"That's enough crying! Get up, we don't have all day!" One of the council policemen snaps coldly behind me.
I should indeed get up and kill the son of a bitch that speaks so coldly about my mother but I don't want to leave her lying all by herself on the floor. The carpet is completely soaked through with her blood but I feel maybe if I call her name louder, she'll hear me and wake up.
I gently call her, lightly touching her face in the process...
"Martha!... Mommy!... Please wake up... Ma! Wake up, please! Don't leave me! Don't leave me, Mom, please."
I put my cheek to her nose again, praying in my heart for some miracle to happen... I feel something... Or could it be my imagination? I thought and make myself concentrate despite the shitty talk from the policemen and the urgency in their voices.
'Oh my god, I feel something! It's the faintest puff of air but I felt it.'
I can't remember the last time I've ever begged anyone for anything. Even when I was being subjected to unimaginable pain, I have never begged for mercy. I always love to see that look of frustration on my torturer's faces whenever they couldn't break me.
But seeing Martha still has a fighting chance of living no matter how faint, I don't care who I have to beg and grovel to, as long as they can get her medical help. I will gladly beg and grovel and worship at their feet for as long as they want.
I turn back to face the policeman that spoke behind me. I see it's their leader. I taunted and mocked him before but now I pray he's not the type that holds grudges. This is a matter of life and death. He can punish me all he wants and I'll gladly accept my punishment but he should please get my mother the medical help she urgently needed.
I fall to my knees with the thump sound of the heavy chain
"Sir, please help me! Help me take her to the hospital! She's still breathing. I felt a faint breath from her just now. Her life can still be saved! Please! Please, I beg you! Please don't let her die! Punish me. Do whatever you like to me but please save my mother!" I hysterically beg on and on as I hold on to his boot.
He laughs coldly instead
"No, she's dead! She's dead and never coming back! I know that because I checked her myself. There's nothing anyone can do to save her now." He replies to me without emotions.
"No, no, please you're mistaken... You see, I put my cheek to her nose and I feel she's still breathing. Please show mercy...." I beg on.
Indeed, she wasn't breathing when I checked the first time. It doesn't even matter if I'm mistaken this time. Something just tells me her life can still be saved. She can still be revived if she's taken to the hospital. It's a big 'if' I know but I'm willing to grab on to it. If there's any chance of saving Martha then I will do anything to make it happen.
"Get up and quit wasting my time!" He growls and kicks me hard to the floor then. "Your mother or whoever she is to you is dead! D-E-A-D, dead! The sooner you resign yourself to fate and start getting used to that, the quicker you get over it."
As soon as he stops talking, I see myself suddenly falling backward to hit the floor hard. One of them yanked the leash they attached to the chain around my waist.
I see red. I'm not angry because they attached a leash to me and treats me less than a dog. I'm angry about the way their leader talked about Martha as if she's nothing. If she was his mother, wouldn't he do everything within his power to save her life?
On the floor, I immediately roll from my back to all fours in an attack stance. Even though I can't shift, I feel my fangs and nails extend and a spring-like feeling in my limbs as I'm propelled forward, jumping straight at him and we both fall to the floor.
I go straight for his neck. Before the batons and stun guns they're using on me take any effect, I have taken a big chunk of flesh out of the side of his neck. While they hit me all over with their batons, I watch in cold satisfaction as he screams in pain and his blood spurts even through the hand he clamps over the injury.
What I find the most satisfying is the look on Miranda's face. It's fear. I see stark naked fear written all over her face as I slowly rise and spit the flesh of the leader of the Council policemen out of my bloody mouth. As their batons hit hard and force me back to my knees, I watch as she fearfully opens and closes her mouth with no words coming out.
'Yes, Miranda you're right to be scared. Be sure to have your goons kill me now, otherwise, I'm coming for you the moment I get out of this bondage.'
My last thought as I slowly lost consciousness are the words Lily the witch said to me when I went to see her. It was also the last statement Martha made to me in my dream...
'Tougher days are coming ahead of you. Tougher days than what you've been through in the past. You have to be ready and strong for this because you're going to lose it all...
Everything you hold dear to you, you will lose. And if you're not strong enough then it might be the end of you! But if you hold yourself strong and you're able to scale through this challenge then you'll gain everything back in many folds!'
'I will be strong but I know I can never gain everything back. Unless someone can bring back the dead, then I will never see Martha again' I thought as consciousness faded and darkness finally engulfs me.
***
"Ash... Ash, wake up!"
Eric has been calling me for quite some time now but I refuse to answer. Pretending to still be sleeping. I hear them, even before they walk into the dank musty dungeon I found myself when I first regained consciousness but I pretended to still be sleeping
"Ash, open your eyes. I know you're pretending!"
"Great! At least now you know I don't want to talk to you. I also don't have to pretend to yawn when I eventually open my eyes since you won't let me be!" I say in relief as I open my eyes
The silver chain clatters on the floor as I turn around to face him and the woman he brought with him. The chain around my neck and waist had been removed and placed around my right ankle and wrist.
Even though he pretends as if my words don't affect him, I can tell he's hurt but I don't give a shit. He should just say what he wants to say and leave me the fuck alone.
"What do you want?" I ask with my eyes level with him
"I'm sorry!.."
"Okay, I hear you, now you can leave and please don't ever come back! You remind me of that son of a bitch and the pussy he calls Luna" I coldly say to him.
I know I'm being insensitive, transferring the aggression of my anger with Thor to him but I don't care. I don't want anything or anyone that reminds me of Thor anywhere around me. I want to totally forget his existence and Eric being here is not helping my course
He sighs. "Ash, I understand you're angry!..."
"You understand!" I suddenly shout and his brows shot up with surprise
"No, you don't understand, Eric! You don't understand or know half of what I'm going through right now, Eric!..."