literature

Family Reunion (Warnning. Grafic Content)

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It’s been such a long time since I’ve been here. This old dark building. Rain beats down, sweeping away the filth around the place into the street. So many memories. I stare simply at it for a moment, raindrops bouncing off the brim of my hat, off my coated shoulders. Cautiously I make my way up to the door, stepping over a wino as I reach the first step. Fishing out an old key, I fit it into the rusted lock of the door. After a moment, where I think the key is actually stuck, I manage to turn it. The door groans as I push it open, stepping into the building.

Looks the same. The dark musky hall, lined with doors. The stench of uncleaned bodies, of rotting wood seems to quite literally be making the brown stained paint peel right off the walls. I take to a flight of stares to my immediate right. The old wood screeches as it bends under my weight as I place my feet on them. The black gloss of the shoe's leather shines a bit from the gas lamps lining the stairwell. My shoes look far too fine to be treading in such a degraded place. I wish I didn’t have them…

Three floors later and I’m walking down a hall nearly identical to the one on the first floor. The only difference I spot is the rat scuttling across the floorboards. It vanishes from sight as it scrambles into a hole in the wall.

Eventually I reach the left door at the end of the hall. Just as I remembered it. That slight crack at the bottom left corner of the door. Gently I tap the crack wit my foot, the slight indent in the aged wood.

As a kid, I’d kick this door right there. I'd been pissed off about something I can't even remember. My whole leg went numb after that. I grin slightly at the memory. Damn, I was such a scumbag as a kid. Knocking people out flat if I didn’t like them or if they so much as said, “How ya do?” Braking my ma’s stuff, making her life hell… The smile from remembering my crummy childhood behavior melts off my face as I remember why I’m here. To talk to her. Tell her I’m not dead. To do more than apologize for not telling her sooner.

Softly I rap my knuckles on the door. For almost a full nerve racking two minutes, no one answers, which is odd because she should be off work by know, it’s nearly ten at night. I’m just starting to think that I missed her and that I can skip out on doing this when the doorknob wobbles. I angle my head down, the hat hiding my face in shadow just as the door opens. A worm light spills into the hall, washing over me.  woman in a thin nightgown appears in the doorway.

“Yes, what do you want?” Not moving my head, I glance up at her. God she’s changed. Older, that’s what I really notice. The creases between her brows, the gray now in thick streaks in that once perfectly brown hair.

“I would like to speak to you for a bit,” I reply after a pause. Just as I finish the words, she looks at me in shock, disbelief as she hears my voice. I know she recognizes it.

“Adrian…?” I’m about to respond but she pulls me down. The next thing I know, she drags me in to suffocating embrace. The sudden and unexpected action leaves me stunned... That comforting feeling of her strong working arms wrapped around me again though... Not just a memory anymore. “Adrian,” she whispers over my shoulder. “How? They told me-they said-” I tightly hug her back.

“I’m so sorry ma, I should have come to seen you sooner.” For a moment I feel her shutter in my arms but I can’t even imagine that she would be crying at this moment. My ma never shed a tear in my life; I can’t see that changing now. We stand in the doorway a bit longer, savoring being able to hold each other again. Finally she pulls away saying, “Your soaking wet, come inside and get dried off.” I accept her offer gladly.

Once inside though, my gut churns, realizing that without the shadow of my hat, it’s bright enough in here from the gas burner lamps, to see my face. But I don’t say anything as I turn to strip off the trench coat, take off my hat and hang them both behind the door. After I’m done with that I just stand there. I don't want turn back around.

“Adrian,” my mother eventually asks. “What’s the matter?”  I don’t want to show her… Deliberately though, I force myself to turn and face her.

“I need to talk to you about something. It’s one of the reasons I came.”

I watch as her eyes widen. Sluggishly she backs up and sinks into a chair at the small kitchen table, and keeps gazing at me. I drop my eyes from her, sudden shame flooding over me. Finally after what seem like a a never ending silence she manages to murmur, “Your eyes…” Yes, my eyes. When I met him, the first time I became that-that creature. Back in the Great War. Slaughtered the enemies that killed my allies, my friends. My eyes changed. Demonic black, yellow and red irises, slitted pupils. Just like his…

“Know I,” I say quietly. “That’s what I need to talk about with you. Remember the man that came, said he was my father? Well he’s not what you think he-“

“He’s shown you….”

