by Fletcher, MJ
She was lost in a haze, the power of the Artifact growing in her. I had a chance against her but only before she was fully in control, then I wouldn’t be able to stop her. I had to act now.
“Is that what Tower wants?” I asked bluntly.
She smiled and nodded her head. “So you finally discovered the man behind the curtain. He wanted to keep his identity from you even at the end. He said you should never know who he was, but if by chance you were to find out, you should know that he had great plans for you. He intends to put our cursed family to good use. Your death is just one possibility of what he wants from us, dear daughter.”
“Don’t call me that.” I gritted my teeth and thought of my father dying in my arms and all because of the woman who had once claimed to love him... and me.
“Why not Er... I mean Chloe. You are my daughter after all?” She searched my face as if she was having a hard time recognizing me.
“No, I stopped being your daughter when you stopped being my mother and that was a long time ago!” I shouted unable to keep control of my emotions. I’d come here for a reason... revenge and damn if it wasn’t returning full force. This woman had deserted me and killed my father. For the last few years all she had done was attack and hurt my friends and family. It needed to end today.
“Your boyfriend needs to stop now.” She grinned at me as her hand shot out to the side and a bolt of golden energy slammed Nightshade into the wall with a thunderous crash. He slid to the floor with a groan and his eyes closed.
“You bitch!” I yelled.
“What are you going to do about it, daughter?”
“This!” I ripped my hand from my hoodie pocket, pulling the Looking Glass from my dimension and activated it. The glow of the power of the Artifact surrounded me in a silvery light. My eyes went completely white as the flow of the universe coursed through my body.
“You have an Artifact?” My mother’s face contorted in rage.
“That’s right, I do. Now let’s finish this once and for all.”
Chapter 37
Status: My mother, my enemy.
“Where did you get it?” My mother spat as we moved closer toward each other.
“Family,” I said, “something you wouldn’t understand.”
“Give it to me now,” she demanded.
“Come and get it,” I challenged with a wave of the Looking Glass.
She lifted her hands and a torrent of golden energy sped across the distance, ready to slam into me. I didn’t even have to move, I simply thought about a shield and it rose protectively around me, deflecting the hit.
“You think you can handle this level of power? It’ll burn you alive.” Her eyes had narrowed as she stared at me and barked her words like a mad dog.
“You don’t seem to be doing so hot either.” I swung the mirror like a tennis racket and a surge of silver energy shot toward her. She sidestepped it and it tore a hole in the wall behind her.
“Playing for keeps are we?” she said considering the damage I had just done. “My turn.”
She spun and aimed at Nightshade and screamed releasing another wave of energy. I moved fast, but a blur of motion swept past me. Nightshade’s Gremlin scooped him up dodging the blast that leveled the spot where he had been.
“Stupid beast!” she yelled, her back to me.
I smiled and rushed forward. I swung a left and connected with the base of her skull, knocking her end over end. She rolled along the floor and I twisted the mirror toward Slade and sent out enough energy to dismantle his bonds.
“Get everyone out of here!” I yelled after him as I ran toward my mother to press my advantage. She was struggling to stand and I leapt into the air, bringing my fist down across her cheek and slamming her back to the floor. I swung the Looking Glass at her, catching her in the side. She slid across the floor, coming to a stop just before the wall.
Slade got Jess loose and she ran to Edgar, grabbing his arm and trying to drag him from the table. Her hand wrapped around his collar and was yanking him.
“I can’t go; she’s connected to the Legend. We can’t leave it,” he protested.
“Take the damn thing,” Jess yelled reaching over him to grab it. Golden sparks flew as she tried to touch it, and she pulled her hand back in pain. “Damn it.”
“It’s locked onto her,” Edgar explained.
“Can you hold it?” Jess asked.
“Being a Mapmaker yes I can, but I don’t know how far we’ll get as long as she controls it.”
“We don’t have a choice, let’s go.” Jess tugged at his collar and Edgar rolled the glowing Legend up and held it to his chest.
Slade was holding his hands up in front of the Gremlin who had draped Nightshade over his shoulder and eyed everyone warily.
“It’s okay, boy, we all need to get out of here.” Slade was talking in a soothing voice and it seemed to be working, the beast stopped baring its teeth and started to follow him.
“Chloe, we’re leaving!” Jess yelled.
“Go!” I yelled back.
“You’re coming with us,” Jess insisted.
“No time to argue, get the hell out of here now.”
Jess looked ready to argue, then stopped and nodded. She understood what I had to do.
I continued my attack on my mom with all the power flowing through my veins, my very being. I could see why the power could consume someone, it was intoxicating.
My friends made it to the door and I was glad they didn’t look back. They did as I told them; they rushed out slamming it closed behind them. I’d thought about this moment for some time, the final showdown between me and my mother. And now here it was, time to collect all debts.
I brought my foot up for a kick to her midsection but her hand swung out catching my foot and flipping me over. She got to her feet more easily than I expected and kicked out with her own foot catching me in the chin and knocking me for a loop. I fell back hitting the ground, pain exploding up my back.
