Secrets in the Skin (BoyxBoy #Wattys2015) **ON HOLD**

Ch.18

-Hiro-

My whole being aches, from my physical skin to my brain and heart. I struggle to open my eyes. They feel like lead as I try to pry them open. After moments of struggling I manage to pry them open, only to be blinded by white light. I quickly shut my eyes again. What is going on? I shiver from the sudden cold that invades me.

I open my eyes slower this time. The light blinding me, but I force them to stay open. My eyesight is blurry at first, my mind not registering a thing I see. I have to stare at one object in order for my eyes to focus.

I jump back with a scream once my mind registers what I was staring at. A human corpse. It kind of looks like one of those zombies in The Walking Dead. The mouth all bloody, dead pale cloudy eyes, skin ripped and torn from its face. The gray hair is thin and almost balding, but I can make out that it's in fact a she. My breathing is rapid as I try to force my legs to move. My brain doesn't register the command though.

I stare at the corpse as she stares right back at me. I feel like she can see my very soul. A chilled to the bone shiver runs down my spine. Did she just twitch?

"Move, legs, move!" I scream. "Move god d*mmit, move!" My body jerks, but my feet stay planted firmly to one spot.

My breathing hitches in my throat. She did move. Her head slowly turns upwards to get a better view of me since she sits on a rotten wooden chair. Her eyes lock onto mine once again. I try to look away but it's like her eyes are forcing me to keep looking at her horrid features.

"Hiro," The corpse chimes. Her voice smooth as melting butter, yet something demonic like you would hear in a movie.

"Who are you?" I ask frantically. "What do you want from me?"

"To join me of course," Her voice slowly becomes more human, but her features stay a rotting corpse.

"W-w-who are y-you?" I stutter. My body jerks as I try to command my legs to move again.

The corpse smiles. She actually smiles. Her bloody lips turn up so the blood drips onto her ripped and tattered brown dress, maybe it used to be a different color, but with all the dirt and blood it just looks like a nasty brown. Her bloody rotten teeth show, or at least the few she has left.

"Brandy Marie Flatts," She says. My breathing stops this time. I choke as my lungs scream for air, but my brain doesn't register the need for oxygen.

"No!" I scream breathlessly. "You're lying!" I manage to pull in a gasp of oxygen.

Somehow I know she is telling me the truth. Somehow I know this is my real mother. Somehow I know my mother has become this walking, talking, corpse, who can now communicate with me. But what happened to her? What caused her to be like this?

The corpse slowly rises to her feet. She towers over me. The blood from her mouth drips onto my face. I whimper as I notice her jaw hangs down broken. The hot blood drips down my forehead and into my eyes, making them burn. I cry out in pain, only causing the corpse to laugh. Her breath reeks like death itself.

"Oh, Hiro," She says and tsk tsk's. "You really are a sad excuse of an offspring of mine,"

"No!" I scream hoarsely. My throat is scratchy and sore like I had been screaming for hours. "No!"

"Join me, Hiro, join me while you still have time," Her voice smooth's out to sound more like my mothers. Only it's just a voice from my memories. Memories of a long, long time ago.

"No!" I scream in pain as she touches me with a bloody hand. Searing cold pain erupts where she touched me.

"Hiro, wake up!"