“What?” I look at her perplexed by the words.

“He came to you again and showed you what you really are.” She sighs, almost as if she where in pain as she covers her face with her dried, withered hands. Suddenly she looks twice as old. Worry races through me.

“Ma.” I quickly crouch down before her, taking one of her hands in mine. It feels so rough… I need to know what’s wrong with her, what seems to be hurting her. “Tell me what’s the matter. What did you mean He’s shown you?” I plea.

For a moment, a silence creeps between us, but her silence helps me think her words through, digest them. By the time she speaks, I’m certain that I have already guessed her answer.

“Adrian,” she whispers softly, taking her hands away from her face just to caress mine with them. “I already knew about the man. Your– father… I know what he truly is.”  So my guess was correct.

“How did you find out?” I ask trying to keep my voice soothing for her sake, but quite frankly, this is disturbing news. She already knew and never told me? How long has she known?

She shakes her head before looking up at me, and I can see in her brown eyes, the ghost of some memory haunting her. “Ma,” I persisted, as she still remains mute. “Please, tell me.”

After another moment of silence she murmurs, “I found out the day you where conceived.” I can tell form the how her skin as gone some sickly shade of a corps that there's something horribly wrong with this statement. A fluttering starts churning my gut. Old words from my grandmother, who has long been dead, pop back into my head and start replaying in my mind.

“She slept with the devil, boy. Your father is the fiend himself.”

Those words never made sense to me at the time. I was only a child. But now, finding out what I truly am. Being with him, training with him for nearly ten years… I know that I am the child of some dark power, but could he truly be the devil? The more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense. He always reveled in chaos created by men. I do too, it frightens me but I took after him on that. But  oh, how he loved it so much; seeing him laugh as two men killed each other, as others rubbed and cheated, lied… The part of me that always loved reveling in these things, he showed me that, and I followed him like a lamb. Knowing these thing, I realize...it wouldn’t be beneath him to use a woman however he so please...

My grip tightens on my mother’s hands.

“What did he do to you?” I demand. “What has he done to you?”

“Adrian." Her voice is hardly a breath.

“You need to tell me!” She falters under the intensity of my gaze, or maybe because my eyes look so much like his now. She swallows though, straightening herself. There's the strong woman I knew as a boy.

“Adrian,” she repeats, strength coming back into her voice, “Whatever he told you, or tells you, don’t believe it… I’m guessing he hasn’t told you how we met?” I shake my head bewildered by her words. She gives me a sad smile. “I didn’t think so… Well–I didn’t start off poor like this.” She gestures to the small room around us. Plaster cracked walls, three chairs and a table, iron wood burning stove, the single bed off against the far wall. Three people once had to share that small bed. Ma, grandma, and me.

“I originally came from a wealthy middle class family. As a young woman I… flaunted myself to men all the time. I was a real piece of work back than. A spoiled little creature.

“I loved showing off to men, just so I could break their hearts. Your grandmother, bless her soul, was always telling me that my actions were going to turn around and slap me one day. I never took her word for it. Unfortunately though, she was right. 

“I met a man one night. He was everything I could ever dream of. Tall, handsome, strong, and something about him was exotic. He charmed me in such a way that no man had ever been able to do before. I slept with him the very night I met him and from that day forth, kept close to him. He seemed so perfect. I thought I’d found the man that I would marry. A few months pasted until one night…” I watch her face, compete adsorbed by her tail, wanting her to continue as she hesitates for a moment. She takes a moment before continuing, as if gathering her courage to continue.

“He took me out, to a real fancy place one night. Made that night seem so special. I was sure he was planning on asking me to marry him. But he said nothing like that to me until after we’d left for a hotel. Once we reached our bedroom though... There he said things that made not sense to me.

“He told me, tonight he’d give me a child. A child to add to his power. He kept on about this but in such a charming way that it didn’t bother me quite at first. But eventually I became more uncomfortable and he started to look at me in a…hungry way, like he was some kind of animal. I asked him what he was talking about....” She trails of as she shivers.

“Ma…?”

