I'm back with a new story a bit different of what I've been writing so far! But as they say, changement is good! Well it's not a oneshot either I think that it'll have a second chapter, in one week if I cannot sooner.
Written for the kink meme, on part 18 page 9: "Anon has always believed it's possible that Manfred von Karma killed his wife when Franziska was very young. Naturally, he made it look like an accident. What he never realized is that toddler!Franziska witnessed the act. Watching her father kill her mother was so traumatic that she blocked the memory for years, until something suddenly triggers it again as an adult. (This is inspired by a dream anon had. The method of death as well as what caused Franziska to remember in this particular case was being thrown/falling down a staircase, but anything anon wants to do is fine.)"
I tried my best at this prompt
DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CHARACTERS MENTIONNED IN THIS STORY BELONG TO CAPCOM EXCEPT FOR HEIDI AND IRINA WHO BELONG TO ME.
I hope you'll enjoy the story. I rewrote the story, hoping to erase all my grammar mistakes but feel free to point out if you find one.
Repressed Memories
Chapter One: Remember Franziska
" So, we're at it. Let's begin. What are you going to do with the things that aren't needed? "
" I think I'll sell them if Heidi doesn't want them either..."
Miles Edgeworth looked at his "sister". Franziska had asked him to come in Germany, in the home where they had spent their childhood together, under the tutoring of Manfred von Karma. Who was in jail because he had killed Miles's father, Gregory Edgeworth. In fact, Manfred von Karma had just been sentenced to Death Penalty, and it was only a matter of time, now, before his death and his funeral.
All Miles was feeling toward his mentor was rage and hatred, but he loved Franziska (maybe more than a brother should but...) and when she had called him to ask if he could help her to sort through all her father's things, he had come without any hesitation.
She had come to fetch him at the airport, and they had just entered von Karma's mansion.
It was as huge and as dark as he remembered. After all Manfred von Karma had been a wealthy man, and more often in America than in Germany, and Franziska had her own apartment now.
Oh well, Miles thought, that's going to take ages, and it won't be fun. Then he glanced at Franziska. She was looking around her with so much sadness in her eyes that Miles decided he would be staying as long as she would need him.
"Come on", he said, taking her hand, "we should be beginning by your father's office." She nodded, shivering slightly. She hadn't entered her father's office for a long time.
Slowly Miles and Franziska ascended the stairs.
One hour after, they were beginning to put things out of the office and bringing them down in the giant living room.
"Be careful," Miles said to Franziska, "the stairs are dangerous."
Franziska frowned: "I'm not a child anymore, Miles Edgeworth. There is no need to remind me of those foolish stairs!"
And with that, carrying a box filled with various possessions, she headed toward the living room, downstairs.
She should have listened to him, or perhaps the box was too heavy, or maybe it was because of both of them, but nevertheless she fell. One of her foot slipped on one of the step of the stairs, and Franziska von Karma felt herself off the ground. Her scream echoed in the house.
When Miles heard her, he rushed to see what happened and found her on the floor, downstairs. She was still conscious, albeit she seemed to be hurt, and one of her arms or legs could possibly be broken. He joined Franziska, sobbing slightly and still under the shock of the event.
"My...My leg! It... it hurts!" She stammered out.
Miles gently palpated her leg and she winced in pain. He wasn't a doctor, but it seemed to him that her leg was indeed broken. Without any words, he picked her up and walked towards one of the couch of the living room. There, he laid her onto it, telling her to remain calm.
Then he sat on the armchair nearing the couch, and practically yelled at her, contradicting himself with his own previous words: "What were you thinking, falling down like that? What did I tell you? For God's sake, Franziska, those stairs are dangerous! You have lived here for sixteen years, and I'm sure..." He paused when he heard her sniffle. She was crying.
Inwardly, he cursed himself. He shouldn't have yelled at her, that wasn't her fault.
He approached her slowly. Her sobs were getting slightly louder. Miles placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Franziska?"
She didn't answer, her tears continuing to fall down her cheeks. She looked so vulnerable like that, so young, so...destroyed, by the sequence of events which seemed to pursue her mercilessly. He shook her gently:
"Franziska?"
