BACK HOME 3

The trip was long,  very long and her feet were swollen because she had sat for too long. Looking at them, she was glad she wore a pair of slippers because her feet looked like they had air blown into them. She didn't regret the distance, she knew why she had travelled out in the first place; she wanted to go as far away from her dad as she could.
When she finally got into the town, she first wanted to go back home, just to see the old place before heading out to the hospital.

When she got there, the smell in the air brought back all sorts of memories. The nostalgic feeling followed her into the house which was unlocked. Nothing much had changed, nothing at all. The chairs were still there, the lamp stands too, everything was where it had been twelve years ago. It's like he didn't move a thing. She walked into the kitchen and the smell of her mother's cooking was everywhere. Her mother? Was she here or is she hallucinating?
But then again, she recalled the night her mother left. Daddy didn't let mom take me...

She remembered herself sobbing in the kitchen. Her mother had known what kind of man he had become and had tried to sneak out with her children but just before they could get into the car, he grabbed Hana. Hana had never screamed so loud in her life. He told her mom that she could leave with Hana's  sister but not with Hana. The look in his eyes made Hana's mother agree but she promised she'd be back for Hana. Hana waited ten years for her mother but she never came, never even looked back.

She wiped the tears off her cheek as she went into her former room. The room was still as she had left it. She recognized the scattered bed and her clothes everywhere. She saw her toy, she had forgotten to take it along but she couldn't see it because it was late in the night. She turned to the bed and her heart froze. The blood stain was still there, I thought I had wiped it off. She said to her herself because she always wiped it off. He didn't like seeing the blood stains. Then she remembered that it wasn't hers, it was his blood that lay on the bed. A wry smile cut across her face; that night was a small victory for her.

She moved on to her father's room and it was neat as usual. The man was a real tidy person and she wondered how he still managed to keep his room so clean in his old age.

The next door she saw led to the attic. Her heart froze once again and the tremors came back. It was the door! She had never opened the door by herself, he always did. She was once again filled with all the fears that consumed her as a little girl when she was carried through that door. Her knees wobbled. Now, she doesn't know what she would find behind the door, she want sure she wanted to know. But something urged her on.