“He…he just laughed. It was such a cruel sounding thing. Never heard him make such a sound before. Never heard any man make such a horrible sound! He said he’d chosen me. That I should be so blessed feeling, knowing that a force more powerful than God had chosen me to have his child. I started to back away from him but I was frozen with terror as-as his eyes changed at that moment, looking like how yours do now. It was the more frightening thing I'd ever seen. he grabbed me then, and then h-he forced me into bed." Her voice beings to shake as her lips quiver but she presses on. "Told me if I cried out for help he’d kill me on the spot. I realized I was with something evil and he-it was about to violate me and there was nothing I could do.

“I told him though, if he was going to take me like the monster he really was, I wanted him to do it was that monster, to now what he truly looked like. Not to be fooled into thinking that he was still my perfect man. He…complied. And he took me… I tried to fight but I couldn't. After that night he vanished.

"Not long after that, my home caught fire, killing my father, leaving your grandmother and me nothing.That was your father's doing. He showed himself in a dream to me, right before the house caught. Told me what what was about to happen next was my fault for fighting him. I woke with the house filling with smoke. Violated me in such a shameful way and then had to take away everything I loved.

She finishes her story with such venom in her voice that I actually wince.

“Did you ever see him again?” I mutter.

“Yes,” she sighs. “Hours before you were born. I wanted so badly to get rid of what he put inside me. He come to me though and told me, I only had to raise his child until he deemed it as ready. Then he’d come and take it away from me. I told him I wouldn’t hold his monster for more than hour. But when you were born and I held you…I couldn’t help but love you. You were so beautiful. I promised myself than that I would never let him take you from me.”  Her eyes become glassy as tears form at the corners. “I failed keeping that single promise…” I can’t stand to see her like this. I embrace her tightly as she begins to sob.

“It’s okay,” I whisper to her. “It’s okay.”

It’s anything but okay. Anger is rising up like vile in my throat, my chest, my mind. I feel twisted. Torn apart by this betrayal. He hurt her. He defiled my mother is such a heinous way. And here I have been for the last ten years, idolizing him. Following him to the ends of the world. I admired him, and to my dismay, I find that savage part of me I hate so much, the one he's been cultivating, the part of me I got from him, admires what he did to my mother. I feel so sick!

“Ma,” I say gently into her ear. “I promise you I’m going to make him answer for what he’s done to you.”

“Oh, are you really?”

My mother stiffens in my arms and an icy shiver runs down my spine as I hear the voice. Proud, strong, arrogant…

“Father…”

Slowly I pull away from my mother and stand to face him.

He’s leaned up against the door, handsome, tall, finely dressed in a black suit accented with red, grinning conceitedly at us. His demonic eyes, that mine take after, bore into me.

“Telling little stories now are we?” he muses. He clicks his tongue a few times in mocking disapproval. “And about me behind my back? Oh that simply won’t do. I thought you of all people would know no one likes a gossiper, aren’t I right, Suzette?” As my father uses ma’s first name, I step protectively in front of her.

“What do you want, Lord Zalgo,” I growl at him with brutal politeness.

“What do I want?” He seems to consider my question for a moment before smirking. “I came looking for you, son. That’s all. And I find you hear, with my lovely Suzette, telling you the details of your beginnings.” He shakes his head still smirking. “Well, since you’ve found that out, I think it’s time we-“

“How could you.”

“What?”

“You monster!” I shout. “How could you?” Father simply raises an eyebrow at my outburst.

“How could I do what? Rape your mother?” He burst out laughing. “Easily my boy. Soon you’ll understand that a creature such as you can take whatever you want, use it how ever you please, and discard it like it’s nothing.”

“So she’s nothing to you.” I utter in a low tone.

“Oh Adrian, your lovely mother’s so much to me. A lovely meal really. Strong headed, vain, proud, and lustful, as a young woman. Those sins were so succulent to feed off of. Makes my mouth water just remembering it.” The anger in me triples, burning hot, at his words. As he sees my face, the obvious reaction of repletion on it, he laughs. “Adrian, really. You look so pathetic with that look on you face. You’re my son, you make me feel ashamed to call you as such.” He returns to his laughing.

I have no response to him. So much fury has started to build up in me, mounting upon itself with each of his words. It roars through my temples, pounds on my skull.

“After all,” he chuckles. “Humans are little more than objects meant to be used.” With those finally words, my mind goes blank. My mother is not an object!

