“I won’t leave you alone, or push you away for being different. Let me embrace you.”
Her arms hold out, inviting me into an embrace. She pulses with mother’s love.
“I’ll nurture you, care for you, protect you.”
The maternal promise of safety and warmth tugs at my core. Tugging, tugging. I double over clutching my stomach. Something snakes between my fingers—a small, ruby-red thread.
It’s sprouting from my naval like an umbilical cord reaching for Janine. She starts to sing, a siren crooning a lullaby.
Hush now, lost girl, do not stray,
The world outside is cold and gray.
Follow this thread, the knot is tied,
It’s warm and safe here by my side.
Warm and safe. That’s what I want. I deserve it.
Something scratches at my back but I shake it off. I’m going to follow the thread. I trace a finger along the blood-red cord.
Again something pokes me, harder this time. Almost painful. It feels like a claw.
What is that?
Don’t I know someone with claws?
Scratch, scratch.
Don’t I love someone with claws?
“No, Theo, no. You’re alone with me. No one came to help you, to save you. The men who made you promises have left you in the dark…”Janine’s face smiles so sweetly that it chases away some of the chill in my bones. “I won’t leave you. I’ll never leave you.”
My men. Why aren’t they here? Don’t they care?
“They don’t.”
But they love me.
“Then why are you so alone?”
Why am I so alone? I collapse to my knees, and cold needles pierce my flesh.
“Crawl to me, Theo, away from the pain. Come into your future.”
Future.
There’s something about the future I need to remember and the loss of that memory makes me start to cry. Sobbing and sobbing, I’m mourning something but I don’t know what.
I try to grasp at the edges of the thought but as I do, a vision seers into my brain.
Soldiers marching.
Ragged, head-bowed humans.
Fire and smoke. I cringe as my gaze pans over rows of children being harvested, a production line of energy caches. The tableaux switches to a stage with heavy red curtains. A sea of hungry faces.
I try to understand, but it’s impossible. More images, again and again. Each one cold and filled with evil.
