Into the Night

{New} Prologue

How do you convince a child to live? That was the question that plagued Lilith as she weaved her fingers through her son's hair. She hoped that he'd have a change of heart, but that was in vain.

"Calla, are you... " Her voice broke.

The question lingered. Teetering in the air the plea to reconsider struggled to break free from the pain of what was to come. All the while it watched the eight-legged inevitability descend upon it.

Her lips twitched as she mustered up the courage to continue. The moment had arrived and it would be ugly, fanged, and dripping with the acidic venom of separation and betrayal.

It stuck to her like a fly in a spider's grips. Eventually the disgusting reality would come and claim its victim. Eventually, a husk would replace her child.

Lilith had been called many names throughout her unending life. A demoness, a hag, a screeching owl. Never before had she been called a horrible mother.

Horrible and a mother, but never one in front of the other. Warts, scales, wings, tentacles, or extra heads-- it didn't matter. They were hers and she lived solely for them. To nurture, to protect, to lead.

They were her purpose for fighting.

Yet Calla wished not to live for her or anyone else. He wanted a way out and she, on some level, understood his wish. Otherwise she would have refused.

It was a heavy burden to be cursed at birth. If he was resolved to perish, his mother would be the one to wave him goodbye.

"Are you sure about this?"

He opened his bright doe eyes. They were her eyes. The same shade of blue so dark that they bordered on violet and yet they could not be more different.

His held an innocence while hers had withered away long ago. They pleaded for release, to set him free from his suffering, and she couldn't help but fulfil that wish. Before she could speak another word to sway his request he spoke up.

With more strength than he had shown for a long time he said, "I've never been more sure of anything in my life." And that broke her heart. One she had believed incapable of breaking once more.

His voice trailed off wincing in agony. "I'm sorry that I couldn't be the monster that you needed. I wish that I was different, that I was stronger. "

She shushed him, pursing her lips, breathing her pain out in a steady stream.

"Don't say that. You're exactly the monster I needed. I wish you could see that. I wish I knew the words that would stop this. "

Guilt ran though her hands, tremors of a tormented mind. They sifted through his sweat-covered hair, focusing on the memories she would treasure.

Lilith shook away her pain. It wasn't about her. It was about him. It was his last day with her and she planned to make it special.

To start off the farewell, they spent hours in a sauna being boiled alive with the refreshing scents of heliotrope and vanilla.

When they came back red-faced and aromatic they descended upon the final moments. He lay on the couch as she prepared to end his supernatural life.

"It's alright to let me go," he muttered.

She held back her tears because it wasn't a goodbye. Not really. She'd see him again someday.

A mother isn't supposed to have a favorite. Her love is supposed to be an ocean, vast and overwhelming. She's supposed to love them all equally.

It's just, Calla was different.

Lilith never understood him. She couldn't understand how she could give birth to a creature who's nature opposed her on every level.

They were wolves while he ached to be a lamb. He radiated a light. She was a black hole that no light could escape.

Yet in their differences, their eyes glinted just the same. They held a spirit of rebellion.

The same rebelliousness that resulted in her being cursed. It was a flame that could only be found burning in the night, hidden away, never truly able to be extinguished.

"I don't know if I can," She choked back. Her ancient heart twisted as her hands rested on his forehead.

"There's nothing you can't do as long as I'm with you."

Those words broke her restraint. For the first time in over a thousand years swollen mascara-stained tears tumbled down her lifeless cheeks.

"Shhh..."

She comforted him for the last time. Vines of pure darkness crawled down from her palms, growing larger as they approached.

"It's going to be all right."

A promise that wasn't exactly a lie. They wrapped around his head, burrowing into his mind, eating away the pain.

"Everything is going to be fine."

Like a blanket falling over a child's head, the world was enveloped in the night. The monsters couldn't see him and he couldn't see the monsters. The mother's lips pressed against his forehead, as a farewell to the creature she raised.

"I'm so sorry... "

And as his mind fell blank she was left alone in the darkness once more.  She whispered as in a confessional that she'd never been in. Her hushed words hinted of her own betrayal.

"But this is bigger than you or I. "