What happens next is a blur. In two steps I close the gap between us and swing my arm. There’s a scream. My mother. My anger has driven my fist in a vicious right hook.

The satisfying sound of flesh slamming into flesh is music to my ears.  

The force of the blow makes him stumble back, his shoulders bumping into the wall. For a moment the look he gives me is one of pure disbelief. Slowly he reaches up, touching fingers lightly to his lip. They come away covered in black blood from the newly form split there. I ring my hand, dispelling the jarring pain form my knuckles. I can hardly believe what I’ve just done. I have just punched a plague of mankind, a god of corruption and chaos, in the face.

The sort surge of defiance and satisfaction vanishes as the disbelief melts from his face. The look that replaces it is the stuff of nightmares. My heart quails at the sight, No human could ever twist his features into the same look of pure venom. The face seems no longer human; a beast is in his place.

In one fluid move, faster than a flash of light, he has me around the neck. His powerful hand threatening to crush the life right out of me.

“That was a very foolish move, boy.”  I’m gasping, fighting for air, clawing at his hand as he raises me up off the floor. To him, I weigh nothing more than a doll. “You should know that you always give your father your full respect!” He dashes me against the ground with the final word. I hit the floorboards hard. Blinding pain runs through my body as feel things tear inside me. I’m about to cry out from it-I start to gag and gasp. Something cold has crept into my chest, my heart, crushing it to the edge where it could burst.  

Somewhere above me I hear her. Ma! I try to rise up but I’m kicked savagely in the ribs. I roll onto my back, body tight with pain, the ice around my heart. Blood forces it way up and out of my mouth.

“Please, stop! Don’t kill him!”

“Shut up you filthy whore! The boy will never learn if he’s not taught a lesson.” I watch as my mother shrinks away from him, eyes not daring to look up.

I lay gasping on my back, fighting the cold hand around my heart. Suddenly his face stands only an inch away from my own. A look of pure amused evil dances across his features.

“Tell me boy, do you think what you did to me just now was wise?” I can’t respond and he smiles in a way that tells me he knows that too. Still smirking he continues, “Do you think your actions should go without punishment? I don’t.” So saying I feel him push the hem of my shirt up. Alarm races through me. I flinch as I feel his hand, hot and strong, grip tightly to my hip. What is he going to do-My thoughts cut off as my hip suddenly alights with a pain so agonizing that it nearly renders me unconscious. I wish it did…

My vision swims, blackness mixed within. His face though. That arrogant grin still playing across his face, demonic eyes twirling with the joy of my pain.

 My mouth opens to usher a scream but the grip around my heart tightens even more and the sound stays stuck in my chest. There’s something terrifying about having something like this stuck in my body, building up, hurting my chest even more. I can’t let it out though.

If possible, my father’s grin becomes even uglier.

“You know,” he muses. “I’m rather enjoying this.”

God, make it stop, is all I can think. Does he intend on killing me like this?

“YOU BASTARD, STOP!”

The pain in my hip finally eases in my hip and the grip around my heart relaxes a bit. Father stands slowly up still looking down at me. A deadpan expression set upon his features.    

“What did you say?” The chill of his words fills the room. He’s not talking to me though. He’s talking to the one behind him. Her. Ma!

“I uh-please stop hurting him.” Her voice sounds thick with tears she’s just managing to keep back. “For the love of god, please stop hurting my child!”

“No.”

I manage to turn my head and see her standing there, so small in his shadow. Suddenly my body curls as he stomps viciously on my stomach with his fine swayed shoes, forcing more blood from my mouth.

“Oh my dear Suzette, you know have no love for god and he none for me.” I get a strangled gasp pass my lips as he stomps savagely on my chest. A started yet muffled scream comes from my mother as she covers her mouth with her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks. The air leaves my body and the pain triples. “Nor do I want his love,” he concludes, studying me with a sardonic grin. “I want this boy to know what he’s dealing with. He needs to be punished in order to learn.”

He crouches down beside my head, cocking his own. “What else can I do to you so you’ll never be tempted to do that again? I need to show you my boy, that you shouldn’t, and don’t need to stand up for a mere human…” He slants his eyes, rubbing his chin, as a thought seems to cross his mind. He glances down at me after a brief moment, a sick grin spread across his face. Those devilish eyes seeming to glow. He looks at me in mild surprise as I spit blood into his face.

