Chapter 1

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.

“So what? I’m not scared of anyone.”, I said, on which Ruby shook her head.

“Confidence and stupidity are a very dangerous combination, but they generally go together. Learn to identify it. The line between confidence and arrogance is very fine and the line between arrogance and stupidity even finer.”, She explained. “If you’re not scared, then you should be. What if instead of punishing you, he will choose to punish mom for not keeping an eye on you?”

Immediately my face paled hearing that.

“In short, you have no other choice than to convince Mr. Hayes.”, Sana, my third elder sister, said to which I nodded my head.

“Great then. We will help you in sneaking out of the house at night.”, Mia said. “You know his house, right?”, She asked, on which I nodded my head again.

*

At night!!

When everyone in the home was sleeping, I sneaked out of the house with my sister’s help and then hid from all the guards. I reached Mr. Hayes’s house. I sensed someone’s eyes on me, but when I turned around, I found no one. I picked up a stone and threw it in the opposite direction to divert someone’s eyes and using that moment I climbed on the tree and sat on the branch to see who was following me but found no one.

I lifted my head and found Mr. Hayes looking at me, straight into my eyes from his window.

Shit!

Was he the one whose eyes were on me?

Well, not sure!

He stepped away from his window by walking with the help of crutches under his right arm.

“Jump!”, he ordered. “If you want to talk with me or go back to your home.”, he added. After that, he left there. I looked at the distance between the tree and his window. There was a high chance that I would fall, but I still tried to jump, and the moment I felt like I grabbed the edge of the window, I fell down. The ground was not tough because of which I didn’t get any injuries, but I felt like I got a sprain in my ankles. I winced in pain and bit my lips tightly, trying not to cry. 

I picked my ass from there and somehow managed to get home. On the way home, I kept someone’s eyes on me, and this time, I knew that person.

‘I will be back soon.’

*

My ankle took two weeks to return back to its previous shape. Meanwhile, I practiced more and more for the long jump during this period. That night, I tried again to jump from the tree to his reach inside the house but finally succeeded in holding the edge of the window, but the more I tried to lift my body up, it was going down, and my grip on the window started loosening because of pain. I was about to fall again when Mr. Hayes held my wrist at the last moment and pulled me inside.

I panted for a while, bending a little, keeping my hands on my thighs.

“Mr. Hayes, …. I believe you know… why I am here… I want you to train … me just like others.”

“No.”

I looked at him in shock. “I … I thought you would train me because… you didn’t tell dad about the previous incident yet.”

“I hadn’t told your dad about you for the past year, Delilah.”, He said, making my eyes go widen. “Yes, I always knew that you used to keep an eye on me and my instruction. At first, I couldn’t understand who that person was who kept watching me during training time until I saw you, a girl.”

“So, you won’t train me just because I’m a girl?” I asked, not able to understand why he did not tell about it to dad if he knew everything.

“No. I won’t train you like others because you’re a girl. In fact, I will train you and push you harder than any other hunters that every day you will think to quit.”, he replied. I couldn’t understand again whether he was doing a favor or wanted to show me my place in household work.

“If that’s the case. I will prove you wrong every day.”

He gave an amused smile but didn’t say anything. Instead, he did exactly the same as he had said. Every day, I used to think about quitting, but then I used to recall why I started this in the first place, and the idea of quitting used to run away from my mind.

.

Nine years had passed, and over the years, Mr. Hayes kept his words, while all other hunters of my age, i.e., sixteen years old, learned only one skill in which they were interested, whether it was of making poison and antidotes, OR, whether it was of learning magic, OR, whether it was in getting PRO with the weapons. I had learned all the things, not just learned but also passed the test that Mr. Hayes used to keep by arranging battles between his other loyal students who would never open my truth in front of others.

I had also formed a routine to balance both lives with a routine. I used to train at night, sleep in the morning, and then school, and then again, I used to practice the same thing that I had learned last night, and I couldn’t be more thankful to my sisters and now my mother who supported me and tried their best, not to get my truth revealed in front of others. Whenever my stepmother and her irritating son used to ask me to work in the kitchen, my younger or elder sisters used to fill for me, keeping me away from the household work, which I was least interested to learn.

But along with time, my thick wall, my sisters started getting married when I was twelve, Mia got married at the age of eighteen, when I was fourteen, Ruby got married at the age of eighteen just like Mia, and when I turned sixteen, Sana got married at the age of eighteen just like my other sisters.

From seven to sixteen years!! I also had my wall, and now I knew that I would be the target of my dad and my stepmom so that they could dispatch me too after two years.

And I also knew that now, I couldn’t hide my truth for long.

.

“How are you going to manage from tomorrow?” Nova, my fourteen years old sister, asked.

“You will have to take Sana’s place from tomorrow onwards, i.e., waking up early in the morning around five and working all the household chores till ten or eleven at night.”, Zoey, my twelve years old sister, muttered in tension.

“It’s time to change the rules, Nova and Zoey.”, I said with determination. “Mom, Mia, Ruby, and Sana were innocent cows, but I’m a bull with horns. And I won’t mind hitting anyone's ass with my horn if anyone dares to hit me.”

“I will tell mom that you were saying that you’re a bull with horns.”, We heard a boyish voice and turned around to find him, Adrian, my nine years old step-brother and the messenger of my stepmother.

“Not to forget, even he is going to be a pain in the ass along with our other mother and father.”, Zoey told me. “They have spoiled him so much that sometimes he even slaps Nova and me.”, She added.

“Don’t worry, Zoey. I will bring him on track. I won’t let him be the replica of our father.”

“What will you do?” Nova asked.

“Right now, I’m going to Mr. Hayes’s place. I will deal with my family tomorrow morning.”

.

#TBC