Beast Conquests

Chapter 15: No Bad Deed Goes Unpunished

A/n: Anybody here a fan of Naruto? If you specifically like Kakashi, check out my fanfic about him. "Falling for Temptation"

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

        One could call it karma or divine punishment, whichever it may be had a sense of humour. After the search was stopped, officially, barely over a month after Mirabella's disappearance Lana Louise was diagnosed with cancer.

      Stage 4.

        As if death had a sense of humour or a god out there felt it was time punish her.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

      "There was a saying, I read once in the comments section YouTube or Facebook. I don't remember. It said, siblings don't have the same parents.

       My mom isn't a terrible person. Not entirely. She hates my sister and as far as I know, she's the only person mom is deliberately cruel to. Well, I'm not defending my mom's actions but I know my mother.

       She certainly isn't a good person overall but she is a good mother to me."
     
Then the traveller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

        "Mom... I'm scared. There's something in the closet."

       "It's okay sweetie. I'm here." Her mother's gentle touch gave her the greatest security. The warm embrace as she pulled her daughter into her bed and wrapped the blanket around her.

       "I'll get papa to spook the monster away."

        Around the age of four all the way until Alexa was a teenager, it'd happened several times. Her mother's day soft kiss on her forehead and the sweet words of comfort.

       Alexa lived with being sang to sleep on the nights she couldn't. On sleeping beside her mother every time she felt down or had a nightmare.

        Lana indulged her every time.

       For Alexa, the memories were both vague and vivid. Few and far in between.

        But her mother never once was cruel to her. She was strict and forward in her discipline but never cruel.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
‘Till the sun is in the sky.

        Alexa held her mother's bony hand.

       'I know that I'm spoiled. I know that I'm loved.' Aside from the lifetime of illness that deprived her of many liberties, both her mother and father strived to let her be as comfortable as possible.

As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark.
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

      Even then, like a flower raised previously in a green house, Alexandria never so much as encountered another hardship.

        "Mom, do you remember?" Alexa asked her asleep mother. There was only the two of them in the room. Tubes and machines of all kinds were hooked up to her mother.

      'This is exactly how I was in the past.'

       The rock pressing down on her chest made it hard to breathe. The tears always borderline was hard to control and Alexa's shaking hands were cold.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

       Lana had become emaciated. Her long and beautiful red hair had all fallen off. Lips dry and colourless, skin a sickly pallor. The once beautiful woman looked halfway to death.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

     "It's an aggressive cancer." It has been a year since Lana Louise was diagnosed, and her health quickly deteriorated. Neither her beauty not wealth could do much to help her. Only make her comfortable.

How I wonder what you are.

      Alexa's thumb rubbed circles in her mother's hand as she watched her breath. "Do you remember when I snuck out to go to a party?" Alexa chuckled a little sadly. "I was desperate to know what it was like to be normal. To go to parties and have fun "

       She took a deep breath as if the shaky ground beneath her feet would collapse at any second. "It was the first time that I drank alcohol. The first time I was drunk. Honestly, I don't even remember some of the things that I did.

       All throughout my life, you loved me. You were a mother to me."

How I wonder what you are.

       Her voice cracked and she curled herself up as she couldn't help it. Her head between her knees, perched up on the chair with her shaky hands holding her mother's hands tightly.

       "I love you, mom."

       'It would've been easier for me if I was the one in the death bed. Even if it's a cruel and selfish thing to wish for.'

        "You were angry. I'm sure dad would've been extremely angry too. Just by the look on your face as you drove. I was scared. But then... You said, it was normal. You didn't tell or hit me or anything. Just...what were you thinking mom?

        'Atleast if you want to party do it with our consent.'

      Didn't you think I'll become some kind of entitled brat if you told me that?"

       From the beginning, no one had the time to adjust or even accept the reality of Lana's diagnosis but Lana did. Before she became to frail for it, Lana dragged her husband and child all over the world to travel.

       It didn't matter if she'd squandered all of her money if she'd spend the time with her family. Life was such fleeting scarcity with time to live flowing through her fingers like sand.

        "You're my daughter. I'll love you unconditionally."

        "Mom... Hang on."

        It was unfair, her parents had asked and begged her to hold on to her life for years. Even if her palms were to bleed from grasping the knife, "Live. You have to stay alive."

       "And yet, how could you sign that fucking piece of paper."

       Love was both beautiful and ugly. Cruel and kind. Pain and pleasure, thoroughly depending on which end one stood.

       "In my sister's perspective, you would be the devil. I know-" She chocked, eyes tearing up. Alexa buried her head on her mother's bedside. "I know, but... You're my mother. You've always put me above yourself. Even I know your not a person that's easy to love or loves easily. I hear it from a lot of people now that they can say it. That your prideful. Cold. A reptile like woman. But you were never like that to me."

        Her memories of Lana, her mother, were all beautiful and warm. Except for the one time Lana slapped her in the heat of the moment for defending her sister.

      "And now, I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Everything's so sudden, I don't even have time to breathe."

       Was it a crime to love someone cruel to somebody else?