Chasing Scarlet

Chasing Scarlet: Chapter Eight

Damn darkness surrounded me, leaving me blind and practically senseless. I heard shuffling and sniffing noises off to my right. I laid on something cold and damp. I could make nothing out of the darkness, only pitch black and more black. So this is what it felt like to be blind. Something stroked my hair and mumbled to me, but I couldn't catch the words before they left me. I couldn't grasp onto the strange tongue, couldn't find any words or sounds that I knew. I was truely alone now, wondering if I was dead or alive.

Something glowed slivery in the corner of my vision but when I turned my head ever so slightly, the glow disappeared. I turned my head back, the glow reappearing. So I stared at it with the corner of my eye until it came nearer, the glow soft, warm and comforting. A beast, prowling around, bathed in a warm silver glow came up to me.

It bowed its cat head, its spiked tail swishing behind it. "Mother," the deep voice grumbled. Tears stung my sightless eyes. Except for this miracle that I saw now. I gapsed and reached out to touch him, to feel him once more, to see his love in his beautiful red eyes.

At first he backed away from my touch, but finally let me stroke him. "Shamba, my son," I breathed, and unleashed the tears so they flowed down my cheeks. Another's tears splashed on my face and mixed with mine. Theirs were tears of sorrow and loss while mine were tears of joy. My son was back! He came for me. He would be the angel to take me to either Heaven or Hell. Hopefully it was the first. I had no intentions of going to the nasty place of the devil himself. I would not burn in his fires of shame.   

"Mother, why are you crying?" I stroked his soft nose, a slight smile spreading across my lips.  

"I am happy you are here with me. I see nothing except for you." My son smiled down at me sadly.  

"I am deeply sorry for you, Mother." He bowed his head in respect to me, like the good son he was. No, like the perfect son he was. "I hate to be the bearer of such harsh news, but it is not yet your time to leave this earth. You still have life in you, you are strong, are you not, Mother?"  

"Of course I am strong. How do you think I managed having you? How do you think I've managed living with my mother for nineteen years? If I wasn't strong, I would be nothing. I would be dead. Strength is my weakness also, son. I do not have enough of it to call my own. I borrow some from Andrea, your aunt and your young uncle Petey. For them, I have been strong, excepting my fate my mother planned for me so I could protect them. If I wasn't strong, you wouldn't be here talking to me." I shook my head weakly and twirled his long fur in my fingers, creating patterns. The glow from him dimmed a little, then became strong as ever, as if he was hurt for a second but recovered.

"Yes, of course, Mother. I will miss you." Something warm wrapped around my body as I left the cold ground. Shamba disappeared, his glow slowly fading. I reached out for him and cried his name, fresh tears of sorrow flowing down my cheeks.

No, my son! He was taken away from me again. Warmth flooded through my body and I relaxed into warm blankets. My head rested on the sofest pillows I have ever felt. They were light and feathery, very comfortable. I just wanted to rest now and mourn over the loss of my son. The hole in my heart that had been scabbed over was now a gaping, bleeding wound again, being torn away from my son all over again. I would not be able to see him for ages now.

I settled into the warmth the blankets and soft pillows gave me and fell into a dark and fitful sleep.

Prince Calix was walking in an open field, his battle armour all on and shining in the afternoon sun. His face was covered in blood that was not his own and his hair was slicked back by it. His once mischevious blue eyes were now wild with anger and lust for blood. The sword that his hand held sparkled ruby red with blood from a battle. Behind the prince piles of bodies laid, scattering all over the open field of long wild grasses. What had happened? What was the cause for the battle?