The sun had begun to set by the time we finally found our way back onto the main road, but as soon as we reached the stairs leading up to the palace keep, I suddenly felt a slight tug on my right waist.
“Mister… Brother…” A small teary eyed little girl with brown hair pulled at my cloak, seeking my attention.
“Hwelp me pwease.”
“WOAH,” Caught off guard, I pulled away from the girl and hid behind Meteus’s legs.
But I reacted too hastily, as the girl fell forward, pulled away by my cloak, which she was holding onto.
Plop
“Ouchie” I heard her yelp in a cute way.
Oh no, I must seem like a terrible person in her eyes. I mean, I made this girl fall face first onto the ground without thinking. But she’s the one who approached me and caught me off guard first, if anything she should have expected this, right? No, no, no, no, no that isn’t the proper way to think as a future King. She’s a girl, and she looks even younger than me, I should apologize.
“Ah, ah, what have you done to the little girl, boy?” Meteus held his hands to his hips.
“S-she came out of nowhere and caught me off guard,” I clutched tightly onto his Toga.
“H-hey, a-are you okay?”
The girl didn’t move: her face hugged the ground, her arms slightly bent and pointed forward, and her feet bare. How she lay sprawled out on the floor was actually kind of cute to me, but somewhat worrying as well.
“Oii, little girl are you okay?”
Meteus suddenly gestures his hand in front of me. Telling me to release my grip on his clothes, as if he were saying, “I got this.” Then after kneeling on one leg, he holds a hand out to the girl on the ground.
“Little child, are you unhurt?” Meteus said with a soft tone.
The girl lifts her head up. Her eyes appear glassy with tears stranding down from their edges. Yet, her purple irises seemed devoid of life, as if staring into nowhere. Her face however, carried a dumbfounded expression as her flaky dry lips mouthed in response to the blonde God.
“Mister, pwease help me…” As she closed her eyes, the girl’s expression scrunched and soured.
“WAHHH! Mommyyyyy! WAHHH! Pwease Hwelp my Mommy!”
Meteus’s firm expression slowly slid into a “oh no” type of face while I tried my best to contain a chuckle, thinking this was a perfect time to tease him.
“Kukuku, great, Metty— made her cry.” I said while placing my hand over my mouth.
But things didn’t look good for us as we started to attract some attention as the people walking by stared at us.
“Wahh!! Mommy Mommy!!”
Meteus ignored my childish antics and the curious glances from the busy citizens passing by. Then placing his hands under the girls armpits, he lifted her up from the ground like a parent holding up a baby.
The girl then stopped crying, opened her empty eyes as her mouth drooped, and looked at Meteus with another confused look.
“There, there, child. Now before you ask someone for help, you should ask for their name. My name is Meteus, how about yourself?”
The people who were bustling around us, continued on with their own business as soon as the child stopped crying, but some occasionally looked onwards, as if they were stirring up some rumors around us.
“Meth-E-US?” she tilted her head to one side.
“Yes, that’s right Meteus.”
“Ara, I hope that man isn’t trying to do anything suspicious to the little girl.” I hear a female passerby say.
Slowly, but surely, the girl’s face tensed up again, preparing her eyes for another wave of tears. Meteus noticing this, reacted quickly.
“Wait, Wait, Wait…” Meteus’s reddened face shifts side to side, before bringing his face up closer to the girls. “If we help you and your mother, will you stop crying?”
Lifting her chin up, the girl dipped her head down and quickly bobbed it back up, nodding in assent to Meteus’s simple proposal, as well as earning a slow sigh of relief.
Phewww
“Okay then, I’m going to put you down and you can tell us what happened, okay? WITHOUT CRYING.”
The child then quietly dips her head down, then brings it back up once again in agreement.
Sniffle
Meteus lowered the girl until her feet touched the ground, while she curiously stared into his crystal blue eyes—as if mesmerized like the many before her—until she could no longer keep them open, and rubbed her eyes with her hands.
It was like the scene of a daughter, enamored at the sight of a man who she believed to be her father.
“Good, now can we start with your name?”
“My name is Mia.” Mia answered with both her hands holding tightly to the edge of her stola.
“Great, now can you tell Meteus here what’s wrong?”
“Mommy, she in trouble, some bery bad men took her away.”
