Timeless *(TRIGGER WARNING)*

Chapter One

Everyone talks about how great the country is; the big open fields, all the farms, hot southern girls, hot southern guys, the freedom. Not all of that is realistic there hun. Towns fade away and towns become cities just like everywhere else. We have protective parents who don't give us freedom. Fields are for crops or animals, not just for goofing around in. A lot of people see the farms as a place for animals and growing food, well news flash; it's a hard working job that doesn't pay much. The south ain't as good as y'all think. We are just like everywhere else. Take it from a girl who has lived here all her life. My name is Ida June Elliot; and hun, this is my story.

"Ms. Elliot please come down."
I couldn't stand this man. My mother claims he is the one for me, I don't want a true redneck. I want a real gentleman.
"You ain't my boyfriend. You ain't mine. You can get the hell out of here."
I could hear my mother shooing him out of our small farm house while I unlocked my door to finally get downstairs.
"Ida June. You know I'm trying my best for you."
My mother's deep southern accent rang out from the laundry room.
"Momma I can find a man on my own, I see that you are trying to keep my heart from being broke. But momma, you can't go through life without some kind of heart break."
"Oh Ida... I taught you to be strong but I never knew you'd be this strong without me."
The sadness in my mother's eyes broke me inside. The fact that she raised me to be so independent and strong stayed with me. I've raised horses by myself, I've been kicked hundreds of times and haven't cried once. She needs me more than I need her.
For the first time I realized how tired my mother is. Her bright emerald eyes have faded in color and sunken at the corners. Her flawless skin sagging from the gravity pushing down on her from above. My dear mother at the young age of thirty-six looks as if she is in her sixties.
"Momma I'm not gonna leave you yet. I'm still your little baby girl."
She closed her eyes letting a tear fall. Her reaction made my heart slowly fall into my stomach. The image of her raising me alone being thrown back into my head. All the years of teenage stress and fights have made her crumble in ways I just couldn't wrap my head around.
"Momma why are you cryin'?"
My mother didn't look up from her worn out boots.
"Momma..?"
My inner child came through. My mother is standing there in tears and what am I doing? I'm standing here watching like a snake watching her prey in the hot summer sun. I wrapped my arms around her and felt her tears soak through my shirt. She was truly broken, her whole life is standing in her weakened arms holding her for the first time.
"Oh Ida... My dear, sweet Ida. Please don't worry about me. I'll be okay soon. I'm just a little tired."
I sighed and held my mother. Close to my chest like she used to do to me when I came in from a bad day in the barn.
"Don't lie to me momma. I know you're not 'just tired'; you've been this way for a while now."
"Trust me baby girl, your momma is just fine."

My mother's idea of 'just fine' wasn't my idea of fine, or even close to it. Her eyes are becoming duller and darker everyday. Her enthusiasm is gone. It's like she has become a shell and all that's left is just waiting to wither away and crumble in my grip. She doesn't even want to talk or eat. This ain't my momma, I know better than to believe this is her.
"Momma?"
I ask as I knock softly on her door. Her room has become her sanctuary. She barely even gets out of bed to use the bathroom.
"Momma it's just Ida."
I tell her walking slowly into the darkened room where my crippled, broken mother laid in her bed. All that could be seen was the darker outline of a curled up woman within the charcoal colored darkness.
"Ida please leave me alone."
"Momma you need sunlight."
It's like something snapped within her just as fast as the blinds flying up and around the bar.
"IDA FÜCKING ELLIOT!! LISTEN TO YOUR DÄMN MOTHER WHEN SHE TALKS TO YOU!!!"
My jaw fell faster than a cinder block.
"Momma... What's wrong with you?"
The look in my mother's eyes sends chills down my spine as though I stepped into snow barefooted for the first time. This is not my mother, something is wrong.
"GET THE FÜCK OUT OF MY ROOM!"
"Momma listen to what you're saying! You're not my momma anymore."
Tears brimmed my already swollen eyes as she turned away from me.
"Get out."
"Momma please. I need my mother back."
Pain flushed the right side of my face.
"I said get the fück out."
I cupped my cheek letting the tears fall. The salty water burning my reddening cheek with each drop from my dulled eyes.
"I miss my mother."
The words snapped from my mouth hitting her harder than she hit me. Her eyes grew wide as she looked over me.
"This is not the Kendra Elliot I know."
My mother's head began to tilt as she watched me as if she had no idea who I was.
"My mother would never hit me."
Pain rushed through my whole head as I flew into the wall. The tears fell harder as I let my knees fall from beneath me.
"My daughter would listen to me."
The salty drops fell faster and harder with each word. My mother's gone.

Kendra Elliot is gone; this monster is in her place taking away everything.