Out of the Lamp

Chapter 13: Jailed

Alia

My eyes force themselves open.

The room is dark.

'W-where am I?' I sit up. It's not my room.

A shadow shifts near me and I jump up with a startled squeak.

'Alia?'

'Dad?' I clutch a hand to my chest. 'Jeez you scared the life out of me!'

He shakes himself awake and stares at me. 'Are you ok?'

'Yeah...but what happened?' I strain my mind to remember something. Something important that happened earlier today...'and where are we?'

'At the Bureau. This is the nurses office. You were knocked out cold when I came home today and-' he cuts himself off.

That's when it clicks. 'Oh my god.' I clap a hand over my mouth. 'That wasn't a dream, was it?'

He shakes his head no.

'So then...then-m-mum?' The word sounds so alien and tastes just as foreign. 'Mum.' I breathe out. Trying on the word for size. It feels weird.

'Yes honey, she's back.'

Anger suddenly courses through my veins. 'Back, huh?' I throw the thin comforter off of me and slide my legs over the edge of the hospital bed style examination table. 'Who the hell told her to come back after all these years? We don't need her, so who says she had the right to return after almost two decades!' I shout, my voice growing stronger and louder with each word. My resolve solidifying to concrete determination and white-hot rage.

How dare she! How freakin dare she! First abandoning me on the bloody doorstep of my unbeknownst father and up and disappearing for my entire life. Then suddenly popping back up with the lamest one-liner introduction I've ever witnessed to date. "Hello there darling"! Pfft. Lame alert.

'H-how d-dare she!' My voice breaks. I lift my hand up to wipe my face. It comes back wet. A salty taste enters my mouth. Tears.

'Ah Alia honey,' dad wraps me up into his strong arms. I sob into his shirt, wetting it with my tears. They won't stop coming. I can feel his own soaking my shoulder. 'W-Why, dad? Why now? W-where has she b-been all this damn time? What's going on!' I cry, as unashamedly as the day I was born. The day my own flesh and blood abandoned me.

My dad rubs my shoulder and speaks words of comfort. His voice containing the anguish I felt within my heart. He must have had it rough too. I wouldn't know though, he never talks about her. What they were to each other or anything. But the pain I hear in his words and the tears that he shed for her, are signs enough. She was something just as important to him, as she was to me.

'What're we doing here?'

Dad sighs and leans back. Running a hand through his hair. He has dark bags beneath his eyes and a hollowed look to his face. He just seems to tired and exhausted. 'To bail your mother out.'

'What?' I exclaim.

'Her presence alerted the Bureau and they immediately took her into custody.'

The shock written all over my face is evident. A billion questions assaulting my mind.

'What? What did she do? Who the hell is she? The Bureau? Why? Was she hiding from them? Is she a threat to us? Bail her out?'

'Woah! Woah, woah!' Dad has his hands stretched out, palms facing me, gesturing for me to calm down. 'One at a time,' he chuckles a bit. The familiar sound makes me relax instantly. Some tension unwinding from my shoulders.

'How did I knock out?'

'The nurse says she thinks you fainted from shock.'

I let out a laugh. 'Wait. You're being serious?' I frown. 'That's a thing?'

Dad raises an eyebrow in mock amusement at me. 'Clearly, you prima donna.'

I roll my eyes and smile back at him. 'And we have to bail her out, why?'

Dad throws me a befuddled look. 'She's your mother, Alia. And..an-'

'No, dad. She's just a woman who gave birth to me. A mother is someone who sticks by you and watches over you as you grow up. They look after you and love you. Heck, you're my mum and dad in one, yeah.' I say.

Dads eyes soften and tear up all at once. He grabs me into a crushing hug and I breathe in the familiar home comforts I've grown to recognise. Here I am safe.

'I know, love, but give her a chance, you might find she has some crazy explanation that might just pass for good enough, eh?'

I snort in disbelief. 'Yeah, like maybe if hell froze over and the devil himself claimed her soul.'

The door abruptly swings open. A man with a clipboard stands in the doorway, silhouetted against the bright lights of the corridor outside.

'Mr Jackson.'

'Yes?'

'This way please, sir.'

I stand up and slip my hand into dad's. He squeezes back.

The clipboard guy coughs. His eyes invisible behind the reflective sheen of his glasses. 'Just you, sir. Your daughter is not permitted.'

'Huh? But this is family business!' I yell.

'No, it is Bureau business, good day, Miss Alia.'

Dad pinches the bridge of his nose and inhales heavily. 'Fine, goddamnit you people are ridiculous with all your rules and regulations, but fine!' He squeezes my hand one more time and faces me. 'You understand right, honey? Is it ok if I go?'

I bite my bottom lip furiously. A few choice curse words suppressing themselves. I give a curt nod as he hugs me one more time and leaves. The clipboard man shuts the door behind him, and I'm left in darkness once more. Completely and utterly alone.

Question after question bombarding my brain like a tornado.

What the hell is going on? How'd he know my name? Am I ready to meet my m-mother? Is she even a mother? What am I doing? What else can possibly go wrong today?

Man I need some ice cream.

Find a happy place. I tell myself. I will myself. Find a happy place. If I say it enough, maybe, just maybe, it might just come true. Who am I kidding.Findahappyplacefindahappyplacefindahappyplace...

'Happy place?' A low chuckle rumbles through the room. The voice echoing without a body.

The air around me compresses my body in a tight uncomfortable heat. My fingers tingle and the hairs on the back of my neck rise in warning. A familiar, and really, really, unwanted warning of who was to come.

Within a blink of an eye, the devil (Jr) himself appears.

Fudge. 'Daemon?' There goes the happy place.

~*~