Death Has Wings

Alone

"What's wrong Clark? It looks like you've seen a ghost." The thing that used to be my mother laughed. I just stared at it, tears almost forming. How could this have happened? How could she be possessed? My own mother, the second person in the whole world that I trusted. How could this happen?

It's destined to be this way. You'll be alone for the rest of your life. You'll have no-one to care for you. No-one at all.

No. I wouldn't let it be like that. I took a breath and stepped towards the demon. It's smile quickly turned to a snarl. It stared at me with its pitch black eyes, seeming to look into the deepest regions of my mind. It hurt to think that this used to be my mother, and that it would never truly be her again. Grandma had told me that after someone has been possessed and the demon leaves their body, the victim either dies straight away or some of the demon's residue stays with the victim, making them insane. I didn't want either one of these options to happen to mother. She was too precious to me. But she had been possessed and all I could hope for was the best option. Death.

"LIAR! You want her to die in the slowest way possible, don't you?" The thing screamed at me, raising the knife level to my throat. "Don't you?" The smile came back, more crooked than the one before it. It had been reading my thoughts. Not the ones in the front of my mind though. It had been reading the ones that I had tried to bury right at the back. The ones I never brought up. Ever. "Tell her, Clark. Tell her the truth." Mother's eyes returned, tears streaming down her face. She was shaking her head, not wanting me to tell her because she already knew that it was true. The demon had shown her. It had shown her my innermost thoughts. I couldn't lie.

I nodded slowly as I felt tears threatening to fall. I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at her. She started to cry hysterically. Sobs escaped her throat in short gasps. I heard her step towards me, the sobs stopping bit by bit with every step. I opened my eyes to see that it wasn't my mother staring me in the face, but the demon, holding the knife to my throat. I tried to move but I was frozen to the spot. I started to panic. I didn't like humans being this close to me, let alone demons with knives in their hands. The demon smiled once again.

"It'd be so easy to kill you this very second. So easy to just run the blade across your throat, sever both arteries and watch the blood drain from you...but, that'd be too easy. I want you to suffer. I want you to prepare for all the pain you're in for." The demon smiled and pulled the knife away from my throat and lowered it to mother's wrist. "See you in Hell!" It laughed, plunged the knife deep into mother's wrist and slashed it across. Mother's eyes returned, only for a second before they turned cloudy and dull. The blood poured out, onto the floor, soaking my mother's body. I ran over and caught her before she hit the floor. I couldn't save her. I dropped to the floor with her in my arms.

"Mother...please don't leave me. Please. I need you. Don't die. Don't die. Please. Please..." I started to rock back and forth, more to comfort myself than her. I cried. The tears just wouldn't stop. They fell onto mother's face, staining it even more. She took a struggled breath. I gently brushed her hair from her face.

"Angeli dicunt tibi fili mi. Eundum est. Respondeo dicendum eorum vocet mea parvulus." Her voice was barely a whisper. She took her last breath and smiled at me. Her eyes lost their spark. A new wave of tears burst through. She was gone. The only member of my family that was left. Gone. I clutched her lifeless body close to me, still rocking. I didn't want to let go. Letting go meant that she was gone forever. I didn't want that. I was completely alone if I did. I didn't want to be alone.

Not again.