Reader's POV
A few months had passed since Christmas night and things have only gotten better. Before when having a doctor come into my room would mean I was getting in trouble but know when Smiley came in it was just to remove the old stitches. I have children who love me and I help with many things like homework and just overall play. Training some of the older proxies with my abilities and most of all just having fun doing it with them. Splendor always makes me smile when I am feeling down a bit and Trender has taught me better ways to mend clothing in and in return I let him dress me up. That part didn't bother me as it was one of the few things I loved doing back at that hell hole. My friend would bring in different colored gowns and let me try them on. My room would be covered in the clothes and when Mother or Father entered the room we would quickly hide them. It was one of the few memories that I had that gave me the sense of a normal childhood. Instead of one filled with test tubes, syringes, and surgery. One that left me like a rag doll held together with string.
Offender was there to hold a conversation with if I ever got bored enough and this would often lead us to the garden where I helped him grow his roses that he used. There aroma only worked on those who did not have a true or a strong love for another and since he has Akuma in his life I often see them in the garden untouched but cared for. Of course they are several feet away from m bushes but I only gave them to the girls to make flower crowns with at times. Then there was my beloved, who gave me as much attention as he possibly could ever give. And it was a quailty that I loved about him. When ever I was upset he would do little things to make me happy and other things as well, be it a small little get away or a walk together in his woods.
Right now it was training time with the proxies and they all stood in their fighting stance ready to come at me. Toby had his hatches sharpened in the morning and he had worn them dull by night fall. Hoodie was standing with his gun conciled in his pocket and Masky stuck close with his knife in his hand. "Mom when is training going to get hard?" Hoodie complained from his spot getting out of his stance and this action caused me to raise my eyebrow at him.
"You wish for training to become harder?" I asked and watched there reactions. Hoodie nodded, Masky agreed and Toby just twitched twitched exictedly. "You are digging very shallow graves then. Would you like me to go easy then?" They shared a confused look as they looked at each other and my smiled turned a small bit sick. There was one thing that no one here but Akuma knew and now the boys would as well.
"N-No! Go h-hard M-Mom!" Toby shouted earning a glare and a horrible crack to come from my direction. Six eyes rested on me as my neck twitsed into a not normal place as I felt the energy that cousres through my veins. The energy I hated with a passion but had spent years trying to control the emotions that flowed within my blood. The warmth that this feeling gave me as the anger from my past came in with the emotions my body begining to contort. The warm feeling under my eye grew as the liquid that I could really no longer call my blood poured like a fresh wound. I watched with hungry eyes as my three sons stared in horror. My hands began to twitch and fade in color as the skin from my ebows to my finger tips grew darker until my hands were black.
"What the hell did you put us in Toby!" I heared one of them yell at my twitching son. My vision blurred like it normally did when I shifted into the nicer form of this being. The color in my eyes dulled and I finally was in the form I desired. Bloodlust showed in my eyes but I never onec moved to kill any of my children. "Mom that is still you right?" I found that it was Masky speaking,
"Yes, indeed it is still me. But with these weapons I think that we will work on endurance before melay don't you agree?" I asked my three sons as they placed their weapons on the ground. I let a small amount of time pass, a few minutes at most when I felt the strange disturbance within the woods. Besides chasing the kids I need to watch my back and theirs. The internal timer I set for myself had rang out in my head as a small smile formed onto my light grey lips. "Ready or not boys. HeRe I cOmE!" I yelled out into the woods making sure to release a sinister time at the end to make them run even more.
My heels of my boots dug into the ground as I lunged forward into the trees. The smell was overwhelming with the tall pines and oaks. A few cherry and maple here and there as well. It was now spring so there was no leaves to listen to as they would crunch under the feet of my children. Ragged breath could be heard and I know one was near by. But the feeling of someone else here didn't help the matter. There was something wrong. But I just couldn't keep my mind on the other being in the woods. I ran faster than I every thought my legs could carry me. A splash of yellow color raced in the other direction, causing me to turn on my heels and did into the ground. Before I could run after Hoodie something grabbed my waist pulling me back into a hard warm surface.
"Looks like a beauty had walked into the woods." A strange make voice said as their grip tightened and my waist and their cold hand grabbed my chin. "Care to tell why you are wandering far from home. Do you know what happens in these woods. The creatures that roam and kill for pleasure and sport. The monster that eats what has a pulse and pins letters to trees. The horsemen that run wild in these woods. You should come with me my dear. I'll protect you."