“I’m tired of your little games.” She wiped away blood from her mouth with her sleeve as she stood over me.
“Me too.” I lifted the mirror and focused all my thoughts on it, power pulsed out blowing her back with fury and sending me hurtling in the opposite direction. The Looking Glass ripped from my hands and slid away.
I struggled to my feet, the power from the Looking Glass still flowing through me. I didn’t need to physically hold it to control the power, just like my mother with the Mapmakers Legend.
The room was in tatters from the energy I had released. I looked at the holes I had blown in the walls, rain and wind swept in from outside. The table where Edgar had been sitting was now kindling.
“Finally alone,” she said once again on her feet.
“Some real mother/daughter time, huh?” I chuckled and she blinked, staring at me strangely once again, as if she didn’t recognize me.
“Give me the Legend,” she said shaking her head.
“What?”
“I mean the Artifact, give me the—” She stumbled and reached out, bracing her hand on the wall.
She was dazed, now was my chance to end it. I reached into my pocket and took out my Doorknob and snapped my energy whip open. It was time. With renewed energy to avenge my dad’s death, I ran forward, my whip trailing behind me. Just before I reached her, I swung the whip up and over my head, bringing it toward her.
Her eyes popped open and she looked at me as if seeing me for the first time, as if I was a different person to her. Something was wrong, I didn’t know what, but that look was not what I had expected, especially since I was about to kill her.
“Chloe?” she said softly.
I turned the whip at the last moment and brought it down right beside her, smashing it with tremendous force into the floor. The blow shuddered and cracked the floor, throwing her off her feet and slamming her down hard. As she hit the floor something fell from her pocket and rolled out into the debris.
I glanced at it and
my words caught in my throat... it was a Forget Me Not. It was old and well-worn, as if someone had squeezed it often and kept it close at all times. The same one she had at the restaurant, the one I thought had been used to control Nightshade. My eyes shifted from the orb to my mother, pushing herself up onto her elbows.
I noticed too late where she had landed. Beside her was the Looking Glass. Her eyes glazed over once again, though rounded when she spotted the mirror. Her hand shot out and snatched it. The feeling was instantaneous like someone pulling the plug on a TV. The power drained from me and I collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. I was completely depleted of all energy, though I could still sense the buildup of power around me.
“You shouldn’t have let go of the Artifact,” she said as she looked it over, Silver light crawling up her arm as she activated it.
I’d never experienced that level of universal power. A person with control of one Artifact was impressive, someone controlling two was like staring into the sun.
“A shame you won’t get to see the First Kind rise again, it’s going to be glorious.”
Her voice took on a commanding, though condescending tone like some all-powerful being when speaking to us mere mortals. This was very bad.
“Just get it over with,” I said not wanting to suffer through anymore of her crazy speeches. I had come to settle the score between my mother and me and I had failed. I had failed my dad and Nightshade since once again he and I would be robbed of any chance of a relationship. It seemed that each time we had found each other; we lost each other again.
“What?” she asked as if confused.
“I don’t care about anything you have to say. You don’t matter to me anymore.” I looked up at her standing over me glowing like an angel. She was so beautiful and I had missed her so much over the years. I had blamed myself for her leaving, and yet she hadn’t cared for me or Dad at all. We had meant nothing to her. “It’s over. You win. You’ve manage to destroy the two people in the world who loved you the most. End it, Mom. ”
She stared down at me, her eyes pure white. I couldn’t even see the soft blue that I had always remembered. It was too much for me. I didn’t care anymore, dying would be a relief, a freedom from the pain. Then all the memories rushed back to me, everyone and everything I had lost. Right up to this very day when Bodie had so bravely given his life for me. My eyes filled with tears.
“How could you betray your family?” I demanded. “How could you kill dad?”
“What?” She shook her head and stared at me.
“Did you ever love him or me, ever?”
“You were my family?”
It sounded more a question than a statement of fact.
“Right and like that matters to you; you left us. You killed him, Mom. You killed Dad.” I trembled as the tears poured down my cheeks. I wanted an answer since I was going to die I deserved one. I wanted to know how she could do this to us.
“No, this is all wrong.” She shook her head.
For a brief moment her eyes went from white to her normal blue and I could see that she was confused. Something suddenly nagged at me and I glanced across the room at the Forget Me Not lying on the floor. Could it be possible? I turned to look at my mom and then back at the Forget Me Not. What if it was? My stomach roiled at the thought. Could Tower have taken more from my family than I ever thought possible?
I still had the Skeleton Key in my pocket. I figured I have enough power for one last move. The question was did I go with my instinct or use it on Mom.
I didn’t hesitate. I yanked the Key from my pocket and activated it, pushing what energy I had left through it. Mom glowed brighter as she saw me ready to attack. She drew on all the power of the Artifacts and lifted her hand toward me.
I released one small blast of crimson energy. It sailed across the room and slammed into the Forget Me Not, exploding it into a whiff of smoke and releasing its memories.
Mom let loose with a bone-chilling scream. “No!” She grabbed her head and sunk to her knees.
