CHAPTER 11: THE MOTHER
The dawn of a new day did not make way for the glory of the morning sun. Instead, what greeted Suzanne was a heavy downpour. One she had never witnessed before. The sky flashed with lightning and roared with thunder. If she hadn’t glanced at the clock on the wall, she would have thought that it was still midnight. But the shorthand of the clock had already reached 9.
She groaned and sat up, only to see a sleeping Tom on the floor. He was curled up in a catlike position, the blanket had been kicked off sometime during the night. Suzanne smiled and bent down from the comfort of her bed to cover him with the blanket gently.
They had kissed and touched each other the night before but did not progress further. Instead, Tom had held her in his arms as they talked. She wished Tom hadn’t been such a gentleman.
She rose from the bed and tiptoed over to her office and almost let out a scream when she saw Yvonne sitting in her black swivel chair. Suzanne immediately pulled her robe tighter.
“I didn’t sleep with Tom, I swear!” was the first thing that came out of her mouth.
Yvonne smirked playfully, “I didn’t ask.”
Suzanne scratched her head and quickly went back to her room. She pulled a sleepy Tom to her office to greet Yvonne. Tom’s sleepiness was quickly replaced by a sudden seriousness.
“Yvonne….” he said simply.
“It is time Tom. I have to go now,” Yvonne looked at Suzanne. Another set of lightning flashed across the sky causing her window panes to shake.
Suzanne nodded her head and proceeded to gather her toolbox, allowing mother and son to spend a few final moments together in private. And as she walked past her window to obtain her toolbox, Suzanne glanced out of the window to the view below. From her penthouse, she saw the trees on the ground swaying in the wind, a mini cyclone whirling past some cars and something in black caught her eye.
Strange. She thought to herself.
From her level, it looked like a figure in black was watching her. She tried to take a closer look but the figure disappeared from her view. She felt uneasy though and decided to request the security check their CCTVs after she had sent Yvonne along.
She quickly walked to her shelf and pulled out her toolbox. Behind her, mother and son both shed tears of joy and sorrow.
The black mist was strong now. It had sucked many a life force during the night. No one heard the screams of its victims with the howling of the wind. It would not be long before it made its way to claim its final victim. One who would ultimately feed its life force and allow it to return to this world, not as a shapeless being, but to return to its human form once more. For this, it needed the life force of Suzanne Summers.
And once it did, it would wield her powers and open the gates of the Abyss.
From above it sensed Suzanne Summers looking at it. The black mist retreated into the shadows. It was sure Suzanne Summers wouldn’t mind the sacrifice. After all, Suzanne owed the mist her existence. For once, long ago when the mist was in human form, Suzanne Summers had called her mother.
“Thank you, Tom, for coming into my life. I’m sorry I was never there for you,” Yvonne smiled through her tears, lips trembling as she asked for forgiveness one last time.
Tom shook his head, feeling strangely calm.
“Yvonne, it’s alright. I got to see you and William. Thank you for coming to me in the end. I appreciate it,” he gave her a reassuring smile.
Suzanne looked on as both mother and son shared their last moments together. She wished she had been able to say goodbye to her own mother properly. Her mother had just disappeared one Sunday morning when she was just 9. Grandmother had held onto her as she cried inconsolably. She had always wondered if her mother hated her. Suzanne shook her head, bringing herself back to the present.
She cleared her throat, “Eh em…it’s time.”
Yvonne wiped her ghostly tear away and Tom stepped back. Suzanne then proceeded to conjure the gateway to the afterlife. This was an ancient spell that had been passed down from generation to generation, and only a handful who knew of this spell was left. Her mother, tried as she did, never did manage to master it. Perhaps that was why she left. She never asked, and grandmother made no effort to explain anything to her either.
The black mist was once human. But memories of its life now existed only in fragments. It had fleeting memories of its name, Olivia Summers. But it could no longer identify with the joy that Olivia felt when she had held baby Suzanne Summers in her arms. Or how Olivia had sworn to protect her flesh and blood from harm. It recalled not how as the black sheep of the family; Olivia had grown up in shame. And all because she did not possess the gift to communicate with those, not of the world.
There was no recollection of how Olivia had left Suzanne in search of greater power simply because she had wanted to be accepted by her family. Consumed by the need to be accepted, Olivia had sold her soul to the devil. But she had been deceived and now, as the black mist, it had become a slave to the abyss. And today, it had come to destroy the very being it, as a human had sworn to love and protect.
There was no love now, only rage, hunger, and the need to feed. It was always hungry. And all it knew was that Suzanne Summers held the key. Once it consumed her, the hunger would stop. Once it gave the abyss Suzanne Summer’s soul, it would be able to return to its original form and dwell amongst the living once again.