She seemed to hear him this time, and she clunched at his arm:
"M...Miles Ed...Edge...worth, I a...am so so...rry..."
"It's alright." He said, hugging her a bit, "I was a bit scared, that's all. It's my fault, I shouldn't have yelled at you, I'm sorry."
She calmed down a bit, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. He sushed her and when she had stopped crying, he told her:
"Well, I think that it's clear we're staying for the night. You're waiting for me here, try to have some sleep already while I prepare the rooms. When I'm finished we're going to the hospital to have an examination of your leg. Get some rest Franziska." And with that he exited the room.
Franziska watched him go and heard him as he was going upstairs again, before the silence filled the large room. Her mind was still fuzzy. Foolish stairs... Her body was exhausted from the stress of the accident and from the sadness and the pain caused by the proximate death of her father. So when the sleep came and submerged she didn't try to fight against it.
"When is Papa coming home?" A little girl asked her mother. The latter frowned, something close to anger knitting her brow. She was definitely angry with her husband. He had called on Christmas's Eve, to tell her that he wouldn't be home for Christmas because he had an important case he had to prepare in America. Now, four days after Christmas, he was returning from his case and from his trip. He would be home in one hour or two.
"Well darling, Papa will be back after your nap. So if you want him to come home faster, go to sleep, and when you wake up, he'll be there, alright?"
A little Franziska von Karma of two or three years old nodded, before climbing by herself in her cradle. Her mother kissed her cheek slightly before coming out of the room.
Later, Franziska was awoken by the sound of two person who were talking very loudly. She heard her mother's voice and... her father's? He was home!
Quickly, she got out of her cradle and opened her door a little bit. Papa was standing at the top of the stairs with Mama, but Mama didn't seem to be pleased, not at all in fact. Franziska closed the door because she knew that, when her parents had an argument, the best was to let them alone, so that they can settle the problem faster. Franziska heard some of their argument, but it was a bit hard to understand them because they were talking in English, and the little girl wasn't fluent in English yet.
"... Do you understand the concept of family, Manfred? Or is your perfect mind not counting it as something as important as your stupid trials?"
"I did tell you, Irina, it was a very important case and they ordered me to prosecute it. I couldn't have said no."
"Do not tell me you didn't appreciate it, Manfred!"
"That's not the subject!"
"Yes it is! Not only did you not pass Christmas with your family, with your daughters who were waiting for you, but on the top of that, I've heard that you've also been accused to have created false evidences for this case! You, who are always talking about perfection, it seems, that eventually you're not that perfect!"
"Don't talk to me like that, Irina! I DID win, and that's all that matters!"
" NO! You have two important roles! You're a prosecutor but also a father. Maybe you should try to be less perfect in prosecuting, and to be more perfect in your family life, and especially for your daughters. Because perfection means to be perfect in EVERY way, not only in court."
There was an heavy silence for several minutes, and Franziska thought that, maybe, the quarrel was over. Then a loud sound was heard in the entire house.
Franziska opened the door timidly, and peeked in the corridor. Papa and Mama weren't in the corridor, meaning that, maybe they were in their room or in Papa's office to continue their little quarrel, and that the sound she had heard, had been the sound of Papa closing the door. Even if she knew her parents didn't like it when someone was eavesdropping on their conversation, she decided to go to her father's office because she really wanted to see Papa.
It was at the end of the corridor, and she had to pass in front of her parents's room, the stairs and the library. "Don't approach the stairs alone, Franziska, you would fall", Papa had told her once. Speaking about it, she heard someone making noise downstairs, and she took a look at it.
She froze when she witnessed a scene that most of the people don't see in their whole life.
Her father had his back turned to her and he was standing over the corpse of her mother. Mama was lying on the floor as if she was asleep, and when her father moved slightly to his right, she saw her mother's face with her neck folded in a strange angle. But the worse was her eyes, her grey-blue eyes, wide opened, no longer refleting life and love, but the true reality, the horrible truth, the death of her mother.
Slowly leaving the world of memories, and not the world of the dreams or nightmares, an adult Franziska von Karma awakes when a part of her past she had tried to forget, hit her and that she knows she cannot do anything anymore to pretend that it didn't happen.
I hope you enjoyed this story, and I'll see again in chapter two.
Please reviews! :3