The Hijacked Bride

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

MONIKA HELD HER mother's cold hand, emotions at war inside her heart. She sat on the edge of the bed, her mother barely taking up any space next to her, being as small and frail as she was. Her breathing was shallow and her face was a sickening pale.

She has held on for so long, Monika thought to herself. It's alright for her to leave me now.

Before she could stop herself, she wondered why. Why the woman who raised her, who used to bathe her, who mended the rips and tears in her dresses and stroked her hair until she fell asleep each night when she was younger, was still fighting to stay alive.

It was cruel. It was wrong to assume. But Monika knew in her heart that her mother, wrought with illness and weaker than ever before, wanted nothing more than to finally leave this world. It had hardly been kind to her, in any case. Yet something was holding her back, holding her here.

It had been days since she had last spoken a word, let alone a sentence. She refused to eat. She needed Monika's help whenever she thirsted for water. The sickness was more than ready to take her, but still, Monika's mother lived.

Gazing down at her wanton, hollowed out and oval shaped face, Monika felt sorrow. She did not want to see her mother like this anymore. She wanted only to remember her the way she once was. She clutched the hand in her grip more tightly. Suddenly, her mother stirred. Her eyelashes fluttered open. She offered Monika something that resembled a fragile smile and mumbled a string of words.

"Mama," Monika's breath caught. "I didn't hear you. Tell me again." She leaned in closer.

"Choose...better," her mother's voice was hoarse and raw.

"Better?" Monika's brow furrowed. The first words her mother had said for days, and they didn't make sense. But her heart skipped and jumped at hearing anything from her at all. "Better than what?"

"Better...than I...than I did. I want for you-" Her mother's words turned into a cough that ended up a choke.

"Hush, mama," Monika soothed. "You don't have to say anymore."

But the eyes of the older woman burned with a returned vibrancy that had been missing for a long time. She would tell her daughter what she needed to tell her. "I want...for you to have...a happy life." Her words were slurred and barely comprehendible.

Monika nodded. "I will. I have Al."

Here, the light in her mother's eyes faltered. "Ah. Al...good boy. You...mustn't...shoot blindfolded. I wish I could...be here. You..." Her sentence was left to hang in the air, its presence heavy.

Now Monika knew the time was nearing. She didn't understand what her mother was trying to tell her, but she wanted only to comfort the woman that meant more to her than any other in the world. "Shh, mama. You are here, always." She moved her hand to rest over her heart, indicating where the memory of her would live.

Her mother closed her eyes. "Always...Moni. My girl. My...brave girl."

Monika watched the life seep out of the one who had borne her, and something inside of her fluttered and faded along with it.

*

"YOU KNOW SHE was a mother to me as well," Alastar murmured to Monika from where he sat in the saddle behind her. His breath was warm on her neck, but still she didn't turn around. She didn't want him to see her tears.

"I know," she replied. "She loved you like a son."

There was a hole in Al's heart now that her mother has passed away. Monika knew it as well as she felt the pain that thudded within her with each second that slipped past. She knew it because it was the same for her. Somehow, things were not the same and somehow, she knew they never would be again.