I could sympathize with that. Whatever bad experience she might have encountered must have left her scared and alone, in search of help. Who knows how long she had been wandering out here, asking other people to help search for her mother. If I were in her situation and that had been my mother, I would probably be doing the same.
“Okay, Metty I’m all for helping her out!” I exclaimed with determination.
“Big brother here is named, Gaius, you can count on me.”
Now standing beside Meteus, I smiled at Mia. Gripping onto the handle of my Xiphus with one hand. While pointing to myself with my thumb with the other.
But Mia suddenly shifted herself towards Meteus’s side, opposite from me, holding tightly onto his leg. Hiding behind him.
“You bad brother! You push me onto the ground!” Mia stuck her tongue out at me. “Bleeeeh.”
GASP
My jaw jutted downward, shoulders slouching, as my ambitious statements were rejected by a girl younger than me. I felt like my whole body became pale as I could hear the wind blow by me.
“Hahaha, good words Mia,” Meteus picked up Mia again and placed her behind his head, “now is it possible for you to show us where those bad men took your mother?”
“Okay! I show way!”
Mia led the way with her tiny right hand pointing to the direction we needed to go. Still distraught from being shot down, I silently followed the two from behind.
Eventually, I gathered the courage, pushing away my dejection, and moved up beside the two, looking up at Mia as she held tightly onto the Gods forehead.
“By the way Mia, why did you choose to ask me and Meteus for help?”
“Hmmph,” she looked away from me and continued leading us.
Pang
Ugh-It felt like a painful arrow was shot through my chest, being ignored like that.
“Well, mean brother…”
Oh thank the Gods she didn’t leave me hanging.
“I ask evwybody, but no one but mean brother and Metheus help Mia.”
Yea, that was no surprise to me. I couldn’t forget how indifferent the people of this city were, but I also can’t exactly blame all of them either. I assume most heading to the palace were probably busy with their duties and didn’t have the time to look after a child’s needs, especially with so little of the day left.
“Mommy is here,” the girl pointed to an all too familiar building, which I was more than displeased to see.
We were aimlessly wandering around for so long that I hardly paid any attention to my surroundings. But we just so happened to end up at that very building I came to detest after last year. The building where I was to be nefariously sold away by the despicable trio of slave traders, looking ever more sinister, as the last traces of the sunset disappeared into the night. Of course I would never forget this terrible place.
I tightly gripped my swords hilt. Pushing my teeth against each other as I stared at the door.
Pat
But my tension was alleviated when I felt the warmth of Meteus’s large hand resting on my shoulder. But that wasn’t the only reason I was able to relax, because seeing Mia pull at Meteus’s hair while holding onto his head was kind of funny too.
But that’s right, this time I should have nothing to fear because I have Meteus with me. Plus, I’ve been training a lot every day and I am stronger now. Whatever comes my way, I’ll be ready!
“So what happened here Mia?” Meteus asked.
“Well, Mommy said she had to go somewhere before we go home and told me to wait outside. But then a little bit after mommy went inside, I heard her scream, got scare, and run away.”
Then Mia eyes filled to the brim with her own tears.
“I-I’m sowwy mommy, I bad Mia that leave you behind.” Mia dug her face into Meteus’s blonde hair and wrapped her arms around his head, her tears streaming through his hair. Meteus on the other hand, stood still as the liquid started dripping down his face.
Though as funny as this would have been, my heart dropped at the sight of seeing Mia cry and I figured I should move in to console her. But before I could Meteus pulled Mia off of his head and put her on the ground, then I witnessed what I judged to be inexplicable.
That incredibly prideful womanizer Meteus, knelt down and embraced the child with a large compassionate hug. His right arm knelt around her back, as he patted it with his hand. His left, pushed her head into his shoulder, letting the tears and snot stream onto his toga.
I felt a bit envious of Mia, but at the same time jealous that Meteus was able to comfort her.
“Shhh shhh, it’s okay child. I’m amazed and see that you are a strong girl because I think you did good to look for help. Now let me do what you asked of me and help save your mother.”
Meteus spoke with the softest voice I had ever heard him speak.
“R-Really,” Mia pulls her face away from Meteus’s chest, her tears suddenly stopped as a string of snot pulled away, attached to his toga from her nose.
“You have my word.”
“Yea, you can count on me too Mia,” I point myself out.
