A fight for dominance and nobility

Chapter forty: it was all an illusion

'No!' I yelled at her as she attempted to walk towards the scythe. Crawling on my knees, I grabbed her leg. She shook it vigorously, but I held on tighter. 'I did not, you killed yourself by choosing to fall in love with a murderer.'

She stood still before turning to face me, yanking her leg out of my grasp. Her eyes turned black, darker, and mysterious. She is not my mother. My mother was not a shape-shifting creature. I stood up, facing her.

She smiled; the very same crooked smile that sent chills down my spine. Her yellow rotten teeth made me scrunch my nose in disgust. Even though fear is still apparent, I had the ardent desire to throw up. I swallowed the bile rising to my throat.

'Brave little thing.' she took a step forward and I three steps back. I am planning to escape this creature but with the door shut I do not see any way out except to sign a death contract and let her do her bidding.

She was quite scrawny, her dark hair wild and untamed. The long dress that I remember quite well had huge spectres of blood. The blood was already dry. It sickens me because this is the very same dress she was wearing when she passed down Anthony's feet while she oozed blood spilling like a never-ending well with an endless supply of fresh blood. Her eyes were still the same. The only features I greatly inherited from my mother was my curves and round face. But the creature in front of me is different.

Pale, scrawny, dark marks under her eyes and dull eyes. 'You and I can be mother and daughter for life. I can brush your hair, tell you tales of my time and drink rum till sunrise.'

I furrowed my eyebrows. 'What kind of a mother are you?'

'Interesting kind, better than Lady Crowe.'

Narrowing my eyes, I bawled my hand into fists. 'How do you know Lady Crowe?'

'She did not tell you, did she?' her face beamed with a smile, but it was terrifying. 'I and your sweet old Lady Crowe made a bargain. I owed that woman a lot of money, I knew I would not be able to pay her debt and planned to sell you to her.'

'Liar. You died before you could do that.' I protested.

She rolled her eyes. 'Zadie, you were just a liability to me. I had to feed you clothe you, bathe you and it was draining!' she shouted. 'At a correct age, Lady Crowe would eventually send you to one of the brothels in London to pay my debt.'

'How much did you owe Lady Crowe, exactly?' I raised my eyebrow.

'Two thousand pounds.'

My jaw dropped. The audacity of this woman. 'Is that what I am worth?' I asked, tears forming in my ears.

'Do not you dare make me the bad person when the world we live in already hates us!' she trudged towards me. 'They fed you, their lies. He fed you lies, making you think he can save you.' She ripped my arm sleeve revealing the marks that have already seized my entire arm. I peeked inside my nightgown only to see the marks on my chest as well.

'See?' She whispered behind me. 'They do not care about you Zadie. You are already dead. Soon you will join me together with the dead!' she chuckled, and I wasted no time punching her with my fist.

She rubbed her cheek in disbelief before kicking me till I dropped down on the floor.

'You are no match for me.'

I smirked 'say I am 'standing up, I kicked her abdomen as hard as I can. A smile crept up my lips when she hit the wall hard with her back. She groaned before standing up as if my kick did nothing to her. How did it all get here? All I remember is Blanchet helping me with the so-called curse and now my mother – more like an evil creature is stopping me from wielding the scythe. What power does the scythe hold?