I scrambled back, the energy around her so powerful that the heat coming off of her was sweltering.
“Oh God, no!” She continued screaming and slammed her fisted hands against the sides of her head. “Elijah!”
She screamed Dad’s name over and over. I pushed past the heat and got as close to her as I possibly could, sweat pouring off me from the intense temperature. The white had vanished from her eyes, they were now blue and tears were streaming down from them.
“Mom?” I asked with a whisper, as if I was a little girl again searching for her mommy. She raised her head and looked at me, as if recognizing me for the first time and in them shined the love I had seen so often when I was a child and she had held me.
Her lips trembled and her eyes continued to shed endless tears. “Chloe, good God, Chloe, they made me kill him.” Sobs wracked her body and she wrapped her arms around herself rocking back and forth.
“Mom, it really is you,” I whispered, my heart filled with joy and sorrow at the same time.
“Your father; they made me kill your father.” She looked directly into my eyes and burst into uncontrollable tears.
“Mom, how did this all happen?”
She looked over her shoulder at the remains of the Forget Me Not. “They came after your dad and me. I was alone when Tower found me. I fought so hard, but in the end he won and used the Forget Me Not on me.” She shook her head. “He stole the most precious thing from us... he stole our lives.”
I choked back tears. All these years Dad and I thought she had left us, didn’t want to be with us. And here she was a prisoner, forced to live away from those she loved and do things she would have never done. My heart broke for her, for my dad and for me. “Mom, I’m so sorry; I didn’t know.”
“No, never be sorry. It wasn’t your fault. How could you have known? I’m beyond proud of the woman you’ve become. Your father did a great job of raising you on his own.” Her voice cracked with pain as she kept rocking herself and she struggled to continue speaking. “I so wish I could have been there for you.”
“Mom, I have to get you out of here.” I couldn’t lose her again; I had to save her. I stood up frantically looking around trying to figure out my next move.
“That’s what you do,” she said. “I see it now and it makes me proud how you always coming up with a plan to figure your way out no matter the circumstances or odds. That takes courage.”
My response came instinctively. “I’m just like you, courageous even in the direst situation.
“Oh, my dear Chloe, how very much I love you and wish I could go with you. I wish we could have time with each other. Unfortunately that’s not possible; I won’t be going with you.”
“What? The hell you’re not.”
She motioned down at the Looking Glass. I grabbed the mirror and slid it swiftly back into my own pocket dimension. But the connection was too great, not even concealing it helped.
“There is the price for absorbing that much power from two Artifacts,” she explained.
“Release the energy,” I insisted.
“I do that, and I will kill everyone within miles of this place,”— she shook her head— “including you. I refuse to take any more lives and I certainly will not take my daughter’s life.” She gritted her teeth in an attempt to bear the pain as she continued to rock herself.
The energy around her began to sizzle; it was burning her up from the inside out.
I dropped to my knees in front of her. “No, mom you don’t have to do this. I can save you.”
She smiled at me sweetly, without a trace of anger or hatred. It was the smile I had always remembered... it was my mom’s smile.
“You released me from the Forget Me Not; you’ve already saved me. Now I am going to save you.”
“No, damn it, this isn’t fair,” I yelled and slammed my fist on the floor. “I can’t get you back just to lose you again.”
“You
can do this, Chloe, you can save your friends and beat Tower. He’s scared of you, he always has been. He needs you; he needs our cursed family, that’s the key.”
“Mom,” I shook my head, tears streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks. “Please.”
“I must do this, Chloe. I wasn’t there for you when I should have been, but I can be there for you now. I don’t want to live with the horrifying memory that I killed the only man I ever loved.” She choked and her face contorted with pain.
“That wasn’t you,” I seethed, my anger boiling over. “That was Tower.”
“Maybe, but it was my hand that took your father’s life.” She shook and moaned as the pain escalated. “Did he suffer?”
She wanted to know about Dad and I understood. I had wanted to know about Nightshade’s ordeal and if he had suffered. “No, mom it was fast. And even at the end, with all that had happened... he still loved you.”
“Yes, that would be your dad. He always told me that nothing would ever stop him from loving me. I hope I see him again so I can tell him that I never stopped loving him either.” She doubled over in pain, the power building as she struggled to contain it.
“You’ll see him, Mom. Dad wouldn’t have it any other way.” Damn, but it felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest, I hurt so badly for my parents.
“Chloe, there is something you have to do for me.”
“Anything.”
“It’s important, more important than anything else.”
“What is it?
Mom looked up at me, her eyes flaring white as the power began to consume her. “You have to save your sister.”
Chapter 38
Status: Sister?
“What sister?” I asked so shocked that I barely got the words out.
“When Tower took control of me I had just found out that I was pregnant with your sister. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell your father. I fought against The Forget Me Not at first using every ounce of willpower I had to protect her. I hoped that there was some way I could get back to you and your father until finally the device completely controlled me and I —your mother— didn’t exist anymore. Now it’s up to you. You have to find her and save her. If Tower were to get hold of her, he would use her, especially if he can’t get what he needs from you. You’re all she has now.”
