Indigo Shadow - Hemlock

Chapter 25

Hemlock could feel the blood drain from his face, his fingertips became cold, and his breathing had ceased. He looked at Loretta who lay motionless on the cold hard ground, her brown curls spilling around her like a fan. He wanted desperately to dart towards her, but he knew better. With one sweep, his mother, Chiara, could strike him with her scythe. He turned his field of vision towards Nox, who was frozen still, staring at Hemlock with wide black eyes. He nodded at Hemlock and slowly approached him, looking at Death's sickle with a wary stare. Nox lightly gripped Hemlock's elbow, as if trying to support himself.

"Mom?" Hemlock asked Chiara, turning his attention back to the dark being. He was staring at his own blood, his lineage, his mother. He felt stupid for asking this, but he could think of nothing else, "Why are you not in Evanston? How is this possible?"

'How can you be so naïve? It took you this long to figure it out? How you couldn't see that is truly disappointing. I expected better of you.'' Chiara looked down at Hemlock and smiled, but it was an unfriendly grin, and it made him shutter. Her long black hair billowed around her, as if she was underwater. A pale gray was emanating from her cloaks, but it had a hint of sickly green. Her eyes were ablaze in bright gold, Ange's eye color, but they looked distant and vacant. 'I have elevated myself to a state of perpetual strength and power. I have become Death and therefore evaded it... I am inevitable.'

"You can't be... That's impossible." Hemlock seethed as Nox stood by his side. The last true memory of his mother was when he and Ange visited her in the mental hospital last Christmas; she had been nothing if not a silent zombie the entire time- staring blankly at the walls around them but never at Ange or Hemlock.

Nox pressed a hand in between Hemlock's shoulder blades, and was instantly filled with a vision of what Nox was thinking; he could hear his voice ribbon in and out of his mind. You can use your power to defeat her, Hemlock. Do it, or we die. But he had so many questions flooding through his mind... how could he do this to his own mother? How had she become the one thing that haunted his life? Hemlock shook his head at Nox.

'Believe me or not, but it doesn't matter... Now that I've revealed myself to you, I have something to ask of you,' Chiara breathed and again the room was filled with the scent of decay and burning meat. 'Rule with me, my darling Hemlock..."

"Rule? Who are you to think you are a monarch in this neutral dimension?" Nox quipped, sarcasm spewing from his lips. Chiara turned her gaze onto him and suddenly Nox was on the ground, writhing in pain, his back arching in an unnatural way. Hemlock bent down, clutching Nox's wrist as he spasmed next to him.

"Stop it! STOP! Leave him alone!" Hemlock screamed at Chiara. When she cackled, the pain was reduced, and Nox slumped against the ground unmoving.

'Like I said... rule with me, or you will die. Do you really want a mother to kill her own child?'

"You already killed dad, so what's stopping you now? You also attempted to drown me." He clenched his teeth, trying not to show weakness. "What good would it do for me to rule with you? Why do you need me? It seems like you have plenty of power as it is." Hemlock reluctantly let go of Nox's wrist, letting it slide from his grasp. He could see Nox was breathing, but anxiety tunneled his vision... would he be alright? He glared at his mother, trying not to get too worked up; compose yourself.

'You do not realize how incredibly gifted you are. With our two psyches combined, we will be unstoppable... people will actually want us. They will need us.'