Reflections Of Angels

Screams And Tears

Creeping across the landing hallway, Nyx approached the door of his office; a plate of food in her hand. She hadn't really seen him at all today either, and now she was getting kind of worried.
As she drew near the door, she could hear the faint sounds of movement inside- and unexpectedly, the low tones of speech.

Surprised, she paused, having been going to knock on the door. After a moment, she drew her face closer to the door, trying to hear what was being said.

"-What... Why... Damn you!"

She jumped in alarm at the venomous snarl in his voice; and quickly steeling her nerves, knocked quickly on the door.
The room went quiet for a moment, and then he pulled open the door and peered out. "Yes?"

"I haven't seen you today." She said. "Just checking you're alright."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

Nyx huffed. "When was the last time you ate?"

"Uh... this morning." He replied, like he'd pulled the answer off the top of his head.

"... Yeah, that's too long." She said, pushing the plate with the sandwich into his hands. "There's more in the kitchen if you want it."

Taking the plate, he took a large bite. "Mmm, that's good. Thanks." He said with a grin, before simply backing into the room and closing the door.

Irate, Nyx crossed her arms. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but that wasn't it.

Morosely, she returned to the nursery, where Grizelda was still sitting in her baby carrier, watching her attentively. Slowly, Nyx drew her gaze from Grizelda to the crib, and then back to the baby again. "Please don't give me any trouble, I don't have the energy for it."

She could almost see the gleam in the baby's dark eyes. No promises.

Walking over to the carrier, Nyx began undoing the straps; Grizelda tensed immediately at her approach, but allowed her to unstrap her. So far, so good.

Now came the harder part. Reaching for the child, she lifted her up to cradle her in her arms. Immediately, the baby shrieked, flailing and writhing about, trying to escape Nyx's grasp.
Her cry was loud and long, a true sound of complete distress that twisted Nyx insides and made her want to wince. The girl for sure had a pair of lungs on her.
The child kicked and scratched as she screamed; her impossibly sharp nails tearing long red lines in the flesh of Nyx's arms, chest and neck; even going for her face, making Nyx recoil back.

The bloodcurdling wailing continued even as Nyx wrangled her down onto the bed; thrashing about and even tearing into her sheets and mattress in the course of her display.

"Shh, Shh, Shh." Nyx tried to hush her. "You're fine, you're fine. It's bedtime now." Gently, she tried to rock the crib in an attempt to soothe the baby. "You're tired. Sleep."

The baby wouldn't be soothed; just with renewed breath raised her volume and pitch to an ear-splitting degree, making her head pound and bringing tears prickling to her eyes. "Come on, there's nothing to be upset about! Why are you screaming like that?"

Overwhelmed, she hurried out into the hall, hoping that by putting a some distance between them Grizelda would calm herself down.
She ran into him in the hallway, coming out from his office to see what the commotion was. "She won't stop screaming."

With a reassuring touch to her shoulder as he slid past her to peer inside the nursery. Drawing his head back, he turned to her. "She's just crying. I'm sure you can handle it."

Outraged, Nyx just stared after him, open-mouthed as he returned back to his study. Angrily, she stomped her foot. "That's not normal crying!"

Defeated, she drifted back into the nursery; unsure what she could possibly do but stubbornly refusing to leave the child alone in distress. Sinking down onto the sofa, she covered her ears with her hands, tears trickling down her face.

***

She awoke in the early hours of the morning to the sound of light rain against the window pane. At some point in the night Grizelda had worn herself out, and they'd both fallen asleep where they were; Grizelda in the crib and Nyx stretched out across the nursing couch.

Raising herself up on her hands, Nyx turned to blearily look out the window; and jumped in fright when she saw the shapes of a pair of hollow eyes looking back at her from the glass. They were gone as quickly as they'd appeared, as quick as blink, to the point where she was insure if she'd truly seen them.

Sitting up, she looked around the room in the low daybreak light. All seemed peaceful and quiet; Grizelda was snoring quietly in her crib, in a way that was almost deceptively adorable. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

It was just a reflection, a trick of the light.

Thoughts? Personally, I really love this chapter, I think it's really impactful. Like and comment! :)
Also, I don't know so much about this song for this chapter (it's an interesting contrast at least) but I like it a lot for Grizelda and also the general parenthood theme throughout this series as a whole, and wanted to include it whilst I still remember too. XD