The Tales Of Crowboy The Incredible: Of Ink and Power

Chapter Thirty One

      Mama was still giddy with excitment when I came home from school. I looked visisbly upset, but I guess to her the great discovery of magic was more important that your childs mental health. She was just too eager to ask my questions about if it hurt, or what my magics did, and is this why I was missing so much school? She had been acting like this for about a day now, after the overall shock had worn off. 

      I hated her. For the first time in my life, I hated her. This went on for days. Owen said he wouldn't be able to shatter her memory instantly, and he had to get permission first. Every single day, as I stepped through that door, Mama just bombarded me with question. Owen would drive me home, and every day, I pleaded with him to come inside and wipe her memory. And every single day, he just looked at me with sad eyes, said he was sorry, and made me walk through the door. I couldn't do it anymore.

      I had come home crying at one point. I was angry and frustrated that I couldn't do my school work on my own and how my disabilites made everything worse. Mara, the LRC director, said that my math skills perplexed her. She said that I just needed to concentrate, and that it was strange that I couldn't read because my ADHD was so bad.

      I walked through the door that day, wanting my Mama. I expected her to see me and hug me. I expected her to ask what was wrong. I expected her to sit me down and talk to me and listen to me as I talked about how much I hated Mara. Because I needed my Mom. But she wasn't there. 

    Instead, I got someone who I didn't know, and who I didn't love, and who I had grown to resent. This was a woman who only cared about the power that came with having a Celstial child. 

     When my mother say me, she looked at me with a curious look in her eyes. A cold, hard, curious glint, like she was unsure if someone like me should be crying. I asked her why she was looking at me like that. She just laughed. My mother laughed, and then touched my face. But it wasn't tender like it used to me. And then she slapped me, right across the face. 

     "You don't get to cry. Do you have any idea what power you hold? What you could do for our family? For me? We would never have to work again. How dare you keep this secret from me. How dare you ask me for money and clothes and food when you have something like this, which you had the adacuity to keep hidden from me? No more. Enough. You will not get one penny from me from here on. You're lucky I haven't told your father. He would have the same reaction as me. Now, go. I don't want to see you crying. You weak little freak." Instantly, I stopped crying, and straigneted my back. Something inside me snapped. There must be a red mark blossoming along my face. This wasn't my Mom anymore. She had turned into something more selfish, more  cruel. My mother would never do this. And this wasn't because of my magic. Something else had happened. Someone had done something to my Mom. I was sure of it. 

     I summoned that energy from my core, an act I had been doing for months now, something I had gotten so used to it was like second nature at this point. Like I was born to do something like this. The heat burned my throat, worse than it had ever before. That must have been the rage radiating from my stomach and core. Mama looked over to me, and then gasped when she saw me coughing out some green goo, and let it move up my shirt and onto my shoulder. 

     "Mama." I said, like a child, and smiled big. "This is my magic!" She stepped forward, her hand reaaching out, like she wanted to touch Abaddon. I let her get withen 3 feet of me, before I spoke. "Oh, I wouldn't do that Mama. Did I tell you what my magic was?" Sickening sweetness poisoned my words, in an unnatural way which made me want to rip out my vocal cords and scratch them raw with my own nails. 

      Mama, if I even wanted to call her that anymore, dropped her hands, but still stared at Abaddon. She shook her head. 

     "Oh, I didn't? Silly me. It must have slipped my mind. Well, this is Abaddon. I named it after a place in hell. Or a person. I'm not really sure. But anyway, Abaddon has a special power. And its power is very rare. Making me even more rare." Mama smiled at my words. She looked at her hand, tranfixed with my power. She seemed even more in wonder that she had even thought about slapping me. I hope that what was going through her brain. How could I slap my child? I could I say all of those terrible things to him? I hope so. "Well, Abaddon has killing magic? Isn't that so cool? I haven't killed a person with it before, but I've killed plants and little animals and stuff like that." Mama looked scared. I like that. I wanted her to think about what she had done and what she had said. "Anyway, I'm going to go to bed. Or go to my room. I'll be down to cook Lennon dinner in a bit. I think you should think about what you said, or maybe what your iPad for a little bit." I turned around, and started to walk upstaires. 

      "Wait!" Mama yelled, kind of scared. I smiled, and quickly wiped that joy off my face. When I turned around, I could see Mamas joy had melted off her face as well. Now, she was just staring at Abaddon, absolutely appaled. And scared out of her mind. "Are you just going to leave.... it here with me? Fefe, please! Wait! Come back!" She yelled, and I heard her voice started to crack a little bit. 

       "Don't you dare cry on me. Don't you dare start to cry on me. Don't you dare even think about crying after saying everything you said to me. You are my MOTHER! How DARE YOU talk to me like you did. I needed you. I needed you to be a mother to me. And you decide to say those words to me?! I didn't chose to be born, and I sure as hell didn't choose to be born with... with these!" I yelled back at me, and shook my hands. Mama flinched with every word I said, her face growing redder and redder by the second. "No. You don't get to judge me for that. I went out on a limb to tell you what I told you. Do you understand how much trouble I would be in? No. No you don't. So, please. Go to Lennon and be a good mother to him, and I'm going to be in my room now, trying to clean up and regain my composure, alright?" I turned and ran upstaires without a second word. 

     When I got into my room, I ran onto my bed, and took a few deep breaths. I had let Abaddon downstaires with Mama. I told Mama Abaddon had killing magic. She wouldn't be dumb enough to touch him. I'm sure of it. She's confused, but not so stupid to do something like this. Then again, this probably isn't even my Mom. I'm not even sure anymore. 

     Like I said I woud, I cleaned my room, and then sat and read for a little bit. I stayed up there for around an hour and a half. Lennon was at lacross practice, and one of the other moms was going to droped him off. I closed my book, and crept downstairs, listening to the stair creak and try to find Mama. 

       "Hey, Mama." I said when I finally reached the bottom of the staires. I couldn't see her. That was weird. I didn't hear her walk upstaires. She's kind of noisy when she walks. Maybe she's in the laundry room. 

     I started dinner, and waited for her to walk into the kitchen. Maybe she was angry at me? That was fair. After a few minutes, I got a little worried. There was no way she was hiding. And I didn't hear the car pull out of the driveway. Both of the cars were still here anyway. 

     "Hey, Mama? Where are you?" I yelled, my voice echoing off the walls. "I'm sorry for what I said. I promise I'll never say something like that again."As I turned the corner, I saw her shoes. Pink slippers she had had since the day I was born, that she was always losing. But the thing about this time when I saw the slippers, Mamas dead body was connected to them, laying down on the ground, unmoving.