Chapter 7: Mother

This Chapter was also rushed since I am falling behind on words and I wanted to do stuff this weekend. Sorry :(

Although I think everything is there it just can be worded a lot better. Also are you confused by this reality thing? I know right.

This is also the first chapter that doesn't end of a cliffhanger that ties into a flashback... or does it?

Chapter 7: Mother

            “Jamie…” My mother said, standing in the hallway. She looks down at the assortment of items on the floor just before the door, items used up to make a fetch of my father. Her eyes tear up and she runs towards me embracing me in a hug I don’t return.

            “Jamie” She says again, small boney arms wrap around my body and she squeezes as hard as she could. Never noticed how much I really aged since seeing my mother. Before I left she was taller than me, but now I tower over her. She buries her face into my chest before sobbing. It’s sad seeing her like this. Before I left I would’ve said she is a horrible mother who sleeps on the couch all day and drink alcohol and watch TV all night until she passes out. But seeing what I’ve seen, I know before everything happened she was a good mother, the type who would hold her kids, bake with them, and sing songs to. Now? She isn’t the same happy woman in a flowery dress with my father, she’s just a shell of her former self.

       “That’s not my name mother. That isn’t my real name.” I say to her. She realizes I haven’t returned the hug and lets go, backing away from me. She wipes her eyes with her hands trying to stop crying. Her skin is wrinkled, old, and she looked tired.

            “Of course it’s you real name, you grew up with it. You’ve known it your entire life. I picked Jamie bec” I cut her off.

            “My real name is Blaze, son of the Mad Magician Yosho. You named me because I had a fiery personality when I was a baby. But changed my name, changed who I was, and changed everything I remembered about home.” I accused, sounding a bit pissed off. Neighbors or people walking along the sidewalk would give us a quick glance as I raised my voice.

            “You should come in and we can talk without anyone interrupting us. Scarlet is in her room and won’t come up until I say so.” Mother offered. She walks down the hall towards the kitchen. I scowl at her but don’t say anything. The hallway is a long hallway, at the end of it is a staircase that leads to the basement where Scarlet is. I walk down the hallway and turn right into the living room taking a seat on one of the lay-z-boy chairs. The living room looked normal, a nice set of family photos pictured along the wall, large couch, another chair, television, table and etcetera.

            Sitting in my childhood home I can’t forget the time I spent in here running around and picking on my younger sister. Scarlet and I were originally six years apart in the Lost Realm, when my mother took us we were only two years apart, and now? I’m sure we look 13 years apart. I’m not sure how old she is now, or how old technically I am since I’ve only been missing for a year. My self-reflection on age and time came to a stop.

            “Would you like anything?” My mother yelled from the kitchen. I can hear the fridge and cupboards being open, obviously fixing herself a drink before talking to me.

            “Uh…No.” I replied. I wasn’t really expecting to sit down and chat with her, just say my piece in leave. She walks out of the kitchen with a glass of gingerale in her hand and probably a splash or two of Vodka, this was her go to drink. She takes a seat on the couch, we both looked at each other for a few seconds.

            “Now Blaze… Yes, I changed the name because your father choose it. Considering our situation and I didn’t want to be reminded of him, I chose Jamie.” She reasoned out, taking a sip of the glass and resting it back on the table. She does her best at trying to stay calm, I can imagine how she feels at this moment.

            “So why make a fetch out of a person who you’re hiding from if you didn’t want to be reminded of him?” I asked curiously. A fetch is like a golem but it intimidate someone and it’s constructed to look and slightly act like them. She made one for protection just in case anything happened, a fetch that can fight intruders or hostile people. Of course it didn’t work out to well.

            “It’s complicated. I still love him for who he was before he became corrupted. Your father was a lovely, intense, and charming person. I wanted to remember that as much as I could and not remember the crazy, psychotic, and violent person he came to be.” She sounded serious, as if she was still in love with my father.

            “I don’t think you understood what I did for you. Why I did what I did for you or your sister.”

            “No I don’t, all I know is everything in my head regarding my past life is screwed up. I remember you taking us here and did something to us that made us forget about dad, about our lives, and implanted false ones of us just moving into town from another city. So no, I don’t know what you did for us, only what I remembered.” The tone in my voice raised as I said this, I grew angry. This must be like how characters in science fiction show feel when they get amnesia I have pieces of the puzzle but I’m unable to put it back together. I grow frustrated by this, my mother seeing this attempts to calm me down. She starts to sing and it instantly takes effect. I remember why she sung a lot, because it affected people’s emotions back home.

            “It wasn’t all doom and gloom at the end. Yosho learned a lot more about magic after defeating Atrocious, with our planet doomed he re-created the planet to merge with the domain of the Demon, calling it the Lost Realm. Yosho was fine for a few months before he started hearing a prophecy in his dream that he will be murdered by his children. At first he thought nothing of it, but quickly became ill in thought. He messed with reality making it so you or your sister couldn’t age past 7, for years that worked out fine. But then you started casting magic, and that further fueled your father’s fears and suspicion. He talked about slitting your throats so him and I can be happy together… I couldn’t take that so I left. He attempted to follow but we learned he couldn’t cross the realms due to him being corrupted by Atrocious. At this age you and your sister had a brain of a twenty year old, I had to do something to make you seem like normal.” She explained and I tried to soak it in seeing if I can remember anything she claimed. The only proof I have of her story being validated is my own corruption from Atrocious, it’s slowly happening. It would also seem silly if my father went from after the battle to wanting to slit our throats like I previously thought. A sigh of relief, knowing my father wasn’t totally corrupted from the start. I sigh, sitting down it was easy to tell there was a load on my mind but my mother didn’t ask, she already knew.

