Before The Ravens Sing (✔️, EDITING)

Chapter 32: Revenge Isn't Always A Dish That Should Be Served

The hospital room was colder than usual, as I tucked my face underneath the sorry excuse for a blanket that they had provided me. In the faint hint of the night, the stars from outside seeped into the expansive window softly, coming to rest all around me. I found myself peeking out at the different shadows that seemed to bounce off the crisp walls around, dreaming of when I was a young child and how afraid of the dark I had been.

I remembered how my mom used to come in late at night, when she heard me crying, with a spray bottle in her hand. In handwritten bold letters across the spray bottle, it said Monster Repellant, and she would spray the air around me, easing my worry. She would then sit on the edge of my bed and sing  happy songs, trying to convince me that monsters just needed a little bit of joy in their lives as well. She would tell me that her songs would ease even the most turbulent heart of the most vicious monster. I had believed her, whole heartedly. I believed that she was the one person in existence that could make anything better, yet laying in that hospital bed, I now knew that she wasn't always the hero that I had made her out to be.

Don't get me wrong, my mom was amazing, but knowing what I knew about her and Julian Reever, still caused chills to spread across every nerve ending in my body. In some fashion, my mother had once had some sort of feelings for the dark haired monster with the piercing eyes. In some manner, she had agreed to make a life with that man, before my father showed up and foiled all of those plans.

I couldn't begin to fathom how a person as amazing as my mother could ever have feelings for a monster like Julian Reever, a monster with a soul as black as the dead of night. I understood what drew my mom to Killian, but until the day I finally died, I would never understand the attraction to the venomous man with the cold eyes. 

Lost in thought, I felt my eyelids becoming heavy, my body briefly felt like it was falling, causing a quick jolt to my system. In my jolt, I slammed my casted hand against the metal rail of the hospital bed. I felt a pair of imposing and strong hands lightly graze the strands of my hair, and for a moment, I was terrified to open my eyes. 

What if the monsters had found me again?

I slowly opened my eyes and my gaze fell on Killian's wavy dark hair which was peppered with strands of grey. His beard of the same color, looked slightly fuller, and his dark eyes appeared to be more strained and tired than normal. My accident had not only affected me, but it had taken its own toll on my father.

"It's ok, Talia. Why don't you try to close your eyes and get some sleep," his deep voice attempted to soothe my fears and for a brief moment, I felt the same love that my mother had displayed all those years ago. Maybe my father wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe. I was slowly beginning to see the man underneath the years of pain and anger; a man who had a warm and nurturing side. I was finally beginning to gradually see the man that had been so appealing to my mom.

"My mom used to do this," I commented and he briefly ceased his stroking of my hair.

"Used to do what?"

"Try to comfort away the darkness," I said with a sigh. "I don't think I'm very tired though."

"Tell me a story about your mom then," he requested, as he inched back into the chair near the bed. The nursing staff had to bring in a new chair for visitors, since Killian had destroyed the other one in his moment of fury.

"Hmmm. Let's see. Well, when I was five years old, around Christmas time, the really nice lady Bonnie who lived down the road from us and would babysit me while my mom was at work, bought us this Christmas tree. It was a really big and beautiful tree and while my mom was away at work, Bonnie went into the garage and got all the decorations. She spent hours decorating that tree as a surprise for my mom, who had been very sick with a terrible cold for a week. Well, we watched this movie about Charlie Brown and he had a Christmas tree, but his tree was gangly and sad looking."