Our Different Stories

After taking turns to bathe and dress up, they sat down in the dining room, and Bobby and Amira served them dinner. Rose and Anita packed snacks, weapons, clothes, and other kinds of stuff for their journey, while at that moment, Arianna and Jacob were discussing Anita and their trip.

They all sat down at the dining table, different delicacies: fish soup, rice, macaroni, and salad, roasted lamb with corn and cheese, puddles, and vegetables, were arranged on the table.

“Humm,” Rose moaned, her belly growling with hunger. “This looks so delicious, I can’t wait to dig in,” she cried out, took a fork, and quickly ate from the macaroni. “Oh my goodness! It tastes so heavenly! Bobby, please will you marry me? I want to eat your food every day for the rest of my life,” she said playfully and took a bite from the lamb. She moaned in ecstasy and took a spoonful of everything on the table.

Anita looked at her with furrowed brows, wondering why she was eating like a starved pregnant woman. “Right now, Rose, I really want to know your story, maybe I will be able to punish the person who staved you for years,” she joked.

Rose took the joke lightly and laughed, “You will be shocked to hear my story. I can't remember the last time I ate a homemade meal, especially one as delicious as this,” she confessed with a smile on her face. A pained look settled on her face, but she quickly hid it with a smile.

“What do you eat then?” Arianna asked with a look of concern.

The rest were also eating their meals, and they were filled with praises for Bobby and Amira's cooking.

“Junks, most of the time I eat junk, they are cheaper and don't need any hard cooking,” Rose replied jovially, but her friends looked sad at her story, and they stared at her pitifully.

“I am so sorry, it's a lot when you're born into a poor home. I experienced a lot too,” Jay said soberly, trying to console her, but Rose burst into laughter at his words.

“What do you mean by ‘when I am born into a poor home?’” she asked when her laughter finally died down.

Jay looked confused, and he began to stutter, “You said things were tough for you.”

“Oh! Actually, my parents were the richest in my hometown, everyone knew our name, and I grew up in luxury. But when my mother died, everything changed. My father got married to a woman who hates me. Sometimes I wonder if we've met in my past life. This woman convinced my father to send my siblings and me to boarding school, my dad agreed but I refused, and thus I was labeled as the black sheep of the family.

During my siblings’ journey back from school, they were involved in a fatal accident that claimed their lives. I know that my stepmother was the one behind my siblings’ death, but when I confronted my father about it, he vowed to disown me. Things were unbearable for me, and my stepmother treated me like trash, I couldn't bear to see the face of my siblings' murderer every day, and in search of justice, I voluntarily disowned my father, he seized my business bank account, and I lost everything my mother gave me, including her wealth, to my stepmother.

I traveled to another country and decided to start all over again, I worked my back off day and night, but the little I earned could barely afford a decent meal. I don't know how to cook, and I am too busy to learn, so junk ends up becoming my favorite.

About how I got to Willowbrook, I don't know exactly. But I remembered that someone advised me to go for a job interview in a successful town, the pay was so eye-catching that I jumped on it. I boarded my ride, fell asleep on the bus, and when I woke up, I was caged in a dark house and then I met you guys,” Rose explained her story with a smile on her face. She didn't look sad, or maybe she was sad but she hid it well.

Everyone looked at her with sympathy, and Arianna burst into tears, while Jay looked like he would start crying at any moment.

“You don't have to pretend to be tough, it's okay to feel sad. Crying might make you feel better,” Arianna cried out, dropped her spoon, and hugged Rose. Rose was surprised, but realizing how everyone was looking at her with pity, made her emotional, and tears dropped out of her eyes.

“Forgive Arianna, your story is very similar to hers,” Bobby said, explaining why Ari was acting so empathetic.

“We all have our story. Well, mine is not emotional, I lost my entire family during a sickness pandemic. I was the only survivor, I got to live with my uncle who raped me multiple times and forced me to abort the products of his actions. In return he sent me to college to study food and nutrition, I was on my way back from college when the heavens decided to change my story, and the Uber I entered brought me to this town, where I met all of you,” Amira said with a nonchalant voice.

“You were raped and forced to abort! Yet you claim your story is not emotional, gosh! You guys are passing through a lot, and here I thought I was the only one who the universe was dealing with,” Anita moaned and hugged Amira gently. They both hugged each other, while Jay cleaned the tears which were dropping from his eyes.

“My story is…I don't know for sure. During the pandemic, my parents needed urgent money to take care of their farm animals, so I was sold to a hotel, to work as a gigolo. One of the men I was supposed to wet his bed turned out to be a keeper, and that was how I got here!” Jay explained his own story.

Everyone kept quiet, they couldn't even bring themselves to eat anymore, and the atmosphere was tense and filled with unresolved emotions.

“Mine was a heartbreak, betrayal to be precise. I noticed something in all our stories. We were all ill-treated, Rose lost her siblings, the people who meant the world to her, she trusted her father but she ended up getting betrayed when he picked her stepmother over her. Amira was molested and abused by her uncle, a member of her family, a person her parents trusted. Jay was betrayed and sold out by his family.

In general, we've all experienced betrayal, and it's hard for us to trust and open up to strangers or family members again, that's what brought us together. Our sad experience is what made us who we are, I think the universe is trying to tell us that after everything we've been through, if we could still open up to strangers, then so can the citizens of Willowbrook. So can the world.

We are not the ones needed to save them, it's not the dragon's daughter's job either. It is the villager's job, we are only here to assist and protect them!” Anita announced with so much energy, and they all paid attention to her words.

“To help Willowbrook, we have to let go of the past. The demon lord is actually afraid of the dragon's daughter because he knows she will bring us all together. You guys weren't sacrificed for a reason, and that reason must be fulfilled,” Jacob chipped in.

“I couldn't agree more,” Bobby said with a smile. “Together, we'll go back to where we are meant to be,” he sounded enthusiastic, and the atmosphere changed from tense to lively.

They all began to eat their meals happily until a knock echoed on the door.