"Go back to hell, Devil."

My retaliations is reworded with a deafening slap across the face. More blood flies from my mouth.

"I'm not The Devil. Just a servant. But I pane on claiming that title soon.
 
He leans down further, his lips almost just brushing my ear. “and now Adrian, my boy, I’m going to show you just how easy it is to use these pathetic humans you feel the need to defend.” 

I glare up at his as he stands and strides away. What does he mean by that?  

“My once lovely Suzette,” father purrs in a seductive tone. “Do you remember the night I gave you our fine boy here.” Ma backs away, fear tugging at her features as he advances on her.

“Y-yes,” she stammers.

“You fought me that night. Naughty girl. But you remember how you told me to use my true form? To use my true form to give you our dear boy here.” He gestures lazily down at me. “Tonight my dear, I think I’ll give you that pleasure once more.” I struggle hard to get up at his words, but the pain is too debilitating.

I watch helpless as my mother backs up into the far wall as he advances on her, his body changing. His clothing fading away akin to a mist dissipating. His skin turning black, spikes and fang filled mouths appearing all over his body. Four black, glossy horns curving proudly from his head.  

In a quick move he ceases my mother by the wrist with a talon hand. He pulls her forward to his chest, towering above her, all his horrible mouths giving her sharp tooth grins. He flings her onto the bed. I thrash evermore violently to get up, to do something, anything. But I just can’t.

He tears away her nightgown with ease. She gives a cry of pain as he trails a claw down her body, forming a red line that starts to bleed. I try to yell at him to stop but it comes out as some unnatural sound. He hears it though and glances back at me. Smiling a sharp toothy grin, Father laughs at me, his voice deep and booming.

“Watch and watch closely my boy. I know there’s one part of you that will enjoy this no matter what you do. After all, you are my son.” Eyes blazing with an animalistic hunger he… No!

Angry tears trace down my face as I watch in morbid captivation. She screams and sobs as he laughs, tearing into her like some kind of rabid animal. Hurting. Violating. The pain in me grows stronger the longer hear and see. It’s heart braking. On top of it all I feel sick. Sick at that small part of me. Hating it for how it’s admiring my father for this. Feeding off his monstrous act. I’m torn.

It seems to last forever, her screaming. Him laughing. Finally, through a half conscious mind I realize that the cold fist around my heart has dissipated. I’m just left with whatever injuries lay inside my body. Breathing still hurts but I can breath. After a few moments I realize that the screaming has stopped as well. Just a faint gasping in the room.

Ma.

Slowly I force myself to roll over onto my stomach. A low moan passes me lips as pain rips through me. I nearly black out but I just manage to keep conscious. I need to help her. Very slowly I manage to get onto my hands and knees. My vision swims with stars and black spots. I spot a chair. I reach for it and agonizingly use it to hoist myself up into a standing position.  I see her. Motionless on the bed. He’s gone though. Just vanished.

I stagger over to her, somehow getting my legs to obey me. It hurts. Every step makes me want to black out. Suddenly I lurch to the floor, retching. My mind blanks out. The next thing I’m aware of is the strong taste of iron filling my mouth. I look down and see puddle of blood staining the floorboards. I try not to think about it as I stumble back to my feet.

I make it to the bed and what I see makes me…cry. She’s shuddering, body shaking, naked, and ravaged. Blood soaks the sheets. My own body shaking I get on the bed next to her and lift her frail body against mine, holding her close.

“A-Adrian…” she croaks.

“I’m so sorry,” I sob back. The little tension left in her body leaves her and she goes limp in my arms. “Ma?” For a horrible moment I think she’s dead. But no. Her chest raises and falls slowly. I realize that she’s only passed out. Good. Let her sleep. I wish she could wake up from this as it only being a nightmare. That she would never wake up remembering this. It’s my fault. I couldn’t help her. I drove him to do this.

I know there’s one part of you that will enjoy this no matter what you do. After all, you are my son.

I did. I’m a monster just as sick as he is.

I wish my mother never had to wake up. I wish she we dead. Her surfing would be over because you can’t hurt the dead.

This is a little peak of the relation ship Adrian shars with his father, Lord Zalgo.
I cation you that some of this is grafic. You read at your own risk.
© 2015 - 2024 HighL0w
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