Venom

chapter 8. swears and birthdays

I found myself standing on Humphrey's porch, face to face with his dark hard stare, Antony right besides me. The latter stared at us in utter confusion as we devoured each other with heated glares.

  "You two know each other," he noted, glanced between our faces.

  "She's my neighbor, obviously." I raised my chin, still holding his gaze.

  "What do you want?"

Our glares stopped as Anthony stepped between us, keeping a straight posture. He wore a pleasant smile on his face. His blonde, short hair slightly covered his strong bright, yet pale, face. His small black eyes, courteous and warm.

  "I'm here to talk with you my friend. I hope we're not disturbing."

Angus narrowed his eyes at me. "And what is she doing here?" he gestured with his head.

  "Why don't we talk about this inside? These are no manners before a young lady, I'm I not right … my dear old friend?"

They paused for a moment. Anthony threw him a meaningful look which made his face turn serious all of a sudden.

He shot him a calculating look before whirling, leaving the door wide open behind him. Anthony's lips pressed into a hard line. He brought his attention back to me.

  "After you, little doll." He gestured with a hand. I sighed, and brushed passed him into the familiar mansion.

This morning, I roused from sleep and found myself in a large dark room, on a big white bed, in a chamber I had no idea how I entered …

  "What the — "

I checked down on my body, someone had changed my clothes, I was now in a white gown.

I blinked at the room, it was large.

Memories of the night before slowly came back to me. I remembered hitting my head in a car's window.

I touched my forehead to the spot where the pieces of glass had pierced my head.

  "Ah," I gasped.

My heart thudded against my chest when I felt nothing. Nothing at all, there was no sign of injury, not even the slight pain, the wound was — the pain was gone! My breathing raged, I heard the thud in my ears quicken as a sudden fear enveloped me.

I jumped from the bed. There, next to the bed on the floor were a pair of sandals. I quickly put them on and walked towards the small round mirror hanging just above a chest pressed against the wall, a small chandelier set above it.

I peered at my face. It was clean. All my body was cleaned, apparently while I was unconscious. Blinking at my face, I searched on my head for any signs of cuts or injury but they had disappeared.
Broken souvenirs from the night before came back to my mind. A body laying on the pavement, my head slamming hard in the window, the pain, the voice of my mother … my mother.

I remembered that I couldn't find my lips. My breathing stopped as a huge lump formed in my throat, and with shaky hands I held the boards of the chest tight, knuckles turning white.
My mother saved me from that man last night.
She had come back after all those years. She came back to rescue me. To protect me. And she was gone … Again.

I watched, as a tear fell from my left eye. My skin looked paler than ever, practically white. I was locked in a room, in a place I didn't know, but I didn't really care: My mother was alive.

I breathed in heavily, but I couldn't refrain the sobs that escaped my lips. After all the pain and endless tears, she was alive.
I stood there; numb. Slipping to the floor against the wall, time ticked by. My heart full of shattering and despair.