            “So, what happened? How did you…” She didn’t want to say it. She already lost a husband to this demon and now a child. A child who brought the demon back home and freed it from its prison Yosho made him.

            “It’s the price of coming home. Without it I would’ve died. The realm isn’t what you think it is. It’s broken, fissured, and without its proper owner it’s colliding with other realities cause people and objects to be lost in time.” Of course I was talking about Winston. It saddens me he didn’t want to come back with me. He truly believes he couldn’t come back and readjust to some sort of life. Winston stayed in the realm till the very end.

            “Why did you come here then? I can’t help you. If I could, I would’ve helped your father.” She said. She didn’t say it to insult me, she’s thinking of Scarlet. I nodded.

            “I didn’t come here to stay. I came here to tell you this, and that you don’t have to worry about dad anymore. He’s been dealt with.” I said with a sigh. Tears started to well up my eyes. I got up from the chair and hurried towards the door. I didn’t expect this to be so hard, nor did I expect that type of emotion from her. I mean she is my mother after all, but the mother I knew wouldn’t care. I didn’t want her to see me like this so I left, slipping on my shoes and shutting the door on my way out. She does get up and try and catch me, but I was too fast and I hope she learned her mistakes with me and raised Scarlet better.

            I can tell by my breathing that it’s cold outside, but I don’t feel it. All I can think about is that I have nowhere to go. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen visiting my mom but a part of me thought I would be staying with my family until I figure out what to do. I expected to die as soon as I came through the portal, I didn’t think the demon inside me would be so strong. I think about my current predicament as I walk along the sidewalk away from my house and towards a park where I can crash for the night. A few blocks later I get the feeling of being watched again. I stopped in the middle of a neighbourhood street with houses on both sides. No one is out this late at night.

            “Come out, I know you’ve been following me all evening.” I declared loud enough for anyone who is actually following me can hear. I turn behind me and start looking into other people’s front yards to see if my stalker would be hiding behind their fences or cars left out on the street.

            “Why so jumpy Blaze?” A women’s voice called out. I turned around back towards the bark and I see a pale woman dressed in a small black dress as if she was going clubbing. Her makeup is pale but expressive. Antigone.

            “Antigone, what do you want? Why are you here?” I asked.

            “Now now, I have the same questions for you. I assume everything is done, you killed your father?” She asked, not answering to my questions. I walk closer to her so we’re not fifteen feet away from each other and talking loudly on the streets. Closer now we chat like normal people, just two severally underdressed people talking to each other on a cold night.

            “He’s taken care of. Yes.” I said. She smiles, I’ve seen her smile a few times usually when she’s about to devour or kill someone. Antigone isn’t like Valentine, Alexis or Cressidra, she works for herself. She is a survivor and her ability to adapt to certain situations is amazing.

            “Interesting, so I’m free then.” She smiled, almost like she is thankful for the news. She turns her back and starts walking away.

            “Hope I don’t see you again Blaze.” She says. I can’t let her go that easily. I run up to her, calling for her to wait. She stops only after walking a half dozen feet.

            “How did you know I was here?” I asked.

            “The portal you came out of was created by associates of your father. Instead you came out of it. I came to see what happened.” She said.

            Like threads twinning together, fate has once again tied Detective St. Pierre too me. The Circle of the Mad Magician is my father’s doing. The magicians have been opening the portals between realms making the bleed between the universes thinner so the spell that was containing my father would be weaker so he can cross over. The Lost Realm was already weakening, when I left chunks of it was disappearing into nothing or other realms.

            “We have to stop them from doing this. Weakening the bleed between universes by casting portals in our world connecting to the Last Realm will cause an incursion of reality. What happened to my home planet when Atrocious first attacked will happen here. Survivors, elves, dwarves, and the like will be roaming these streets. We need to stop them.” I talk to her. She laughs.

            “Well… what’s so bad about that? And why would I care?” She asked. Antigone was part of the invasion working with Atrocious when he first attacked my world. She betrayed sides and helped Yosho eliminate a good chunk of the invaders, some were given amnesty for betraying their kind. Antigone isn’t one for caring for the greater good.

            “Have you seen the people of my world? Of this world? They fight each other. Imagine what would happen if they know vampires are real or elves are real? They hate each other because of skin colour. You’ll be hunted.” I tried to make it seem like it’ll affect her also, which it will.

            “You have a point… I can show you where they do their rituals locally… but they’re all over the world.” The news she gives doesn’t reassure me. This is how Yosho was able to open portals at a whim, because the convergence between the Lost Realm and Earth has already started.

            “We need to grab a friend, a guy named Joseph Pierre, he says he knows some people who can help with this type of stuff…” I said. I don’t have his number nor his address, but I’m assuming it wouldn’t be too hard to find him. After all it seems our destinies are being twined together.

            “Joseph St. Pierre, you mean that French twat?” Antigone asked, disgusted.

            See threads, destiny, and fate tying everything together.