BANE: avenge

Chapter 11

DOUBLE UPDATE

Make sure you read Chapter 10, dears!

Dedicated to BeAwesomeForLife

Keep being awesome. (And clever.)

I sat in the float & waited for the tears to come.

But none came.

Pippin was smiling at me. I leaned forward.

" Pippin, did you see her?"

" Who?"

" You did not see her?"

" Who, Ara?"

" The steam-bow."

" Ara? A steam-bow? They are inanimate! What are you talking about, Ollie?"

" I saw a steam-bow! It called me! It knew my name... It told me to leave. It was in my dream, too."

His face was one of utter & complete befuddlement.

" Ollie? Are you alright? Does your head hurt?"

His hand advanced towards my forehead, touching it. I shoved his hand away.

" Pippin! I am perfectly fine!"

" Are you sure? I think you might have a bit of a fever... We could always go back & leave tomorrow, you know..."

I considered it.

I was about to say yes, when I saw a wisp of colour floating around.

" Pippin! Look! There!"

Pippin looked where my hand was pointed.

" Now that you say it, there is a little fluff floating about there. It is only a bit of cotton."

As he said it, the colours vanished & it became just what Pippin had said it was.

A cotton fluff.

Grabbing it, he showed it to me.

" See, nothing more than a piece of cotton that must have blown away from the fields. It must have just been the light reflecting on it so that you saw it in different colours."

I grasped it & looked at it in my hand. Sure enough, it was a cotton fluff. An ordinary piece of cotton that must have blown away from the cotton fields while they were harvesting them. It was a normal, everyday piece of fluff. The light must have hit it in a particular way & made it shimmer with the colours of a steam-bow, making me think it was a piece of a steam-bow & not what it actually was. A piece of cotton. Used to make bags, clothes, & numerous other objects. Surely there are cotton fields around here... that I simply just had never happened to notice or come upon.

" What about the voice, Pippin? It told me to leave. Twice. It told me to leave, not once, but twice, & one of the times it even used my name."

The corners of his mouth tugged down & his eyebrows scrunched together in thought.

" perchance it was just the wind blowing through the trees?"

" perchance, but I hardly think that is truly a good explanation."

Sighing, he lay down on his seat.

" Ara, I do not know what to think, but I am going to take a nap. I did not sleep at all well."

I nodded & watched as his eyes shut. In a matter of minutes, he was snoring softly, & I knew he was asleep.

I looked out the window as the scenery changed & went from being in a considerably wooded & unpopulated area to a more populated town area, the poor country people looking at the float in awe. I pitied them. Never to have the luxuries that I was given, the titles & money I had in upper society.

A young mother & her children ran about, playing a game I did not recognise. The mother ran after the children, touched them while yelling something, & then ran off with the child she had just touched chasing after her, then the child caught her (I believe the mother let the children catch her, anyhow) & the cycle was repeated.

Was I really lucky? Was it truly right to pity them? perchance I should envy them. I doubt they ever had to run away from their homes because their mother had taken on a lover while their father was away at war. I doubt that their mother dismantled their childhood friend. Their mothers & father played with them, nurturing relationships. I sighed & continued, seeing similar displays through the town. Gradually, everything became more & more blurred, until everything was everything & nothing at the same time.

I sat in the float & the mother that was outside morphed. She became my mother, & she was chasing after me, little me, running outside the carriage, crying for help. My mother held a rope. She kept telling me that it would all be fine, she just wanted to play a little game with me.

I cried, knowing it was an awful game which she wanted to play. She would tie me up & leave me in the basement, crying. I did not want to go in the basement again. I did not like that game.

She caught me & suddenly we were at my childhood house. I cried for help, but no one heard me. She lay me against the wall & bound my hands to the cold, hard metal as I wept. No one heard me, & she left, snarling a few words at me before she left.

" Cyborg scum of a child."

She caressed my right temple, pressing on it with a face of utter disgust & repulsion.

" Soft metal, it's like skin, & yet so repulsively ugly! I can-not stand it! I can-not believe I could have possibly produced such a monster!"

I wept, & she wiped my tears, looking at them.

" I wonder if these tears are even real? Are they the same liquid as mine? Are they the same liquid as any other human's? They are red! They are so red! Why do you cry with red teardrops, you abomination?"

I thought about it, & then, I decided I would never cry again. Never again would a tear fall from my eyes. Never again would I allow such an abomination to the human race be shown to the world. Red tears? Who ever heard of such a disgusting thing? I could cry, but no tears would fall. I would not permit it.

By then, my mother had left, & locked the door.

For hours, I sat in pain, the cords cutting into my skin. I had stopped crying. I had realised it was of no use.  No one would hear me..

Then, I heard clacking in the keyhole, & I panicked. My mother was coming again, was she not?

Out of desperation, I cried out.

" Mama! Mama! Not again. Please, Mama!" I turned into a grovelling mess during the minutes the clacking continued. Finally it stopped, & the door swung open.

Don't forget to vote if her mum sucks! Did you expect that? (Here's a little secret... Even I didn't expect it, don't be afraid to admit you didn't.) Any thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

Legolass+