Delilah’s POV
“Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nine….” I stopped counting when I placed someone’s hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw my eldest sister, Mia, among six sisters while I was at the fourth number, standing behind me, and her eyes were asking questions as if she wanted to know what I was doing by peeking from the room’s door.
“Delilah, you should be in bed.”, She scolded in a low tone, but it didn’t work on me.
“You made me lose the counts, Mia.”, I complained in a low tone
“What were you counting, by the way?”
“That how many times dad hits Mom.”, I said, pointing my hand toward the scene that was going on in the living room.
Mia gasped and quickly closed the door and dragged me from there to our bedroom, where the rest of the sisters were sleeping peacefully. She was twelve years old, so definitely, compared to me, she was stronger than a girl who was just six years old.
“Delilah, dear!! You shouldn’t see these things. Children are not allowed to involve in this, okay?”
“Mom was crying and begging in front of dad to leave her.”, I pointed out.
“Dear, that’s the way to express that she was enjoying it.”, She explained. “This is like a game between them where boys are allowed to hit girls.”, She added when she observed my confused face. “Now, come on, let’s go the bed.”
She took me to sleep, but I wasn’t feeling sleepy.
“Don’t think so much, Delilah. When we get older, then we will also get a chance to play this game.”
“But the rule will be different at that time, Mia. I will be the one who will hit boys.”, I responded.
Mia chuckled at my words on which I looked at her, wondering did I say something wrong? But soon, she told me the reason behind her chuckled. “My baby sister, only the powerful among both are allowed to hit others, and we, as girls, are not powerful.”
Her words hit me hard.
.
The following day, I woke up quickly and ran out of the room and went upstairs to the store room and looked out the window and showed all the boys of all age groups were training in groups. I looked for my size kids and positioned myself in the same position as they were, and copied all the instructions that Mr. Hayes was telling them.
That night, when I went to bed, my muscles were aching. I didn’t want to continue that training again, but at the same time, I compared this pain with the pain of the mom and felt that this pain was better.
‘Boys can never hit me. NEVER.’, I mentally thought.
It was just the second day when Mia caught me.
“Delilah, oh my god!!”, She said, running toward me and dragging me out of the store room, bringing me to our room.
“Mia, Mia…”
“What the hell do you think that you were doing?”
“Learning to fight.”, I answered, and all my other elder sisters looked at me like I said something wrong, while Nova and Zoey were too young to understand what I was saying.
“But that’s boy's things to do.”, She explained
“I changed that rule last night, Mia.”
“What? What happened last night because of which you change that rule.”
“You told me about the game, remember? Neither will I be that girl who will let boys hit me, nor will I be that girl who won’t be powerful.” I could see the shocked expression of my sisters, but no one said a thing to me after that. “I’m going to train myself.”, I said, running away from there, back to the store room.
.
For a couple of months, no one caught me. Not because that there were stupid, it was just my sisters somehow managed to fool everyone about my absence for two hours.
“Here! Eat my eggs too.”, Mia said, giving me her two eggs.
“But Mia…”
“To become stronger, you also need healthy and a lot of food.”, She explained.
“So, don’t worry about that part. Kitchen is our department, and we will do the best which we can do.”, Ruby, my other sister, said with a wink.
My training was going great until Mr. Hayes started training kids with one another, and I didn’t have any companions. Still, I kept learning those skills and how to fight without any companion, and thanks to my sisters again, they prepared a sack of my size, filling potatoes inside it.
.
One Year later!!
.
By this time, I came to know that Dad used to hit mom because of frustration and anger because she didn’t give him any son. Instead loaded him with the burden of six daughters. Not just him, now his second wife used to do the same with mom, and dad never used to say a thing to her,
Why?
Because she had given him a son this year, which he had wanted for a long, I tried a couple of times to interfere in between, but my elders never let me tell me that I wasn’t strong or older enough to interfere in between.
“I think you need a trainer now!!” Mia suggested.
“I second that.”, Ruby agreed.
“I should talk with Mr. Hayes, shouldn’t I?”
“YES and NO both. Yes, because he is the one and only one who can help, and he is the best in training all age groups even though he is allowed to train only kids after losing his one leg in the battle with werewolves. No, because he also has the same mentality, not to train girls and if you fail to convince him, he might tell about it dad and maybe after that he will get to know that you train secretly.”, Mia explained.
.
#TBC