Land of the Faery

Chapter 10 - You can run but you can't hide

I shut the door behind me. I let Lilly fall to the ground in a heap as I noticed my mom laying in a pool of blood at the base of the stairs.

"Ah really Marie did you have to drop me," Lilly said rubbing her back as she started to sit up. Her eyes slowly drifted over to my mother's crumpled figure on the floor. She gasped and held her hand to her mouth "Marie!"

My knees went weak and I fell to the floor my hands braced me against the hardwood floor. I tried to speak, I tried to form words but my voice caught in my throat. My eyes stung with tears that would not fall and my heart ached and pounded violently. The edges of my vision began to become black and then there was nothing but darkness that enveloped me.

              * * * The Dream* * *

I am standing in the middle of the street. It's dark outside and a slight breeze chills me to the bone. The dim light of the street lamps reflects off he wet rain-soaked streets. I see a crumpled figure of a person in the middle of the road. My heart clenches on its self. I slowly approach the figure my hands are balled up in fists at my side.

I could tell from the long wet tangled hair that it was a woman. I was standing a few feet away from her. Her breath was shaky and erratic, it came in gasps and sobs.

Her eyes suddenly flew open and locked with mine. I recognize those eyes. They are the eyes of my mother. He voice comes out in a whisper but her words are unmistakable.

"It wasn't an accident."

                * * * The End * * *

When I awoke my head hurt and my heart throbbed. My throat was unbearably dry. I recognized the bed I was in. It wasn't my own it was Lilly's.

My mother's words echoed through my head. "It wasn't an accident," what does that even mean. Lilly enters the room holding a glass of water and she hands it to me. I down it in seconds and set the glass on her nightstand.

"How are you feeling?" I sigh and let out a shaky breath.

"Well, you know, not good," I say as tears stung at my eyes.

"My parents are taking care of everything by the way. I just thought I should let you know. You can stay here for as long as you want. I didn't think you would want to stay in your house alone." I could tell she was nervous and didn't know how to act because she started rambling. To be honest I didn't know how to feel or act either.

I just pulled her into a tight hug. "Thank you, for everything," I said through sobs. The next few days were especially hard but Lilly and her family were very welcoming and understanding of my feelings. I cried for most of the day and when I got tired of that I would fall asleep and wake up and cry some more. I listened to sad music and I watched my mom's favorite movies. Sometimes Lilly would come in and just hold me as I cried until I fell asleep in her arms. It helped to have her around, it helped to know that I didn't have to do this alone. I took long baths and barely ate.

It was several days before I even had enough strength and will power to come downstairs for breakfast. Lilly's mom, Angela had made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. I loved bacon but I found my self struggling to choke down any food. Nothing was appealing to me anymore, nothing felt good anymore.

A few days after that I began to feel somewhat normal. The pain in my heart and throat had dulled to a small ache that only came in fits. I didn't cry very much anymore. I began to eat again and joke with Lilly. I even reluctantly went back to school. People had a lot of questions about how I had disappeared and how my mom had died. I never answered any of them. My teachers were very understanding with me. There were only a couple of months left in the school year. Then I would graduate and I would be on my own.

Every so often I would have the same reoccurring unsettling dream. The dream where my mom is laying in the middle of the street. Her words echo through my head. "It wasn't an accident," what did that mean? That her death wasn't an accident? It hurt too much to think about. I didn't want to think that maybe someone had hurt my mother.

I eventually moved back into my own house. It was difficult, to say the least. But Lilly and her brother came over often to keep me company. We played board games together but her brother would get bored and quit halfway through. We still watched movies every Friday night. though we began to stray from the scary ones for my sake. She would come over after school and we would do our homework together.

My life droned on for the next couple of months. I went to school I came home, I watched movies, sometimes I cried, and I slept. I am still haunted by the dream of my mother in my sleep. I was haunted by memories of my mother all through our house. I imagined her making me breakfast and dinner in the kitchen. Imagined her doing her makeup in the bathroom or watching Netflix on the television. Or planting beautiful flowers in our garden. Around every corner, I turned there was a new memory of my mother.

Graduation came and went in no time. I was now faced with huge decisions. Which college was I going to and what was I going to do with the rest of my life. How was I going to pay for these things? How was I going to live alone in this world?

Then it hit me. I had other options I didn't have to live alone in this world. I didn't have to be haunted by memories of my dead mother. I didn't have to live every day in a place where I was reminded of how she was no longer with me.

Maybe I was acting rash for all the wrong reasons but it didn't feel wrong to me. It felt right, very right. It was the first thing in a long while that I had done for me and not someone else. I felt like I had just come up for breath after taking a long deep dive.

I wrote a note for Lilly and her family. I told them I was leaving to go live with some relatives with is true. I said it was too difficult for me to keep living here. I told them not to worry about me. I kept the note very vague, I couldn't exactly say where I was going. I left my phone on the table next to the note so they wouldn't try to contact me.

I packed some necessities I would need. Like my favorite snacks, my record player and records which I carefully wrapped in plastic to prevent water damage. I packed movies and a portable DVD player with extra batteries. Some feminine necessities of course. But most importantly yoga pants. Lots and lots of yoga pants.

I put everything into a big duffel bag. I laced up my sneakers and zipped up my hoodie. I didn't bother locking the front door. I was heading down towards the lake. I hoped the portal at the bottom was still open. It was worth a shot otherwise I would have to go all the way to New York.

It was dark and misty outside just like that night when I first landed in Faery. There was not a soul in sight.

The lake water was freezing cold just like I remember it being. I adjusted the duffel bag around my shoulders. It made it difficult to swim but I managed to make it to the middle of the lake. This was about where I was last time. I didn't see anything when I looked to the bottom of the lake, but that didn't mean it wasn't there.

I took one big huge gulping breath before I dove into the cold frigid water. It was difficult getting to the bottom of the lake but as I suspected the portal was there. Just as I began to reach my limits I was sucked through the portal like a giant vacuum.

* * * 

Hey guys, I have dropped some heavy bombs. I have been thinking a lot recently. What can I do to make Marie suffer? So I killed her mom. That's the fun thing about writing, you are basically god. I just need to make sure I don't go power-hungry and kill off all my characters.

This chapter was a little shorter. I hope you don't mind. I wanted to keep this one a little shorter just because it was dealing with a more heavy subject. 

Any questions, comments, concerns, moral dilemmas, interpretative dances? I am open to all. 

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