Reflections of Light

Piecing It Together

"What happened?"

"I don't know!" Luci wailed, seeming to crumble before Jace's eyes. "I just... Don't know! He was fine one moment, running around like his usual joyful little self, and then next thing I know, he's collapsed on the floor in the living room! Please, will you let me go in and see him now? He needs his mummy!"

Keeping his voice level, Jace pressed to calm the distressed woman. "You can go in in a moment, they're still working on him. They need to know what happened, how he got like this. Now, I need you to think really hard, is there anything specific you remember? Anything unusual, any small detail that could give us a clue."

"He was just... Mucking around. He was trying to get my attention! Oh, why didn't I give him my attention?" The young mother lamented.

Jace hurried to comfort her before she spiralled off track. "You might not have been able to. You might have been doing something else that needed your full focus...?" he suggested, hoping she would take the lead and expand the story.

"What, are you saying there is something that requires more attention than my son? That is more important than my son?!" Luci said, voice growing shriller with each angry sentence. And then, she dissolved into hysterical sobs. "I'm such a bad mother!"

"Hey, no, that's not what anyone's saying." He said, taking a seat next to her as he tried to soothe her. "We can see your son is very important to you, just by the fact that you're here now. You've done everything right so far, bringing him here. And it's not like you could predict this happening, you just can't prepare for everything.
But what William really needs now is for you to get tell us what happened. Please, we can help him, you just need to let us."

Taking a deep breath, Luci swallowed. "It might not be so much as what happened, as who happened."

"What do you mean by that?"

"... Lilith."

There was a heavy silence in the air as Luci struggled for her next words. "She's the one who... Evelyn's mansion, she was there. And she took over. And then... When we escaped, she came after us. We didn't want to, but we ended up staying with her; we had no where else to go.
And I never... I protected William, I did! Never... Never left them alone together, never had him unsupervised, didn't even like them in the same room together... I did everything I could!" She jumped to defend herself, even as Jace looked shocked.

He looked like he wanted to say something, then changed his mind, steeling himself to keep on the task. "... And in these places you lived, where did your son sleep?"

"At the mansion, he had a room next to mine. But it's been ages since we lived there. Recently, in the apartment, I made him share my room."

"And what did he eat? Who prepared his food?"

"I did. I was the only one to cook."

"And where did you get the food?"

"Supermarket. I bought it, I always did the shopping."

"Well..." Jace looked frustrated, chewing over all the information in his mind. "... Did he... Touch something he wasn't supposed to? Was there something in the house he could have gotten to?"

"Wait... My tea." Luci whispered with a slight gasp.

"I'm sorry?"

"My tea! When he was mucking around, I told him to mind my tea, because it was hot! And William being William, of course he didn't listen!"

"He touched it?"

"He drank it. I was in the kitchen, with... With Lilith, and he came in. He wanted me to come play, and... And I wouldn't..."

"Don't wind yourself up." Jace advised, seeing Luci welling up for another round.

"He was playing about with his cars on the worktop next to the mug... Oh, God, she put it in my tea!"

Jace nodded, getting up and racing out of the room with the news.

Pulling her feet up onto the sofa, Luci let the soft tears fall down her face;  clutching to her chest the small, tinfoil-wrapped shoebox stuck with shells, like it was the most precious treasure in the world.