll that led to her crashing into a massive boulder with enough force to leave an imprint on the rock, the sound of her impact causing the forest to fall silent.
The silence reigned for several minutes as Mia made no move to leave the boulder, her heavy, ragged breathing amplified by the obviously ruined mask. Finally, she got up, her movement dislodging dust and small rocks from her body and hair. With a grunt, she pulled herself out of the giant rock and after disposing her now broken phone, she silently continued her journey, her emotions spent and replaced by an all too familiar numbness.
Mia carried out the rest of the twenty-mile journey in silence as her body covered the distance in a matter of seconds, her body maneuvering through the trees, rocks and foliage with a greater care than the first time as her mind. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden jolt of her body coming to a stop as she reached her destination; a stream. When she was younger, before the accident, before everything, Hadin used to bring her and Alex here to play. Kicking off her shoes, she stepped into the water and shuddered as the cool sensation washed through her feet. Wading in deeper until she was waist deep, she closed her eyes and fell backwards into the water and let herself sink underneath the surface.
The water was cold. She liked that. Ever since the changes started, the cold stopped bothering her. Water rushed past her ears and drowned out the noise of the world around her, her mask feeding her a steady dose of drugs which made her sink deeper and deeper into a hypnotic trance where for the first time in a long time, she finally felt peace. There were no lying, cheating mothers, no braindead slanderous sisters, no sinking sense of failure that gnawed at her soul every time she tried to meet Hadin's standards and failed. Floating down the stream, she let out a breath that she had been holding and inhaled deeply.
Just as the feeling of peace pervaded her every pore, her trance was broken as the world around her spun as the wind violently whipped past her. Opening her eyes, her heart leapt to her mouth as she saw the forest stretching out before her, growing more and more distant as she ascended higher and higher, her eyes widening at the realization that she had somehow been launched into the air. Her ascent slowly came to a stop as her body reached an altitude of forty thousand feet. Then just as quickly as she rose, she fell.