So I do. I run to her and wrap my arms around her, hugging her tight. I can feel her cold tears drip down her cheeks and fall onto my shoulder while I press my body against hers. Her hands are strapped to a chair, making it impossible for her to hug me back. It’s okay, I have enough love for the both of us.
“Lillith ….” I hear her mumble. I sniff her hair, taking in her scent, unable to keep the tears at bay once she speaks my name.
“It’s okay, Mom. You’re alive. Oh my God, you’re alive.” I can still barely believe it. “You’re here.”
“Lillith …” Her voice grows darker, shallower, and her body shakes in my arms.
I hug her tighter, trying to make her feel better. “I’m here, Mom. I’m here. I’m okay.”
I lean back and grab her face, gazing at her like I haven’t seen her in a million years. The beauty that I once knew is scarred by emotions, but I can see through the fog and find her soul staring right back into mine. It’s there that I find the broken pieces of my own soul. Pain. Regret. Sorrow. Death.
Her eyes are laced with poison. She grips the chair, biting her lip as my brows furrow.
“No …” she whispers.
A chill runs down my spine, covering my body in goosebumps. She shakes her head, her lip quivering as I take a step back.
“No, Lillith,” she says.
“Mom…” My lungs feel constricted.
“Don’t you remember?” is all she says.
That word that makes me cringe. The word that means the world is about to break down in front of me again. Everything that I thought was a lie.
I can see it in her eyes.
Her body isn’t filled with life.
Her soul is wrecked by evil.
“Yes, my dear … do you see now?” Newman says. “This woman isn’t worth your love.”
“No …” I shake my head, taking a step back with each ragged breath.
“She isn’t even worth her own life,” he says.
“Lillith …” my mother murmurs. “I killed him. I killed your father.”
Accompanying song: “Skyfall” by Adele
Time stops. Everything around me ceases to exist. Even my heart seems to have stopped.
Life has just fallen apart. The ground feels like it opens beneath my feet and I’m swallowed whole by the earth.
My father has been long dead, and my mother just admitted that she was his murderer.
Tears roll down my cheeks as I face the woman I once loved. Scars inside my mind open up, memories from long ago pouring out. Her fearful but determined gaze brings me back to a time where I realized people were imperfect, hateful, scared creatures only interested in their own survival.
People are selfish, and in their effort to preserve themselves, they commit the most heinous of crimes.
7 months ago
When I come inside the house, the first thing I hear is a door slam. It’s so loud; I jolt up and down from the sound.
“Hello?” I call out, looking around.
No one responds.
There’s no one in the living room and I don’t think it came from upstairs. I make my way to the kitchen and find my mother staring at the water pouring out of the faucet. She leans over the sink, one hand on the counter, the other on her cheek. She glances at me when I walk in, and then she immediately turns her head again, grabbing some of the dishes and putting them in the water.
“What’s wrong?”
She sniffs, scrubbing the plates hard. “Nothing …”
“Yeah, there is. I heard the door slam. What is going on?”
“Nothing!” she yells, dropping the dishes. Water splashes all over the floor. She still won’t look at me.
“Mom, look at me,” I say, turning her around. What I see makes me gasp. One side of her face is red and swollen, and when she spots me gaping at it, she folds her hand over the mark.
“What happened?”
“Nothing … I slipped.”
“Yeah, and what about that slamming door?” I scoff. “Someone was in here, wasn’t there?”
“Don’t worry about it, he left. It’s nothing. How was your day, darling?”
“Mom …” I say, grabbing her hand and forcing it down. “Who was it? He did this to you, didn’t he?”
“What?” she says, laughing, trying to turn around again. “Of course not. Now, go on, tell me about your day. Oh, I forgot, there’s some fresh juice in the fridge. Want some?” She tucks one of her hands in her pocket and opens the fridge with the other.
“Mom. Stop lying.”
I know he hurt her, whoever he was. Must’ve been one of those men she flirts with, but I’ll find out who it was and I’ll make sure he is punished for it.