Can't run from you

No where else to go

Silence. A soft lullaby that I remember but can't recall. I start to hum it. It's soft and gentle, every note cascading over the next, like waves. "Mommy?"

My eyes snap open. Evelyn. Thank God. I need to get over this.

Ever since I left Death City, I'd been on my toes. I tensed at every little noise the house made. Grabbed whatever was at hand, and pointed it like a weapon. Literally. ANYTHING. One time I'd been bathing Evvie and I'd heard a creak. I had ended up pushing Evvie into a cabinet and grabbing the toilet plunger and flinging it at a mouse. That's when I KNEW I need to calm down. But I couldn't.

It doesn't really help when you're hiding from a professional hunter. Not like a woodsman hunter or that stuff. Like an animal, a killer. An insane person. He knew me, he had watched how I fought, thought, planned. He knew everything about me. I couldn't let my gaurd down when I knew he could come at any moment. "Mommy?!" Evelyn said. I pushed away my thoughts. I cleared my throat. "Yes sweetie?" I asked. "Can you sing to me?" she asked. I pushed myself off the bed.

"Sure" I said.

I took her hand and lead her to her room.

I put her hair in a braid, and tucked her in. Doing her hair.Hmph. A meaningless act, but I tried very hard to make her feel normal. I couldn't count how many times she had come to school, crying because all the other girls had made fun of her. She had begged me to take her out of school, so eventually I had made a hat for her. It was a tightly-knit black and white slouchy hat.

Every morning,before she went to school, or we would go out, I'd put her hair in a tight bun, and put the hat on so none of her hair showed. And just in case, she'd do a double check ten times. She would only allow her hair to show when we were aloe at home. She's too young to be insecure. But then again, Evelyn doesn't have a normal life. Sigh. I turned off all the lights and turned on a little nightlight that she had painted, it was in the shape of a cat.

A cat with grey fur.

At first I thought it was cute, but then I started to worry when she had drawn stitches in an arc from the middle of the cat's forehead, curving around the cheekbone, ending at the middle of the face.

I tried to get rid of it every day. Today I had hid it at the bottom of the toy chest. She threw a tantrum, so I told her to look in her closet. She accidently tipped the toy chest, and *gasp*, it was magically there.

I looked at Evelyn.

"What song do you want me to sing?" I asked.

"The one you were humming" she replied.

I held my breath and blinked a couple of times.

"Sweetie, I don't know the lyrics, or what song that is" I said slowly.

"Yes you do!!! You've been singing the song all the time this month!!" she exclaimed. "It goes like this....". She took a deep breath and began to sing, her voice like the tinkling sound of a bell.

Think of me,
Think of me fondly
When we've said 'good bye'
Remember me, once in a while,
Please promise me you'll try

I stare at her, in shock.

I've been singing that song, never knowing, but she's been memorizing it all along. Thelyrics start to return to me as I haze off into my thoughts

She suddenly stops, and looks at me.

"That's all I remember." she says.

"That's okay" I say, still lost in my thoughts. I start to sing the rest.

When you find
That once again you long
To take your heart back and be free,
If you ever find
A moment, spare a thought for me

Evelyn's eyes start to droop.

We never said
'Our love was evergreen',
Or 'as unchanging as the sea'
But please promise me that sometimes
You will think of me

Think of
All the things we've shared and seen,
Don't think about
The way things might have been

Think of me
Think of me waking
Silent and resigned,
Imagine me
Trying too hard
To put you from my mind

Evelyn's eyes finally close and her head falls to the side, but I'm too lost in my thoughts to notice anything, I keep singing.

Recall those days,
Look back on all those times,
Think of the things we'll never do
There will never be
A day when I won't think of you

Flowers fade,
The fruits of summer fade
They have their seasons
So do we
But please promise me that sometimes
You will think...

Bam bam bam

My whole body tenses as I let out a yelp.

I turn towards the window.

It's coming from outside.

I stand up and rush to the window. I squint outside of the window. I had forgotten my glasses when I left Death City, and I never had the time to get new ones. I gasped as I saw a large mass move on the porch in front of the door.

It was a beast with dark green skin and a contorted face, over 9 feet tall, slouching over the door, it's huge arms flinging at the door. Kishin.

Everytime it hit the door, there was shower of splinters.

It'll break through the door in no time. I gotta get out of here.

My eyes went directly to the right of the monster. The garage. Bingo.

I looked at Evelyn. But if I went there...He would find out...Mark!!!!! Oh thank God he still lives there.

I reach under Evelyn's bed and pulled out two huge luggage bags. I had prepared for an emergency escape plan incase my old life came back.

Good thing too, but I imagined I'd be running from a different type of monster.

I wrapped a blanket around Evelyn and carried her in one arm while holding on to the luggage with one.

We made our way to the garage. I buckled Evelyn in her car seat and threw the luggage in the back. I went to the driver's seat.

It'll follow us. But that's the plan. Sigh. Im the worst mother ever. Putting my child in danger. I don't even know if we'll live long enough to get there. I still have to try. It's better than dying here though. Okay, in one...two...three...

Boom.

The car crashed through the garage door to get the kishin's attention.

The kishin swiveled to see the car. It growled, saliva spilling from its mouth.

Now is the time to leave.

The car went to the left, toward the desert.

Toward him

As I drove faster, the kishin's rushing footsteps faded.

It'll catch up, it's following our scent.

I heard rustling in the back seat, and a yawn.

"Mommy" Evelyn said in a sleepy voice.

"Yes sweetie?" I asked.

"Where are we going?"she asked.

"We're going to visit your Uncle Mark"

"Where does he live?"

"Where I used to. Death City."