“BLEHHH,” Mia sticks her tongue out to me while pulling the skin under her left eye down with her finger.
Ah, so this is how it is…
The rejection struck me pale again as another ill-timed gust of wind felt colder than ever.
“Now Mia, I need you to stay outside with big brother Gaius okay?”
“What, no way! I’m going in with you!” I replied.
“No, I don’t wanna!” Mia relayed her denial at the same time.
What does Meteus mean by wait outside, no way am I going to just stand outside and babysit!
Meteus clasped his forehead, as if thinking up of a response would be bothersome for him.
Sigh
Then squatting down in front of the two of us, he tousles our heads with his hands.
“Listen you two. Whatever happens in there, I can’t have you become a liability for me. I need you both to be safe and unharmed, so I can bring you back to your parents in one piece without having them worry.”
“But-I’m more than strong enough now, especially with all the training I’ve done, you saw it for yourself Metty!”
“And if you want to continue to learn from me, you will do as told.”
I lowered my head and bit my lower lip. I just didn’t have the words to follow up with a response. Obviously Meteus could handle himself, but I wanted to do my part too, especially so I could change Mia’s opinion of me.
But if disobeying him would mean no more training or learning from him, I should choose to listen.
I guess I should protect Mia just incase anything happens to her.
Seeing my compliance, Meteus pulls his hand away from my head and then shifts his focus over to Mia, who was adamantly standing her ground.
With her tiny fist clenched by her sides, her frowned mouth showed her openly gritted teeth, you could say it was an adorable display of anger.
“Now Mia, bad brother Gaius here understands.”
You’re evil Metty! Don’t give me that nickname.
“-But, he is strong and will be able to protect you while I am gone. I promise you I will come back safe and sound, so just stay pu-”
“No!”
Sigh
Meteus pulls his hand away from Mia’s head and rest’s his elbows on his knees.
“Can you at least tell me why?”
“B-bwecause, mommy said the same thing and never came back. How I know you will come back?” Mia’s cute angered face suddenly shifts into a tearful one.
Nice Mia! Hit him right in the heart, tug at his emotions, and force him to bring us.
“Well this is a problem.” Meteus stood back up, placing his hand under his chin.
He then turned his attention towards the stone squared building, and then back to us.
“Gaius you are never to leave Mia’s side and the same goes for you Mia, understood?”
Huh? What did he mean by that?
“Now come on, what are you two waiting for?”
My eyes widened as I happened to be lifting my body up on the tips of my toes in excitement.
YES! We get to go in! I guess he couldn’t win against Mia, or maybe he just didn’t want to see her cry again? Oh well, who cares because I don’t think I will ever fully understand what goes on inside his head anyways.
“Come on Mia, here grab my hand.”
When I turned to Mia I saw her emotions were just as ecstatic as mine. Her frown turned upside down, while her hands were unclasped now. Her body swayed in joy, but right as I pulled my hand to her, she slapped it away.
“Hmmph, I no want to touch bad brothers hand.” Mia closed her eyes and lifted her chin up.
GASP
Pang
As if yet another arrow pierced through my chest, the pain of being rejected really hurts.
“But, if I hwave to, I guess I cwan hold onto your clothes?” Mia rubbed her index fingers together while looking away.
I felt my heavy heart lighten a little bit.
“Sure,” I nodded.
Mia held onto the back of my cloak with both hands. The changes in her mood happens so sporadically that it’s quite bizarre actually, but I felt like I gained some acceptance from her. Or at least I think I did.
Jeez, what is wrong with me. Why am I trying so hard to be accepted by this little girl anyways?
Actually, now that I think about it, this is the first girl I’ve ever spoken to near my age. Psh, it’s probably nothing. Whatever.
“Gaius have your sword drawn and be careful not to hurt Mia with it,” Meteus spoke as he faced the ragged curtains covering the door. “Now follow after me.”
Schiiingg
I unsheathed my Xiphos blade and gripped the hilt with two hands with a proud smug on my face.
Meteus then swung the cloth aside from the doorway, entering the building.
As Mia and I followed, I looked around and noticed everything was different from what I had barely remembered. Instead of there being tables and carpets strewn out all over the small building, it was completely empty, leaving only dust and spider webs, piling up at the corners of the room. But at the opposite end from us was a door to another room.
I held my breath in anticipation, ready to strike at anything and anyone hostile behind that door as Meteus grabbed onto the door handle.
