*WARNING. This chapter contains graphic content. Proceed with caution.
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Since my frailty has literally been healed over night, I do not know when this effect will wear off. I might as well make use of it while it lasts. I have established this role and could now rest from it but for my next role I need to travel for about a month in order to catch its phase. Drazhan had already traveled back to his country and so my fate here has been settled. I have no time to lose. In the book, the next day right after he had left, Lupa was brutally murdered by her father.
The night has fallen and as I light the lard in my lamp, I looked over the village below me. As the activities of the early night had began, its glistening night lights and lively streets filled with people chattering about their business to each other, the kids playing and running in the background. It's the same as a town but just with lesser opportunities. The little village of Raguar.
And its time has now come.
I finished up on sewing the worn out blanket that I got from an old flour sack and turned into a bag, putting inside it my most important valuables. I gathered every fruit I could find in the forest and a lot of firewood. As I transcended down the hill and into the market. I wore my cloak in the shade of night as I sneaked within the crowd. Stealing whatever necessities I needed for the long journey.
"What? You again? Come here to steal again aren't you!?", the man from the bread stall threatened to hit me with a stick if I had come any closer to him.
"Shoo!"
"Go away", the lady by the fish market area yelled out and gestured to threw dead fish water into my direction to scare me away (she didn't miss last time).
"Freakin' beggars"
"Tsk, tsk"
"What a wasteful child, no hope in that one"
First, I got myself a new cart. It's almost the end of summer and winter is upon us for the next season so there were already displays of winter beds on sale, it was the next item in my theft list. Taking advantage of the owner who was busy entertaining other costumers, he didn't even notice that one of his thicker beds have gone into my new (stolen) and bigger cart. I also found opportunities to steal cheese, dried meat, lettuce, carrots, some bread and potatoes then the ingredients that I needed for my ointments and medicines. I'll be taking this chance to eat as much as I can while my body is still healthy.
To keep my feet warm and going for the coming winter, I also stole some boots even though they were bigger than my size, some hay from the stables and a bucket of water for me to drink in the winter, a pot, bowl and spoon and fork from my neighbor's kitchen. Lastly, for my crafts and protection I've stolen a knife. With this I had everything ready.
I was getting ready to leave this place. But, while pushing my cart down the road I heard a familiar laugh. It echoed from the noisy bar past the alley on my left. For some reason, I couldn't help myself. It was a crackling voice but it was soothing enough for me to listen to, this poor child body's longing for something maternal.
I stood frozen still and listened awhile, until moments later I found myself standing by the door outside of the bar and that I had left my cart hidden beside the road. I sat there for what felt like hours, listening to my mother's voice as she gleefully laughed in her drunkenness state entertaining customers. Why am I here? I begin to question myself until I could figure out the reason. I realized that I was waiting for her to come out and meet me because when she did excused herself from the bar and went out the door, I stood quickly as a flee would jump into a dog's fur.
She was waving back at the people inside the bar with a smile and beet flushed face. Now, I find myself standing in front of her, she was holding a mug of cheap liquor in her hands and I was just staring at the floor but I felt my heart fluttering and found myself asking her a question that could not wait any longer yet I had no idea of understanding as to why I would say…
"Mother, have you ever loved me?"
Why do I feel nervous all of a sudden it isn't how my question was supposed to come out.
"Huh?? Who are you?". She couldn't even stand properly, I doubt she even heard me. If it wasn't for the strong scent of her cheap perfume, she'd smell no different from father, like nauseating booze and smoke. I don't know what was going through my head, I could just leave all of this behind and be on my merry way but I find myself clenching unto the handle of the lamp that I'm holding, questioning myself. I raised my head to meet her eyes as I hoped to expect something of a response but I was only reminded of what she did to me. The memory of the pain I felt from the burn flashed my vision. What little bit of hope I had to save for her shattered when instead she greeted me with disgust and annoyance in her expression. At the realization of my foolishness, I withdrew my gaze and was quite baffled at my own action. She clicked her tongue and chugged another gulp from the mug.
