Masked

《0》

--the boy who loved--

"Ma...ma...Mama!!"

Eyes as widened as saucers, his pale cheeks stained with the dark colours of his tears, lips quivering, following the escalating beats of his tiny heart that had been shaken more than it could endure. His legs, though trembling a little too much, made their way to the woman who lay in front of him.

The woman who had loved him, and to whom belonged his little heart. The woman now broken to bits, counting the few minutes that were slowly turning to seconds for her.

She turned to put her wavering gaze on the little boy, who shook her numb limbs, as if  wanting to put life into them somehow. He w desperate, and she felt it. Immediatly, a smile made it's way on her lips, which lay motionless before she saw him.

"My little...hazel..nut.."

She let out a shaky giggle, as she called him by his nickname, one that she had given him ever since she first lay her eyes on his.

His hazel eyes, that didn't belong to her forest green ones, but were still hers somehow.

The boy, gasping between his fastened breaths, tightened the hold of his two palms on her one arm, the blood coming over them, then the least of his worries. Because what worried him more then, was that the blood was hers. His mother's.

"Mama...mama...what...what should I do? You're so...so hurt...you've...hurt your head Mama!"

Another shaky giggle from her, followed by a wince, only making him sob more. She slowly, with the little effort she had left, shook her head, and stretched her other hand, just as badly stained as the first one, on his cheek.

"What do I do Mama? Please...please tell me what I should do...to...to make it hurt less for you?"

"My child...my dear child...don't. Don't do...anything. I'll be...okay..it just hurts a little...not too much..."

"Stop lying! How could you say that Mama?! Your head...it's so red...it must be hurting a lot! Please mama...tell me something...please...I can't...I can't see you like this..."

The boy screamed between his cries, blinking a lot so the tears wouldn't come in the way of staring at his mother's face, that was, even after being in such state of pain, radiated a glow, like it always had. That glow that he envied, but now one that angered him.

She wasn't supposed to have that glow. She didn't need to shine even at a time like that, when everything around them was crumpling down to pieces. When his little heart was hurting beyond what it could endure, and if it really was the same for her, why did she seemed like she was in peace?

"Mama...why are you smiling? Why aren't you crying? Weren't you the one who told me that, when we're sad, we should always cry so it doesn't bother us later? Then...why...why are you not crying?"

The question from the naive soul, lessened her smile. She didn't know what to say for a while, so she tried to replace the silence with a chuckle, but bringing it out increased the lump in her throat, only bringing moistness over her dried eyes.

Before she looked at him, her smile had disappeared, and it seemed like it would never come back. It seemed to her like, she wouldn't see him again. And that was something she dreaded thinking, but now that was the truth, and it hurt her more that anything ever had.

She never wanted her dark intuitions to come to life. She never wanted this. And now, when the pain she had been suppressing all this while, finally came out to its surface, she could do nothing but let it out through her eyes. Her heart stung in her chest, and the little life left in it only felt like it was slowly slipping away, and she could do nothing about it.