I wiggled like a scared worm in his grasp before digging my boots heal into his foot and making him release me as i whipped around to face the man that had touched me. He had grey skin and his hair was the color of mohogany. He was tall and slightly muscular with his clothes growing tight in certain places on his upper body. A black belt was drapped like a sash across his chest and there was a holder for arrows on his back. A silver bow with a aray of bones from many body parts of a human were etched in titanium on the curve of his long bow. His eyes was what had caught me They were like Eyeless' black with nothing in them. No tar dripped from his eyes or blood like it did mine. A creature had walked up behind the man and it growled at the white horse creature.
"Your the white rider. The one that tried to kill me, my daughter and my son as well. Even my beloved as well to that matter. What do you want? There is always something with creature like you." I snarled with my form begining to grow worse as I tried to calm it down. If I broke loose with the boys in these woods and being so close to home I could not help but wonder how many of their blood I would have on my hands and the lives I ended.
"Am I not a man? Am I only a creature that roams these woods in order to protect the humans that enter here with a naive mind when your beloved comes and slaughters them with no mercy hanging their corpses to the trees surrounding us." He said taking a step towards me and the entire training with my kids things had left my mind and the only things I wanted to was tear this man apart into a million pieces. I took a step back when he came near me. Until I was backed into a tree and all I could see was his sickening grin as he starred me down with an amused look.
"You won't leave until you get something. Tell me before I loose control and you don't want that to happen." I hissed. His grin only grew as I glared back at him. He brought a hand up and stroked my cheek lightly. His touch burned my skin and my heart began to hammer against my chest as he drew closer as his hand moved down my cheek to my neck. His fingers grazed over my ripped collar to my shirt pulling it aside as he grew closer. I growled as he came closer moving my wrappings away from my neck before placing his lips on it. I froze still as he began to suck on my neck. I growled and pushed him away from me as his lips made a popping sound as they released my flesh, He pulled back as he smiled at his red mark on my neck. When he drew back enough I let something in me snap as my hand connected with his jaw. The force of my punch had knocked him into a different tree and I covered my neck with my hand. He grimaced and stood up before growling at me.
"We will see how your beloved takes you know that I have left a mark on you." His voice grew darker at the end before he hopped onto his creature and rode off into the woods. I watched him disappear as my three boys walked forward as my form changed and I removed my hand from my neck finding no blood so my skin was not broken.
"Mom what was that?" Masky asked looking at my neck. "Are you?" I shot my eyes up at him daring him to finish that sentence and he immediately went quiet. But Toby shook his head like he was upset with me. Hoodie smacked his head and looked at me my face visible with rage and confusion at the what had just happened. "I take that as a no but what had happened?"
"One of the riders that had attacked us before had come and I don't know what he wanted but when I stated that he should back away and leave he began to suck on my neck. I hate the feeling that there was something left on me." I replied just wanting to go home and forget about this. "We will train again tomorrow. I just want to go back." None of them objected to me and we walked home in silence as I finished changing back into my normal self. When we arrived there was something wrong again and the proxies jut disappeared into the house leaving me alone in the garden where I decided to calm down. My fingers brushed my rose petals as I cut a white rose from the bush and gave it a sniff. The smell of vanilla and honey began to relax the tension I had from the scene and I just wanted the mark to leave my neck.
"What happened to your neck my dear?" I heared Slender ask as he came to sit beside me. I don;t know if he had been watching me or he had just come out but I didn't want to bother him with this. But when he moved my collar I could see the rage building inside of him But was it at me or at the rider who had given me the mark.
"I don't know. Everything about that scene has me confused. I was training the proxies then the white rider decided to suck on my neck. I punched him after he had started but then he disappeared after that. I just want it to go away. " I said resting my head on his shoulder as a tendril wrapped around my waist.
"I swear these people will be disposed of if I have to go call on an old acquaintance. I think she will have some information on these people and I think she owes me a favor." He said as his pressed his face to my forehead. I gave a small smile as he placed me onto his lap my head resting against his chest so I could listen to his heart beat. It was slow and calming as his cold hand rubbed my back.
"Who is this acquaitance?" I asked. Slender took a small bit to reply.
"She is a person that I helped find the love of her life. It was by accident but I still helped. Her name is Luna." My eyes looked up to the sky. Did you have a lover my friend?