Till Death Do Us Part

You Were Never My Home

Elias woke up with a start, startled by the noise that was coming from his usually desolate home. He glanced around, afraid that something had snuck in during the night, and heard a familiar voice from behind me. "Oh, good morning Elias! We decided to drop in today. Hope you don't mind!" He immediately got up when he heard that, and sighed as he watched people running around, collecting everything that he owned and shoving it into big burlap sacks.
Finally, he turned to find the source of the voice and saw a figure in a long, flowing green dress that looked extremely out of place in the small room, and a slim physique that was standing so straight, it almost looked artificial. Elias recognised his mother almost instantly, and groaned in despair.
Elias turned as he thought I haven't seen her in almost two years... That's pretty good. Better than most of my other attempts... How did she find me this time, I wonder? I made sure to get rid of everything she gave me...
Elias had expected today to be normal, with little to no action, but knew almost immediately that it was going to be quite odd.
"My baby, how have you been! I haven't seen you in what feels like forever!" Elias's mom walked up to him as she said that, and tried to give him a hug, but he pushed her away with a sigh before standing up and rubbing his arms up and down to calm his spiking nerves.
"The last time we saw each other was two years ago when you kicked me out while calling me an, and I quote, 'useless little brat' because I hadn't eaten in over a week and took something from the dinner table..."
His mom scoffed at that, and Elias quickly walked over to the kitchen to get away from her and her anger, in addition to trying to make sure that the other people wouldn't take all of his food, as he had gone shopping the day before and it would be a waste to not try and keep any of it.
"Well, that was... Wrong of me to say, darling. I'm quite sorry about that... But you'll surely forgive me for something that happened so long ago, right?"
This time, Elias was the one who scoffed. Elias turned to his mother, and quickly said "Kaera, I want you and all of the people that you brought to leave my house right now. You are not welcome here."
His mom stared at him in shock as he said that, and she stepped forwards with a dark look on her face before slapping him to the floor, all the while screaming at him."How dare you talk to your mother like that! I raised you, you have no right to talk back to me!"
Elias tried to stand up as his mother screamed, but every time he tried, Kaera would shove him back down to his knees and seemed to scream even louder. His shoulders shook from all of the contact, and Elias's eyes filled with hatred as he listened.
"And now you're trying to leave! I did not raise you like this! You should be begging for my forgiveness right now, not trying to escape! I am your mother, you have no right to do this to me!"
Elias sighed, and listened to her ramble for a while, thinking the entire time about how stupid this entire situation was, and trying to figure out an escape plan, or at least find some way to get them out of his house.
Elias felt a lump rise in his throat as he thought You say you raised me, but in all actuality, I raised myself. Not you... You never helped me at all, no matter how much I begged... I was the one in the family who cooked and cleaned, but wasn't able to keep any food for myself.
What a joke... And she expects me to apologize to her?
I wonder if there's any food left. I'm hungry. Would she leave any food for me? Or would she just keep it all for herself?
Ha! Is that even a question? She would totally keep all of the food for herself, and sell any that she didn't need or want. What a shame... I spent so much on fruit yesterday so I could have a good breakfast today!
Elias sat calmly as Kaera yelled at him, and politely listened to her scornful words, or at pretended to, until he realized what the random people in his house were doing.
Elias felt his face grow cold as he finally stood up, and yelled "Wait... What are you doing to my house? Why are those people taking my house apart! What is the purpose of all of this?! You have no right to anything here! And you're rich anyway, why would you need anything from me?"
His mother snarled at him, and he sneered right back at her with all of the anger he had been pushing away for the past while. That is, until her face melted into a smile that was much scarier than any expression he had ever seen on anyone's face.
"Well, we've gone into debt, and we need money to pay the people back by the end of the day. But you seem to be doing very well for yourself, so you wouldn't mind sharing, would you?"
Elias growled, and stood up when Kaera said that, his face dark with fury.  His eyes flashed with anger as he said "This is my house! I built it, worked for it, even got the materials myself! You have no right to-"
Another slap sent his back onto the floor. Elias touched his cheek, and glared up at his mother before spitting out a mouthful of blood. Shivers ran up and down his spine, and his face twisted in anger.
"How dare you... Everything you have is mine! I held you in my stomach for nine months for you to do this to me? How dare you!" Kaera grabbed Elias's long hair and thrashed him around, screaming curses at him while he grabbed at her hands to try and get away from her. Goosebumps covered his skin, and Kaera seemed to relish in his discomfort.
"The entire reason you're alive is because I raised you! How dare you talk back to me? All that is yours is mine!" Elias took her verbal abuse for a while longer while he tried not to respond as she screamed curses at him, and eventually, he became despondent enough that she started to kick him. He hated the feeling, but because of the pain mixed in, the chills stopped for at least a little while.
Kuso... I should have just stayed quiet! She might have left if I hadn't talked back... How stupid. How am I going to get everything back now? And how long will it take for all of these bruises to go away?
At least she took all of the kitchen knives early... I don't have bandages that I could put onto my wounds, or any medicine to help them heal. Ha! There really is a silver lining to each situation!
Elias winced and felt bile rise in his throat while Kaera kicked his stomach over and over again. He struggled to stay quiet, and turned away to try and ignore the pain, but each kick rattled his bones, and eventually Kaera grabbed his hands with hers, and Elias couldn't stop himself from screaming.

The sun was setting by the time that they left, and as Elias surveyed his house, he realized that they had truly taken everything from him.
"Creators... How am I going to recover from this? They took everything... Even the roof! How did they manage that? Kuso, I have a lot of bruises... Ouch. What should I do now? There's not anything left... Should I try to escape her again? No... Running never turns out well. She always finds me..."
Elias took a long sigh before standing back up, brushing off all the dust that had accumulated onto his clothes, and went out to fish so he could get some food to eat.
"I wonder if they took my fishing pole as well... I hope not! It would be really inconvenient to need to replace it all again. And that one was fancy too... Easily one of my larger purchases."
As Elias walked across his once beautiful piece of land, he felt a pang in his heart, and turned away from the trampled flowers and vegetables littering the area around his house.
He sighed while he went to see if his mother had taken his fishing rod, but quickly noticed that there were baby sea turtles walking around the sandy area. He stared at them for a moment in shock, as it was almost the pink moon, and walked over to them after some serious consideration.
"Hello, turtles! Did you all just hatch? How fun! Oh, poor baby, that's the wrong way. Come on, this is the way you're meant to go."
Elias watched them, and occasionally redirected or helped them as they padded off into the ocean. He smiled at the sight of so many of them surviving, but then noticed that there was a strange group of men collecting large amounts of them into bags and taking them away from the shore.
"Excuse me? Sirs? What's going on here?"
When he said that, they all turned to stare at him, and he instantly knew that he had made a mistake. Not only did they look evil, but the aura around them was menacing enough to know that whatever it was that they were trying to do was not good.
"Hello. Sir, would you please be willing to help us? It'll only take a moment." Elias stepped forwards with his heart in his throat, and nodded slowly because, if they really were normal people, wouldn't it hurt their feelings if he ran?
"Of course. What do you need help with?"
They all shared a glance for an instant, and Elias took a step back while they unsheathed very ceremonious looking blades.
"Nothing much."
Elias heard his heart pounding in his ears, and didn't even notice that one of them was sneaking up behind him until they hit him in the back of his head, knocking him out almost instantly. The last thing that Elias saw was the strange men releasing the turtles, and Elias smiled weakly, thinking At least the turtles are safe.