STILL

Chapter twenty-nine

Melissa heard her son's muffled cries.

"Markus?" She called out. She lifted her head off her pillow and rubbed her eyes unaware that her daughter, her best friend, was butchered by Aquilla.

"I thought I was way past waking up at Three in the morning for the kids," she muttered.

She got out of her bed and walked outside her bedroom door only to realize the cries came from Lena's room. She felt her heart sink to her feet.

She felt her hand shake as it made its way to the light switch. The sudden weakness she felt was unbearable. The light hit her sensitive eyes in a way she never thought it would... It was too strong, or she was too terrified.

She walked up to Lena's slightly opened bedroom door door. She pushed the door open only for her heart to skip a beat as she saw her daughter covered in her own guts. Tears filled her eyes; her whole body shook in fear. "No... NO!" She cried. "Not my baby." She ran to Lena's body; she held Lena's head in her arms and hoped her eyes exaggerated the tragic scene. She looked deep into Lena's eyes between her sobs, her spark was gone.

She looked at her own hands, they were drenched in her daughter's blood. Melissa fell to her knees and screamed in heartbreak.

The muffled cries at the corner of the room finally caught her attention. She managed to gather enough strength to look up only to see Markus crawled up in a ball on the floor, a bloody knife laid on the floor next to him.

The gears in her head shifted, she connected the dots.

"You-you said he-he died!" She cried. "You said he was gone!" She yelled at her son and slammed her weak fists to the floor.

"But I'm not now, am I? Aquilla's voice hit her like a truck. It was the first time she heard his voice in almost twenty years.

She turned around to finally see him, a mere human, his black pants blended with the surrounding darkness.
"Quite the artsy scene isn't it?" He gestured at the massacre.
"Your son, legs stabbed so he can't run away, obviously." He shrugged, "your daughter," he paused as he tried to find the right words "Gutted, literally." He laughed.
"We had an encounter, you and I," he got closer to her. "A few years back, I possessed you and used your husband's cancer as my weapon, do you remember that?" He watched her face process multiple levels of grief and anger, but there was something missing.

There's no fear. He thought to himself. He watched her chin tremble as she clenched her jaw. She stomped one foot on the floor before stood up and looked him directly in his eyes, his bright hazel eyes.

"You're quite brave," he said as he approached her once again.

"You son of a bitch," she said through her pain.
"Come on, you all insist on that," he said. "Mom was a demon, not a b word! big difference!" He whined like a kid. "You know what!" She walked up to him. "Screw you and your mom." She kicked him in the crotch. He bowed his legs in pain.

"Even demons have weak spots I guess." He groaned as he raised himself up.
"Back to what we wer-" she punched him in the face, he took a few steps back to try to gain his balance.

"You know you are powerful when you can make hurt a demon both physically and emotionally." He rubbed his cheek. His comments made her angrier, she wanted to strangle him with her bare fists, she wanted to hold the knife next to Markus and pull Aquilla's guts out.
he's finally a form with a kickable ass. She thought to herself. Her hits felt good but vain at the same time, no amount of punches could bring back her daughter.

"You got that punch for free." he said. "The next one-" She went for yet another punch, "I won't be as merciful." He blocked her hand before she could punch him. His voice rumbled through the room, there it was, he finally saw fear form in her eyes.

"Leave her out of this!" Markus yelled from the other corner of the room. "Please," he begged Aquilla.

"Can't do that Marky." he looked at Markus. "But don't worry," he said. "She won't die, not yet at least." Her hand twisted as his turned to claws. His bones broke and shifted, his hair grew, his teeth shifted and turned to their sharp crooked form. He got taller and broader as he finally turned to the creature he really is.

"I'm a fair player." He slammed Melissa to the wall, "it's your turn now, Markus." He shoved one of his claws in Melissa's throat. Markus cried as he tried to move but his legs were too weak to push him away. He watched that thing shove itself down his mother's throat slowly, it never broke its gaze away from Markus, not until it sunk into Melissa. The last claw made its way through his mother's mouth; that's when she dropped to the floor.