Auriferous

chapter 20

Maura's face was ashen, her footsteps getting slower by the second. "Mom? Are you okay?" Lael touched an arm onto maura's shoulder. She did not answer back. Lael carefully tugged on her mother's arm and placed her gently on the sand bed. "Did he not feed you?" Lael demanded, fury blazing up. "No...he-gave me this-" maura started, gasping as she struggled to talk. "Shh," lael coaxed. "Mom, you're going to be fine." Lael, is maura alright?
No, she's...tired. he probably gave her some drug. Lael gritted her teeth. She looked around for any type of food or water. It seemed like the only oasis was back in the house. It was clear he had not chased after them, maybe it was his plan. Knowing she would find a way out, he wanted to make sure they crawled back in themselves. On their own will. Lael held her head in her hands. Maura tried a questioning look. "Mom, let's go back." Lael finally said. Two voices came at the same time. Maura's hoarse one and reubin's vague one. "No...why?" Lael are you insane? "Its the only choice we have. We've got no food and water and definitely no way out of this place." What makes you think he's going to give anything to you? "Mom's alive, isn't she? She only started getting weaker when we exited, it was probably triggered. Its possible when we return, mom would be alright again." Lael said. Maura swallowed bile down her throat. What was triggered? "Now that's what we need to find out." Lael glanced in worry at her mother. This kidnapper definitely wanted something to do with herself, not her family. She could strike up an exchange with the creature and get reubin to promise to take care of maura when she was sent back. Maura had saved her life when she was on the verge of dying, and she would do that for her in return too. "Mom, can you walk?" Lael asked, a heavy sigh on her lips. Lael... reubin started. Hm? Lael replied. She had nothing on her mind anymore, she did not care what reubin had to say no matter how important. It wasn't her topmost priority to listen to his concerns anymore, so she blocked him out. She never heard what reubin said next. She pulled her mom up slightly but strongly, maura a feather in her arms, the sand making trudging sounds under her shoes. As she tugged her mother back towards the direction they came from, she never felt hesistant. Not even once. She never felt scared to face a demon and offer her soul to the him who called himself her father, she never had any aching feeling that she might die. Maybe being a machine really does has its perks. Lael thought harshly. Or maybe i'm just rusty. Human emotions and feelings weren't much, they did not help. They were just some sidewalk thing to living and breathing irrationally. They had no good use to humans and never helped in attaining what was needed requiring. For once, lael was glad she did not have humanic motions and feelings. They had not made much distance when the house already had its points and peaks looming in the distance. Now she could see it from afar, and saw it was rundown, smudging on the outerior walls of blackened white, sheltered roof tiles the colour of low indigo in metallic shades. There were blood red windows and shades in every form of haunted decorations. It looked like a horror house. Her hypothesis had been correct, she could see the significance as maura's footsteps quickened and her breathing rate increased as they neared the housing. She was getting better the nearer she was to the creature that took her. There was a bond he had fed her."Its maddening that i need to send us to our deaths," maura mumbled to her daughter. Lael never noticed the slight hitch in maura's tone, just like she never noticed anything around her except the little plan forming in her head without rest. Just my death. Lael thought with no emotions at all. A curtain drew back, revealling clouds of dust in the house, lael saw a face emerge in the darkness. A smiling face. A face dipped casually in blue, red and purple. It was chilly how he knew they were approaching. He beckoned to them with a finger. They were close enough for lael to make out the words he mouthed through the window. "Come, come my little angel." Lael did not like it either. She felt hopeless having to go to him herself, with no force of his own. She felt stupid, and she had never felt that in the whole seventeen years of her life. She was the teenager that always scored in everything she did, there was not a question she could not solve. That was of course since she was inhuman but if technology in her soul allowed her to be smart for herself and to know the solution to everything, why could she not think of anything to help her in that situation as she walked her mother and herself. To a haunted house.