Caught

Chapter Eighteen

"You fool." She gritted her teeth, squeezing my neck, preventing me from breathing. My head was pinned to the kitchen wall. I could've easily pushed her off - I was much stronger than her. But I let her hurt me. I let her dig her fingernails into my skin, drawing blood from me.

"Why did you do that?" Her voice was cold. She squeezed me tighter. It didn't affect me at all.

"I loved him."

"You have no time for love." Her indigo eyes stared into mine. "You were supposed to loath him. To the bone. I tried making sure of it."

"You didn't try hard enough," I croaked, not moving. "What type of hiding place was that even? It was in plain sight. And, yes, I do know who 'Evolutian Number Two' is, mother."

"You were forbidden from calling me that."

"That never came up in our conversations," I shot back. "Plus, 'mother' shows more respect."

"And more hatred."

"Why do you even care?"

She yanked my arm and pushed me to the ground. Mother had me sandwiched between the hard, marble floor and her weight. I was uncomfortable, I had to admit, but I wasn't going to do anything.

Not yet.

"You bit-" She didn't have enough courage to finish the rest of the word. "Memories were taken for a reason."

"A stupid reason if you ask me." I closed my eyes, the pain from her heels stepping on my back causing tears to start forming.

But I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I just let her continue.

"What, girl? Afraid to speak?"

"No," I croaked.

I turned around in a instant, grabbing her foot and dragging the woman I'm supposed to call 'mom' to the ground. She groaned as I used my strength to pin her to the ground. I was much stronger. I hurt her more.

"Lauren!" A voice called. Next thing I knew, strong arms were pulling off the woman. I tried pulling away, returning to the fight with a woman twice - probably three times my age.

"Lauren," He spoke again. "Lauren-"

"She's evil!" I yelled. "Off with her head!"

"Lauren, she's your mother-"

"She's evil!" I turned to face the person. "Spencer, mom's evil, you know that."

"Exactly. And you don't want to be like her, do you?" He smoothed my hair, as he whispered into my ear. "Lauren if you hurt her, you'll be like her. She hurts people. You don't want to hurt anyone, do you?"

"I want to hurt her!" I screamed with all the energy I had. My voice left an echo in the mostly empty room.

"Spencer," Mother croaked. "Let her go."

"But mom-" He started.

"Son, let her be. If she wants to fight, let her fight. It'll be good practice anyway."

Spencer didn't let me go. He just held me tighter.

"Lauren isn't a weapon, mom." He said. "She's human. She knows fighting is wrong, right Lauren?"

I didn't respond. Something told me if I agreed, I'd be lying.

Instead, I pulled away from Spencer's grasp and held my hands out in front of me.

Two normal things that can do not so normal things.

It took me a second to put a force field around my mother, the dome glistening in the light. Mother looked confused at what was happening.