Tales of Ruuin - Homecoming

Mother

Mother?

The word echoed through Echser's mind. It was such a simple word, one bringing up a plethora of emotions – none even remotely befitting the hideous abomination squatting before them in its bed of corpses.

The creature's slash of a mouth grew wider still, sharp teeth glittering in the torchlight. "Who else did you expect to meet in our kitchen, boy?" The huge head tilted to the side, a worried expression that looked all the more horrible for its sincerity appearing on that nightmare of a face. "You are not getting ill, are you? You look... pale. Very pale. That won't do, that simply won't do now that our plight is finally over." Her smile faltered. "Our plight..." She shook her head. "What was our plight again? I feel I should know, should know..."

"D... dead..." Stefan had to choke the word out. "You... you're dead. I... I buried you – buried you with my own hands, here in this graveyard. I... I..." He stared at Hornbach, who in turn looked almost as horrified as Echser felt.

A frown crept over the giantess features, half-hidden by tresses of filthy hair. "Dead?" The black, saucer-sized eyes blinked. "Me?"

Echser heart ached – either from the sheer tragedy of the moment or because of an imminent heart attack. Probably the latter... By Science, doesn't this... this thing know?

The abomination started cackling then, and it was a sound that would haunt Echser in his nightmares – if he was lucky enough to ever have them again. "I'm not dead, silly."

The giant ghoul shifted her skeletal bulk, their light tearing more unpleasant contours from the dark. She held something close to her chest, something small. Echser moved a few tentative steps aside to get a better view - and almost cried out at what he saw... Legs... knobbly knees, dirty feet. They were not moving.

The child... she has killed the child.

"Mama was merely sick," the monster continued. "Yes, yes. Very, very sick." She raised a hand to her head, and never before had Echser seen a larger one. It was huge, even compared to the rest of her body, obscenely long and with claw-tipped fingers that would not have looked wrong on a giant spider. "So very, very sick. My mind, my mind is still somewhat befuddled. I remember... I remember that you took care of me... and of little Will, of course. I am so proud of you, my son, so very, very proud. Finding paying work during that terrible time..." She froze, her black eyes glazing over. "That terrible, terrible time..."

Echser knew what time she spoke off. He almost sank to the ground in desperation then. Have I done this? Have my experiments set all this in motion?

"I was cold, so cold," the giant ghoul continued. "No wonder I've gotten sick. So hungry, always hungry. The vermin had eaten it all. Never enough food. Never enough warmth." Her eyes glazed over, and it was like frost creeping over obsidian. "Never and ever and never... until you brought home some food. The broth was so delicious, the meat so tender. I remember... sleeping then. It was strange. I slept, but I could still see, could still hear." She fixed Stefan with her gaze. "You took me to a place of healing, didn't you, my dear? A place of warmth where I got better, where there was ample food."

Stefan's gaze wandered over the decomposing corpses. "Food?" His terror-stricken gaze turned to Hornbach, eyes pleading. "Did we do this to her? Did we bury her alive? Did the—"

"Of course not," Hornbach spluttered. "We..."

He trailed off as the horror turned his gaze towards him. It was as if the monster only just now noticed the rest of them, and a strange jumble of feelings ran over her features. She almost seemed... embarrassed?