CREAAAAAAAK
Meteus nonchalantly opened the door and stuck his head through to check if the coast was clear. Then he went inside and signaled us to follow through with his hand.
Phew
My palms were sweaty, but all the pressure was for naught, as there was only an empty dark room with nothing but a circular carpet laid in the middle of it.
“Well so much for that, there’s nothing here.”
“Shhh,” Meteus said quietly, gesturing his right index finger over his mouth.
He then slowly moved his feet over the big circular carpet. Moving nimbly so as to not make a noise, he bent down and placed his right hand on the floor. Then pressed his ear to the ground.
“Is there something there?” I whispered.
Meteus nodded his head after he got back up. Then stepped off the carpet and rolled it away.
Surprise! There was a flat wooden panel with a thin, roped latch attached to it. Could that possibly be an entrance to a basement or a secret passage even?
I figured this was all there was to this house, but I guess there’s more. I guess that’s a good thing, otherwise we may never find Mia’s mother.
Meteus grabbed ahold of the latch and lifted the hatch up. Below were about nine to ten steps and a faint flicker of torchlight, emanating from further down.
“Wait here and don’t come down until you hear me say something.” Meteus whispered.
I could feel a pull on my cloak from behind as Mia’s grip tightened, telling me how anxious she was.
She must be scared, but to be honest, I thought she was pretty brave for making it this far. Her mother disappeared and she had the courage to go this far for her. She may be young, but she has a strong heart. I will protect you, Mia.
Meteus’s back had disappeared now as he further descended into the basement. It was just me and Mia now, the two of us awkwardly staring at the opened hatch.
“Huhhh what do we have here?” A rough voice says from behind.
My eyes widened as I felt the grip on my cloak release.
“Big Bwother, help me!”
Turning my shoulder, I see Mia lifted up into the air by her wrist and a huge, stout man towering over me. He looked to be a full head taller than even Meteus. His head was covered with his tangled black hair. His face was plump, complemented with a dirty beard and a bushy set of rectangular eyebrows. And his lips were grotesquely large, covering the missing set of teeth I could barely make out behind them.
“Now how did a couple of kids like you end up in this place? You know it isn’t nice or proper to barge into someone else’s home.”
“LET GO OF MIA, you fat hairy man!” I fully turned my body around, pointing the blade at the man.
“Woah there, where did you get that? A kid like you shouldn’t be carrying around such dangerous weapons.”
“AHHHH… OOF.” A new sound emerges, but this time it sounded as if a man was being thrown against a hard, solid object, down in the basement.
“WAIT, STOP, AHHHHHHHH….” A different voice this time.
THUMP
I, Mia, and even the stranger, turn our attention to the commotion coming from the basement, the tension between the three of us vanishing as if it was just a comedy routine.
Meteus must be causing a ruckus down there. Man I wish I could see.
Clap Clap Clap Clap
Meteus walks back towards us patting his hands together as if brushing the dirt off of them from whooping peoples butt.
“Well, now that that’s taken care of-”
But right as he heads back up the stairs and sees the three of us staring at him, he stopped moving as he affixed his gaze upwards. His eyes were looking not at me, but straight past me towards the large burly man holding Mia up.
“Well, what do we have here?”
The hairy man slowly dropped his arm, letting go of Mia. She hurriedly scurries behind Meteus as he walked closer to the man, looking up with disinterested eyes. Sheathing my sword, I pulled Mia to the side of the room with me and stared at the two.
The hairy man was significantly bigger, taller, and had a far bulkier build than Meteus. But the God, the proud womanizer Meteus, stood his ground with his arms crossed, as if telling the man he is nothing to him.
“Brother, is Metthy going to be okay?”
Meteus’s ear twitches. Then jerks his head straight towards us.
“Mia, don’t pick up bad brother Gaius’s habits! It’s MET-E-UH-”
CLAP
We really do get our words cut off too often don’t we? Because Meteus was just rudely interrupted by a punch thrown out by the hairy man. But being the God he is, Meteus nonchalantly stopped the fist, catching it with his hand with a resounding clap, then calmly looked back at his attacker.
As if surprised that a man smaller than him had so effortlessly stopped his attack, the stout man was taken aback.
“Yea, Metty will be fine Mia, don’t you worry. In fact, let’s have a seat and relax.” I pulled out the dragon fruit I bought from the shopkeeper earlier.
