Necromancer's Curse

Chapter Ten

"Maylis," a familiar voice called out to me. "It's morning, sleepy head. Time to get up so you can help me for the day." When the voice said that phrase I sprung up in an instant. I looked around my surroundings and saw that I was back in the home I grew up in, in the home where I had always lived.

"Mother?" I asked aloud in disbelief when I saw her. Tears started forming under my eyes and my heart was filled with joy. I lurched myself forward and wrapped my arms around her and hugged her as tight as I could. I couldn't believe that she was here. I couldn't believe that I was here. It all felt too good to be true.

"Did you have a bad nightmare?" she asked as she returned my hug. It felt so nice to be in her arms. I hadn't been with her for six years, and now I could now finally be with her.

"I'm in one right now," I said. "I'm not an idiot, I know this isn't real. I'm just really really glad that my mind finally decided to reconstruct you."

"What are you talking about, Maylis?" she asked. Her voice sounded more concerned now; it almost felt like the moment was real.

"I'm happy to be with you, maman," I gave in. "I had a really horrible dream where I was stuck with a really bad man and he was making me hurt a lot of innocent people. But I'm here with you now. That's what matters."

I knew that what I was feeling and experiencing was just a dream. I knew deep inside that things could only go bad from here. I knew that my mind was going to make me relive endless horrors, but this was the first time I had felt my mother, even within my own dreams, in such a long time.

"That sounds awful," my mother said. "My poor little girl had to go through all of that?"

"Mhmm," I hummed in response as I started crying. "It was really terrible. It made me feel really bad, it hurt me more than I had ever been hurt before, and right now makes up for all of it. Even if I can't go back to Lili—even if I can't have my revenge—I'm really really happy to have you with me right now."

I closed my eyes. I didn't want to see it, what my mind was going to do in order to twist my joy and I could tell that moment was coming soon. I didn't want to watch whatever was going to happen to make me cry my eyes out. I wanted to enjoy this for as long as possible. Even if it was just a dream, I wanted to feel the warmth of my mother, hear her voice and experience her kindness, every second that I could.

"Maylis," my mother said before a pause. "Open your eyes, sweetheart."

"No," I quickly denied. "I don't want to. I only want to feel you for just a little while longer." I felt the air around me getting warmer as my mother slipped away from me.

"Open your eyes, Maylis," my mother said, slowly sounding unlike her. Her voice was beginning to sound aggressive and scary to me, but I didn't let go.

"Just a little longer," I said, starting to cry because of fear rather than joy.

"Young lady, open your eyes right now," her voice demanded. I could no longer feel warmth, I couldn't hear her kindness, and I couldn't even feel her body pressed against mine in embrace. She was gone.

"Oui, maman," I said before opening my eyes. The entire room was on fire my mother was gone. Everything in front of me, everything my mother and I loved, was burning. All of my joy was quickly being replaced with pain. I couldn't hear my mother's voice anymore; there weren't even ashes in her place. "S'il vous plaît, pardonnez-moi."

I got up off of the bed and walked downstairs. Everything was burning on this floor as well. More pain built up inside of me, not because of the fire around me—in fact none of my clothes caught fire and passing through the fires didn't hurt—but because I hadn't seen this place in such a long time and now I only got to watch it fall to ashes.