Sinister (Lethal Fear: Book One)

10 - Stakes

I could barely believe that it was her. That I was actually being given the chance to see her, to hold her. That I was able to see my mother alive and well. However, a nagging voice in my head reminded me that she wasn't alive and well. She was anything but that.

"You don't know how relieved I feel," She said, her voice didn't sound as strained as Alec's was.

Alec and Dylan were standing next to us awkwardly and i thought of urging Dylan to get back to the group. Mom beat me to it as her eyes flickered towards them. "I want to be alone with my daughter." She said with such authority and menace that I was almost frightened.

Dylan focused carefully on me now and i knew what he wanted to say; Are you sure? Are you sure this is what you want?

I nodded.

He seemed hesistant as he turned to go - and just like that, Alec was over to him in a flash. He grabbed him by the neck and swung him around to face us. Dylan let out a cry - a battle cry, I guess - and grabbed his stake from his pocket, pushing Alec on to the ground.

I immediately understood. This wasn't going well and by the way my mother was looking at fray, she didn't care. 

I pushed myself out of her grasp and raised my stake over Alec's head, hoping to decapticate him. However, Mom was quick. She had the stake out of my hand, so fast that I didn't realize I had slammed my hands on to Alec's head. 

He retaliated with a swift slap against the face that sent me flying to the ground.

"Thats enough!" Mom shouted furiously.

In just an instant, the fight was over but that didn't stop Alec from angrily swinging Dylan into the thickets that surrounding us.

I should have known this was a bad idea. I should have known from the start, because now Dylan was being swung around like a rag doll and I was on the ground, a red mark on my cheek from the slap I'd recieved.

Mom looked towards me and her green eyes softened. She slowly came over to me and suddenly I was filled with fear. This woman was not the mother I knew anymore. She was a fierce sixth who was simply taking on the illusion of her old self.

I found myself backing away from her, frantically trying to reach for the stake that she had carelessly thrown just a few feet away.

"Don't be scared, honey," She cooed softly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Dylan has gotten to his feet now and from a corner of my eye, he was shaking his head, warning me that this was all a lie.

Her expression suddenly turned hard and cold. "But I will hurt you if you don't listen to me."

I almost gasped at how she had went from a sweet mother to a menacing creature. In that moment of evil, her features had radically changed. Her green eyes were no longer there, in place of them were those hollow black eyes that haunted my dreams. Her milky skin was now a pale tone and her hair hung in dead ringlets. Her mouth was open a tad, revealing her black gums. Her claws were long and sharp.

If I was going to be forced to stay with these monsters - yes, this thing wasn't my mother - I would want one request. Just one, because I felt guilty for bringing Dylan here. "Then let Dylan go." I whispered. "Just let him go and I'll listen."

She looked back at Alec and then at me, a strange curiousity visible in her demonic features. "I will promise no harm upon him but he stays with Alec." She spoke as quietly as I did, obviously not wanting Dylan to hear.

"Then I'm not going to listen to you," I said, trying to sound as menacing as she did. "I'll put up a fight."

She cocked her head to the side. "I almost forgot how brave you could be at times."