Forlot - Books 1-3 {Completed}

Chapter Forty-Six

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It was a warm and sunny morning on the day that Nigel's mom, Laura, was driving. She was heading home. She had just left the market and entered the highway. Both the streets and highways were packed with all kinds of vehicles, but that was not unusual. After all, it was a Monday, and people were getting to work.

"Richard. Honey," Laura said. She was on the phone with her husband. "Can we talk about this later? I am on the road. I am almost home."

"All that I need is an approval from you," Richard responded. "And you need to talk louder. I cannot hear you."

She raised her tone. "That is because I am not holding the phone. I laid it on the passenger's seat."

Richard heard her. "Why did you do that?"

"Ugh!" She kept her eyes on the road. "Hang up. Please, Richard. Doing anything, and I mean anything, on a phone and driving is extremely dangerous. I could get in an accident."

"You worry too much. You will not get in an accident."

"Just—" Laura noticed a truck swerving in her lane, and the back of it was about to hit the front of her car. "Ah!"

Getting a good grip on the steering wheel, Laura swerved her car in the next lane over. The grocery bags in the trunk and backseat shook, making noises, and some toppled over. Lucky for her, no vehicle was in that lane that she pulled over to.

Laura frowned and honked her horn. "Watch where you are going, you jerk!" she yelled. She looked at the passenger seat and groaned. "Oh, no. My phone." She glanced back at the road. "My phone must have fallen off the seat and to the floor." She sighed. "I will have to look for it when I get home."

"For you, there is no going home."

"Hmm? Who said that?"

The mother felt a tap on her knee and turned.

A shadow was sitting in the passenger seat.

"Oh my gosh!" Laura cried.

The shadow grabbed the steering wheel and swerved the car off the highway.

Laura tried steering the car back to the road, but the shadow was too strong. "What are you doing?" she asked.

The shadow looked at her. "Killing you," it answered.

Before she could ask why it desired to kill her, the car flew off the road and into a nearby lake. The shadow floated out of the car and landed on the gravel. The rocks crunched under its feet.

As the car began to sink, the mother quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and rolled down the car window. She hurried out of the car and started swimming to the shore.

The shadow noticed this, and then went to her and yanked her hair.

"Ow!" Laura screamed.

"What is it that you think that you are wanting to do?" the shadow asked.

"Getting myself to dry land. I cannot swim for too long. I will die."

"Hate to break it to ya, but you are dying anyway." It shoved her head down to the waters. "Your life has lasted long enough. You do not have any more reason." It chuckled. "You are coming to Nerquina."

Laura used all of her strength that she had left in her and pushed her head to the surface. She took a few breaths. "My son...will defeat you," she said in between breaths. "He will know...of what you did to me. He will...overcome the darkness...not by himself...but with his friends..."

"Shut up!" It pushed down her head again. "Nobody can defeat me, Emperor King Oberious. All have tried, yet all have failed. Your poor excuse for a son does not stand a chance against me."

A few minutes passed, and Oberious released her head. He watched, smiling with glee, as Laura's body floated to the surface, and then vanished like dust.

"Another one for Nerquina," Oberious said.
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I hugged my mom. Tears formed in my eyes. But they were not sad tears.

They were tears of joy.

My mom was back. Alive and well.

"Mom?" I repeated myself. "Is...is it really you?"

She nodded and hugged me back. "Yes," she said soothingly.

"I-I am not hallucinating, am I?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I am as real as you."

"Hey, where is my hug?" Maxine ordered.

I looked at her, and my cheeks grew hot. "Oh. Sorry, Maxine."

She giggled. "Nah. That is okay. I know how much you missed your mom. And speaking of that..." She took out her cellphone and showed a picture of an old man.

I stared at the picture. "Who is that?"

"My grandfather, silly. Turns out, he was in Nerquina. Just like your mom."

"What?" I glared at Mom. "You...you were in Nerquina?"

Mom brushed my bangs back. "I have a lot of explaining to do."

I was amazed by what Mom told me that day. She controlled the blue butterflies, so they could help us get home. She even sent that one butterfly to protect me from the bus crash.

And all along, she was the green-eyed shadow.

"I could not say much," Mom explained, adjusting her purple, long-sleeved shirt. "Oberious was silencing me. So I called your name."

"Wait. That was you?" I questioned.

"Yes. That was my voice calling your name. I was trying to get your attention, but you kept running off."

I felt bad. "I am sorry, Mom. I did not know that it was you."

"Well, the important thing is that you defeated Oberious and the Nerians." She set me on her lap. "There...there is something that I need to tell you, and it cannot wait."

"Okay." I snuggled against her. "What is it?"

Mom held out her hand to Karla, and Karla handed Maxine's necklace to her. My mom handed the necklace to me, and I grasped the stone in my palm.

"Nigel. Richard...is not your real father."