Eyeless Jack's P.O.V
It's been two days since Skylar was born. Even as a newborn she's almost like the spitting image of her mother. Her hair has more of a red colour to it though.
Jeff, Scarlett and the triplets are supposed to be coming over to visit soon. Ah yes, Twist, Jay and Rosie. They're very energetic for six-month-olds. It's bit scary how much they all look alike, and how much they all look like their mother. Even though they had to be hastily removed three whole months earlier than they should've naturally been, god have they thrived!
Wren walks out of Skylar's room and into the living room. Skylar lays asleep in her arms so I'm guessing she was just fed. Wren hands the baby to me and rubs her eyes. For two days she's been keeping up well with taking care of our new addition.
There's a slight nock on the door and Wren goes up to answer it. Jeff is standing there holding Rosie, while Scarlett is in the back holding Jay and Twist. "Hey!" Wren says happily. "C'mon in!"
Wren lays a blanket on the floor so the triplets can be put down and the parents can take a load-off. They put the kids down and sit in our dining chairs. While Wren squeezes in beside me and takes Skylar.
"So..." Jeff says kind of awkwardly. "What's the little one's name?"
"This is Skylar," I answer.
"She's adorable!" Scarlett says.
"Thank you," Wren chimes in her quiet and smooth voice.
At that exact moment, as if little Sky heard the compliment, she opens her eyes. They're already the exact same colour as Wren's. "Look!" Wren giggles. "She's finally opened her eyes!"
"Oh, let me see!" Scarlett squeals! She comes over and looks at Skylar's face. "Oh my god, she's precious!"
Scarlett goes to sit back down. Jeff asks "so you've been parents for two days, what's it like being so young and having a baby?"
"It's..." Wren begins. "It's alright. Motherhood isn't too hard so far,"
Skylar looks around the world now with weak yet curious eyes. All she's been able to do for the past little while is hear; but now she can see! She hasn't seen my real face yet, what will my daughter think of me?
***
Jeff and his family left a few hours later. I swear Twist was probably the quietest of all three of their children. But now that Skylar has opened her eyes, she won't stop looking around.
It's about 9:30pm now. Wren decided to go to bed early and I didn't mind; she is still tired from only giving birth two days ago. I rock Skylar to sleep in her room and place her in her crib. I walk over to the room that Ween and I share. It's pretty warm out so the damn cabin is really hot, so I remove my clothes and go to bed in my boxers.
***
I wake up to Skylar crying. Wren's already up and is dragging her feet to the baby's room. I check the clock: 1:27am.
"Jack!" Wren yells about ten minutes later and Skylar hasn't stopped crying.
"What?"
"It's Skylar!" she answers. "Something's completely wrong!
I jump up and run to her room. The light's already on but it's too bright. I look at the baby in her crib, crying bloody murder. A blinding light is coming from her chest so Wren pulls down the top of her tiny onesie.
The X-shaped scar is emanating a white light and is quickly pulling itself apart. The light soon fades and exposes Skylar's tiny beating heart. She doesn't bleed or anything, it's just an open wound.
There's something up with her heart, though. I know a thing or two about organs and it's not right. One half is completely black and covered in a thick, black mucus. While the other half is normal and red.
"What the fuck is this?!" I ask.
"I don't know," Wren answers my sort of rhetorical question.
"We should see if we can get Zalgo." I say.
"You're right," Wren admits. "He did tell us about what was wrong with her."
We wrap up Skylar in a blanket. I follow Wren to where she said she met Zalgo. She calls his name but it takes a few minutes for anything to happen. A human-sized creature appears in front of us.
It has no hair and long claw-like things for fingers. But the strange thing about it is that it looks neither human or animal; it sits like a dog but looks human. So I know exactly what it is right away: the Rake.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" I ask the Rake.
"The child will be mine," it responds.
"Over my dead body!" I yell.
"With pleasure!" it says as is gets ready to pounce.
I pull out my knife as it jumps at me. "Wren! Get yourself and Skylar out of here!" I yell as the Rake pins me down on the ground.
"I'm not leaving you here!" she yells back at me.
Wren places Skylar on the ground about thirty yards away. She sprints back towards me as I stab the Rake in between the ribs. It screeches at me and bites at my neck. I'm able to kick it away and Wren starts hitting it over and over in the head with a large stick. The creature screeches again and lunges for her.
She jumps back just in time to avoid being mauled by the hairless beast. But gets a scratch on her right cheek. It's doesn't look deep enough to scar, but it starts bleeding like a bitch.
I jump back onto my feet and run at the Rake. I jump off of both feet pretty high into the air and stab it in the ribs again. It screams and swipes at me as I stand on it's back.
That moment, I hear some heavy boots sprinting down the trail. A dark figure of a woman with long curly hair jumps off of a boulder beside the clearing. She stabs the Rake in the back and now it turns to her and screeches.
After a closer analysis is see the woman is Clockwork! She looks at Wren and sees she's unarmed, she tosses Wren her pair of large scissors and takes a long machete out of the sheath attached to her leg.
All three of us go at the Rake. But when Clockwork and I are standing close together, it catches us off guard and pins us both into the dirt. Is this how I'm going to die? I ask myself inside my brain.
But then, Wren jumps onto the creature's back. She pulls it off of us and Clockwork and I just roll out of the way as Wren and the Rake come right back down onto where we were just laying. She stabs the Rake in the back over and over again.
"You will never have my baby!" she yells as she flips the creature onto his back. "And don't you ever think of standing up again!"
Wren takes the giant scissors and starts cutting and stabbing through the grey flesh of the Rake from the front now. It gets to the point where the thing can't even make a sound and you can't tell what it is anymore. The Rake makes gurgling noises as Wren continues to cut and stab.
I decide that that's enough. I run at Wren and pull her off, but she struggles. "It needs to die!" she screams.
"Look, it's immortal. You couldn't kill it no matter how hard you tried!" I yell as I'm pulling her back by her arms.
When we're a few metres away, Wren turns to me. Her lip quivers and she shakes. I pull her into a hug and she digs her face into my chest. I surround her with my arms and wrap her up in my leather jacket. We fall to our knees onto the dirt and Wren begins to just bawl her eyes out.
I look over at the Rake to see Clockwork taking slow strides towards him, holding her machete. She crouches down and says in his ear "your time, is up." She lifts her arm and brings the machete down through the Rake's neck. His head tumbles for a few moments and then stops. Now I can't find Clockwork. Where is she?
I hear footsteps behind me and turn around. There she is! She's holding Skylar and extends her arms. "This is yours I'm guessing?" she says.
I take the child and hold her in between Wren and I. Wren looks up at Clockwork, "thank you," she says.
Clockwork looks at us both, kindness in her green eye. "Don't mention it. We've all gotta look out for each other here." After that, she walks away up the path she came. Before she's completely gone, she picks up her pair of scissors off of the ground and is gone.
Tonight I have seen what a mother will do for her child. But this is Skylar's life; a life where killers will kill each other. A life where she will only have half of a soul. At least by now the baby has stopped crying.
"We'll be okay, y'know," I say.
"I know." Wren says.
We look at the mark on Sylar's chest. Now it's closed but is pretty red around the sides. I don't want my little girl in pain. Why did this have to happen to her?