“Woah, whus that?” Mia asked.
I sit crossing my legs, patting the ground in front of me, hoping Mia would join. And surprisingly, she did. Sprawling her legs out forward as she leaned back onto me. I pulled my arms in front of her and placed the dragon fruit in her palms.
“This I learned, is a dragon fruit-”
Our unfortunate aggressor apparently heard our conversation, then whipped his head towards us. His veins popped out above his caterpillar eyebrows, bulging in anger from our nonchalance as he once again cut off our conversation.
“You two just be patient and watch me kill this puny little man, then I’ll get straight to you.”
Why can’t you just let me talk about my dragon fruit?
But then dragon fruit aside, the man attempted to pull his fist away, but Meteus doesn’t budge.
“What the?”
He grabs at his wrist with his free hand and pulls harder as his sandals drag against the floor, but again Meteus continues to hold his grip without showing any sign of movement.
“Alright, since you look so pitiful, I’ll give you a chance. Either you can walk away and we can act like none of this ever happened or… you can wake up the next day with a hole in your memory. You choose.”
“You little-”
Unable to control his emotions, the patronized man throws his other fist out in anger, but what happened next shocked even me.
Meteus’s simple movements were so fast, that my eyes barely saw what he did; he stepped forward, twisting past the punch, extended his free hand, and grabbed the man’s face with it.
Then he lifted the eyebrow man up from the ground by his face as his legs dangled in the air.
“GEUUHHHH.” The man muttered through the palm of Meteus.
“I’m sorry your thick brain chose the latter.”
Meteus then steps forward, swinging the man’s head violently down onto the ground. Ripples of cracks form on the wooden floor around the man’s head as his ear slightly bleeds.
Ouch…
Closing my eyes, I clasp my hands together. Rest in peace hairy bushy browed man, I hope you feel better tomorrow as you will most likely not be able to remember what happened.
Meteus leaves the unconscious man in front of the rooms entrance and walks over to us. Bending down and stretching his hand out to Mia.
“Now then, shall we go help your mother?”
“Wow Metthy, you’re really strong!” Mia readily grabs his hand and drops my dragon fruit to the floor.
My fruit…
“You can always count on me, Mia.”
I picked my dragon fruit up from the ground and stood up as well. The three of us then headed down into the basement together.
After a short flight of stairs, my eyes spotted two men, incapacitated at the end of a torch lit hall. Walking further down, we noticed a line of metal doors with barred windows along the right wall.
Attached to the opposite wall from each of the doors were large curtains covering over something.
What is that?
Out of curiosity, I lift up one of the curtains and see my own reflection staring back at me.
There were mirrors? Did the kidnappers want their prisoners to see their reflection or do these people just have weird fashion senses.
As strange as this was, I could only come to the conclusion that this room was a holding cell, and this basement, a dungeon—though with some weird sort of fashion set to it.
CREAAAAK
Grabbing a set of keys from one of the two unconscious men, Meteus shuffled through each of them until he was finally able to open the first door we came across.
Three hunched figures sat in the room, each looking malnourished, down to their skin and bones. But when I saw their bellies, I noticed they were uncomfortably large and rounded out. Looking more closely, I saw there were two males and one female, but oddly enough, it looked as if the three of them were pregnant. As if whatever was inside their bellies sucked out all of the nutrients their bodies had to offer. A bizarre sight, to say the least.
“Mommy!” Mia pushes through the two of us and runs towards the female in the room.
This is weird and doesn’t add up though. If her mother was captured today, how can she look like this?
I looked up towards Meteus and his face showed a bit of concern as well. He might be having the same thoughts.
“Mommy what’s wrong?!”
Mia’s mother sat on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees, her head resting on them.
The mother’s head slowly began to move upwards. The white in her eyes were yellowed, while her pupils were white like a blind man. The skin around her eyelids were dark with streaks of black cracking out from the corners. And her lips were drier than I had ever seen on a person, blistering and bleeding the moment she opened her mouth.
I was shocked and could not move, as the only one question went through my mind: How could anything like this happen to a person in the span of a day?
“M-Mia, is that you?” Mia’s Mother spoke with a dry raspy voice.
“Mommy…”
“How did you get here? You shouldn’t be in this place, you have to get away.” Her weak, raspy voice was filled with concern.
