Category : Stories

Sub Category : Fantasy

Screaming and shouting emanated from the small cottage on the outskirts of the village. Lara had gone berry picking, and Sirrus and Kaldrah had been left alone. 

"I've heard you two talking," shouted Kaldrah, Lara's mother. "I know the ideas you're putting in her head! You're trying to take her away from me!"

"You're insane Kaldrah, I haven't done anything of the sort! I don't know what you think you've heard but your paranoid delusions have clearly bested you. You don't know what you're talking about!"

"I won't fall for your manipulative drivel, Sirrus. I may not be your real mother but I've raised you since you were small. I know your games! It won't work!" Kaldrah was practically shrieking now.

"Listen to yourself, Kaldrah, you're hysterical! You should've never gotten out of bed today. You're not well!"

Kaldrah spat in his direction. "You are VILE, Sirrus! Purely vile, trying to make me question my own sanity, trying to put me down, talking to me like a child! I should never have taken you in, you curse driven animal! I know now there was a reason you were abandoned!" As she spoke, the realization of what she had done settled in over her. She knew she had angered Sirrus, but she was ready.

At this, Sirrus snapped. There was a loud crack as his flaming fist dove through the wall. "That's ENOUGH!" He shouted. "I could kill you where you stand, and you dare say such things to me?” His voice quieted now.  “Another word, another whisper, and you’re dead. Is that what you want? What kind of mother would you be, leaving your little girl alone with an animal like me?"

Kaldrah only smiled. "If you kill me she'll know, she'll finally see what a monster you are! You can't kill me, or you'll lose her. You’ll lose everything!"

Sirrus laughed darkly. "You can't tell me you really think that? I have your little girl wrapped around my finger. She'll believe whatever I tell her." Then, with a wave of his hand, a rope lifted itself from the corner of the room and wrapped itself around Kaldrah's neck, forming a noose. The last thing Kaldrah Cairn heard was Sirrus' quick footsteps bolting from the cottage.
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“Lara!” Sirrus shouted, panting, legs scratched and bleeding. He had run through brush and brambles to reach Lara's usual berry picking spot in the woods. “Lara… it's… it's terrible…” Sirrus was on the verge of tears as he fell to his knees. 
Lara dropped her basket and ran to his side. “Sirrus…” she said softly. Sirrus hey, talk to me, what happened?” 
“Your mom, she… she --” he was  cut off by his own sobbing. 

Lara became panicked. “My mom? What about my mom?” She asked frantically as he cried. He kept moving his mouth as though to speak, but said nothing. “Sirrus please, just tell me!”
“I came back to the house and I - she --” He choked out the words. “I found her… She… hung herself… She’s --” 
“No, don’t say dead,” Lara said quickly, trying to ease the surge of grief and panic rising in her chest. “You found her right? So you got her down, she’s okay? Tell me I’m right, Sirrus. Please!”
Sirrus only looked at her gravely and shook his head. 
“No… No!” Lara cried. “She can’t be… she can’t be gone… Not when she was doing so well!” she began to sob uncontrollably. “She can’t…. Nooo no noo…” she cried. The grief crashed over her like a tidal wave in slow motion - gradually, inch by inch , making the slow realization of the inevitable reality of the situation all the more terrifying: you were going to drown, and there was nothing you could do about it.