Needle and Thread

III. Other Mother

The Bel Dame clawed the smooth rocks, but her heavy petticoats dragged her deeper the more she struggled. She couldn't die yet, she needed to be with her sister. Thimbella depended on her. But fate was cruel as Sewlona sank to the bottom in the shallow waters. She tried to breathe as long as she could, it wasn't long until her life was to be drifted away in her watery grave for eternity. But it was like being trapped in a drain as the water was pushing her down, down until her head popped up from the cold water. The Bel dame coughed out bits of freshwater, shivering as her clothes felt tighter around her whole body. 

She looked to see it was night. Has she been in the well for that  long? But something was wrong, the night sky was pitch black than normal, there was her house but in flawless condition. Sewlona slowly came to the front entrance, while holding her wet skirts up. It was a shame to ruin the carpets inside by her drenched shoes and dress dripping from the bottom of the hem. She turns the knob, at her surprise the whole palace was empty. Nothing in the house was present, not even a single soul. 

"Sister?" The Bel Dame called out but was greeted with silence. Still, lifeless silence like nothing Sewlona herself had ever experienced. 

"Where am I? Is anyone here at all?" Again, there was silence. Sewlona never felt so frightented in her life up until now. Why was her home completely empty? And where was Thimbella or anyone as a matter of fact. Was this a dream? Did she die and she was in...Heaven? Or was it Hell? In between?

"You are not alone my child." A voice of Sewlona's mother came from upstairs.

"Come up here so I can see you." The Bel Dame stood still, startled by the greeting by her deceased mother. Or was she dead at all? Or perhaps that voice was bait to lure her in and it was used by a unholy creature ready to grab her. But she had to be sure as she came upstairs following where the voice came and sure enough there was a room. A familiar room with many sewing tools such felts, fabrics, many colored spools of thread, and a black sewing machine. There sat by a woman in a red wine dress, mending a hole of a white ruffled blouse. Nedra Needles, smiling and proud to see her handiwork done as she holds the blouse in front of her. 

"Looks good as new doesn't it?" She asks her daughter by the doorway. The Bel Dame was speechless, her mother was more lively and cheery than before. 

"Mother, is that...you?"

"Yes it's me my Sewlona. I've been waiting for you and your sister for so long after my death.

This place here was once mine, I used it to come her at night not only to expand my hobby further but use magic without your father spying on me."

As Nedra explains to her confused daughter that this place was a small world but can be dominated by one dividual. Though it does come with a price. 

"Sadly, I can't stay here for very long. I only came since I had word from below-"

"Below?! You mean you're in..."

"Yes, I must pay for my sins in afterlife. Don't you worry, I won't be there forever until my time of punishment is complete then I will ascend. In the meantime I will keep a good eye on you and Thimbella. I'll always be there."

But before she could leave, she told her eldest daughter on how she could dominate this world with her magic. But could not leave it for she will die by getting back to her old world. So now The Bel dame depended on her allies; The rats. As they were quite as loyal to their owner running errands from this world to that. Collecting various of objects to use for sorcery to create more allies with the use of soul sand. 

Eventually she was heartbroken knowing that her sister was no longer in the Pink Palace, but of a small family. A man, his wife and a son. Why did Thimbella leave?  

Sewlona had experienced some changes the longer she stayed in her new home world, she was being becoming less and less human as time goes or if time ever goes on in this world at all. Soon she'll have to replace the missing pieces with alternatives as artificial limbs.  Her arms and legs were now made of needles (which were quite helpful with delicacy in sewing), her skin pale and made of porcelain. Her dress ragged and thinned out. Sewlona had even sacrificed her eyes for buttons on able to see from the old world and here. Her world was her canvas and she was its painter!

On her mother's second and last visit, she warned The Bel Dame that in order to keep living and remain powerful, she needed to find eyes of a human vessel. And thus she gives her a key with it's head of a black button, a key that can open the portal to here and back. 

"Give this key to your guest to invite in this house, make their lives interesting and exciting! And most importantly keep a good eye on them." At that, Nedra vanishes and let her eldest daughter conduct a plan to lure the boy in her home. She would have to make a doll to look like the boy to spy on the boy. Though she can create but shape and mimic from the real world. But to do it without the watchful eyes of the boy's parents, and give him the key. She turned the rats into small jumping mice, in order to lure the child in while she made some preparations. The interior of the house changed dramatically making it look like the one from the old world but better and more alive. As The Bel Dame changed herself into the boy's mother and to make up a fabricated story that she was his "other" mother. 

"Mother?" the curious boy calls out, walking slowly in the dining room as he looks around seeing the changes looked updated and brand new. Newer than the world from which he came from. 

"You're just in time for supper dear." A woman's voice called out from the kitchen. The little boy came in see his mother or what looked like his mother. Expect for her eyes which were nothing more than black buttons. The boy was frightened at the sight of it, but the woman explains she was his other mother and that everyone has one. It did sounded strange indeed but the boy did not think too much of it as eats his dinner that tasted much better than the food from back home.