“But Mommy,” Mia reaches her hand out.
Surprisingly though, Mia’s mother slaps her daughters hand away and pushes her to the floor.
“MIA YOU HAVE TO GO, NOW!”
Mia stares at her mother, shaken up from being pushed to the ground as she sat on the ground. Then her face began to twist, convulsing as it looked like she could no longer contain her emotions. Tears began pouring out from the bottom of her eyelids as she tries to grab away at them.
“Wuh-Wuh-WAHHHHHHHH.”
The two other men began to lift their heads as well, both of their looks similar to the mother with the same vacant, blind eyes and dry lips. But for whatever reason, they didn’t speak, only showing their somber faces. As if they were waiting for death.
“Excuse me, but I brought Mia here in hopes of saving you, by any chance, may I ask what happened to you in this short amount of time?” Meteus moves forward, squatting in front of her.
I on the other hand, was too terrified to comment, I just didn’t know what to do in this situation.
“Whoever you are… Thank… You…” Mia’s mother breaths heavy, ragged breaths before resuming. “But can you please… take Mia away and take care of her?
“If compensation is what you need… tell Mia to take you to my home. There hidden somewhere, is my entire life savings. Please, I don’t think… I have a lot of time.”
Meteus looks down at the woman in pity and then to Mia.
“I swear to you on my name I will take care of her until she is of age to live her life on her own, but I need to know what happened.”
“Those men, I came here to pay back a debt… I told her to wait… It was supposed to be over quickly, but then—GUH—GAHHH!!!”
Suddenly Mia’s mother hugged her belly as she started convulsing, rolling back and forth.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?! Mommy!” Mia screamed with tears flowing down from her cheeks.
As I was staring at the woman, I saw something poke out from her stomach—whatever was in there seemed to be pushing outward from within.
What’s happening to her?
“Meteus!” I shouted, “I-I think I saw something move from her belly!”
Meteus got closer to the mother and grabbed the bottom end of her stola.
“I’m sorry, but I have to see.” He said before pulling it up.
Then lifting up her white stola, I took a step back from what I saw. I started to breath a little bit harder, wrapping my hands around my belly as a chill ran down my spine at the sight before me.
The mother’s pregnant looking stomach was purple around her belly button and slowly faded into a dark black color as it reached her ribs, but that wasn’t the most shocking sight. Something bulged out of that stomach from within-as if trying to tear its way out through her skin. My face froze and distorted in horror at what I was witnessing.
Snap Snap
“BOY! GAIUS!” Meteus snapped his fingers, waking me up from my scared daze.
“Hand me your blade and cloak, then take Mia out of this room!”
I stepped closer to Meteus and gave him my blade, then picked up Mia and attempted to drag her out of the room.
“No! I don’t want to leave Mommy! NOOOOOO, NO!” Mia struggled, kicking her feet and flailing her arms around while her wails deafened my ears.
“MI-A-GAHH, I… love-AHHHHHHH,” Mia’s mother tried to tell Mia she loved her, but before she could continue she screamed some more as the pain seemed to be unbearable for her.
“Mia, I’m sorry, but just let Metty deal with this.” I tried to calm Mia.
But I knew no matter what I said, nothing would change, Mia’s mother was still going to die. Whatever was inside of her was killing her and those men. I had to be strong for her.
After making our way out of the room, I kicked the metal door shut and put Mia down in front of me. She looked up at me, biting her lower lip as her reddened eyes wouldn’t stop flowing.
“You bad bwother,” Mia clenched her hands and constantly threw them at my chest. “Take me back to Mommy! Take me back!”
I couldn’t say anything; instead, I just leaned on the metal door looking down in shame while allowing Mia to take her frustration out on me. I have never felt like this before, betraying someone’s expectations and seeing the graphic scene of their overwhelming despair. It was a first for me and I didn’t know how to react. My mind was flooded with a million things I didn’t know how to process.
“EEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,”
The screams of Mia’s mother reverberated through the entire dungeon, very much like when Mother had conceived Julius, but much different in the sense that it was as if I could almost feel her agony and despair tingling on the edge of my skin.
“MOMMY!”
I closed my eyes and immediately embraced Mia, covering her ears while attempting to ignore what mine were hearing. These screams were too much for both of us to handle.
Dashinn 