"Say…What is my existence to you?". I took off my hood. My heart wasn't beating fast, I felt nothing but there was this tenseness for reasons unknown to me as I awaited for her answer because I set up a test for a rat to be justified all for the sake of Lupa, because supposedly by this time tonight in the real story, she would've already been brutally beaten by her father until she dies while her mother is just here, drinking herself away while her child dies.
She stared at me for a few seconds and when I raised my head up and she met my eyes, she smiled drunkenly.
"Oh! My eye color! Ahaha, Luma. My daughter --dear, what are you doing here. Don't disturb mommy while she's working. Go on, I'll be back next week". She leaned in and hugged me for a mere second before turning her back on me, but our contact only ever made me shiver. She smelt bad and she felt disgusting. I stared into nothingness. I feel as though, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Her hug was warm but not comforting. I realized my expectation was shattered.
"...You're never coming back are you?"
"What?"
No wonder why Lupa was left for dead. Her mother didn't even care to check up on her daughter. When she found out she had died, she grieved a bit and merely accepted the fact later and went on with her lustrous life. My heart skipped a beat. Is this anger? Is it relief because my hunch was proven? Am I feeling for my character? I've never had a mother for so long in my settings.
"Ugh, what nonsense are you spouting now, get out of here already. I'm making a living here for the whole family while you two just sit around with your assess all day doing nothing. I told you to go home, your father's gonna be worried sick about you--Ah! And also", she massage her head in annoyance but when she remembered something she quickly turned back to me gleefully.
"Luka! I have great news for you. You're going to be a big sister from now on, your father got me pregnant again. You're going to have a baby sibling. Isn't that wonderful? You'll have someone to play with!"
'What?'
I looked at her, terrified. These people…They're too greedy to even realize it. She's working for us or she's just having fun spreading her legs off. She's pregnant but she hasn't even been home for months let alone slept with father when she kept escaping him.
A sibling for me to play with…Does she think pregnancy is some kind of noble deed and blessed phenomena when she just got it somewhere from lust and an affair? She feels like she's a mother simply because she has children not because of her responsibility for their lives. Oh Klara, my dear mother. You're so foolish that you are no better than a bitch on the streets, even though you're a human whore. Really, is there any difference?
Sigh. What a waste of my time. I get it…I came here to give her another chance, for her to prove to me that she is at least worth saving that way I could travel into the city below less tediously. If I was with an adult, travel would be much easier but then again I'm not really safe with her either.
"You know…I pity the fools because they're too dumb to think for themselves but sadly in your case, you're too dumb to even think of anything else but yourself"
"Hm?"
Sigh. "I would've let you live if you were a good fool but look at where my kindness lead me to. I'm not sorry mother". My expression was just of vague disappointment, but she had a shocked expression from it as if though she had seen something else.
"Tsk", I clicked my tongue.
I quickly took the mug from her hands and splashed it unto her face. The liquid splattered her wet from her face and hair all over as it dripped unto her cleavage and dress.
"Ah! What in the--". While she tried to recover, I quickly undo the lead of my lamp and tossed it at her, with the trigger from the alcohol it exploded into fire, quickly spreading throughout her wet surfaces and instantly engulfing her in flames. The lard was enough to set her on fire but with alcohol this was better.
"Don't you know that thin and cheap made clothing is extremely flammable?"
"AAAHHH!!!"
As she screamed in agony, I backed away from her and yelled out. "Somebody help! My mother's on fire!"
People ran from inside their houses and the bar as they began to surround us and expressed their shock. Some rushed to get help, some to fetch water while some others knew that they would much prefer to watch this spectacle with me. I grinned as I watched her pupils shrunk in fear from what I just did. Her expression was of utter terror as her face begins to melt away. Looking at me as if I was going to eat her alive.
"D-demon!"
"H-help! The devil is after me!!"
With her hair already being red, the fire only complemented her beauty even more.
"AHHH!". The poor woman turned deranged as she wriggled around in pain with her roasting body. People tried getting to her but the flame had covered her immensely that they could not get near her.
'Pft! This must be what I looked like when I was in her position, although she just had it worse'
Klara wriggled and turned until her body could move no longer and she was frozen into her last motion. The air was filled with the smell of freshly roasted meat, it smelled so tasty but would the people who smelt it from a mile away still wish to have a taste at it if they knew from what it was coming from?
I laughed at my silly joke as I left her.