Children and a family were the last thing on my mind, especially in the fucked-up world that I lived in.
But I couldn't turn my back on a child, especially my own.
"It might have been four years for you, but it wasn't for me. There's a chance that you could be the father."
Also words I never thought I'd be telling my dead lover.
But his face lit up like a lightbulb at the words, his face was so bright and happy. Tears glistened in his eyes, threatening to spill out to his face.
"Yeah, I know, they weren't words I was expecting to hear either." He sniffed. "To be honest I thought that I'd missed out on that opportunity in life."
I didn't know what to do next. I didn't know what was going to happen or how it would turn out.
But if I knew anything about Colt, I knew that he would stand by my side through it all.
I opened my mouth to say something, but I was cut off by a loud screech. It pierced through the air like a knife and sent a shiver down my spine. I turned just in time to see the mist creature clawing its way up the escalator, its green eyes locked onto us.
"Run!" Colt screamed and we both bolted in the opposite direction.
The creature knew we were there now, there was no way that we could sneak out anymore. I knew that once it spotted us, it wouldn't let us go. It wouldn't stop searching until it caught us, and I had a feeling that it didn't care if it ripped my mother's mind apart to get to us.
We were lucky that we had such a head start in front of the creature because we were able to make it all the way down the hall and around the corner with a few seconds to spare— but even still, our 45 minutes had just dwindled down to about 15.
Part of my mind was still processing that I was pregnant. And a twinge of guilt swept through me at being in such a dangerous situation.
But I would have felt even more guilty if I got myself killed, so I kept running, even when my ribs ached.
"This way!" I called to Colt when the store emblem caught my eye across the hall.
I didn't bother checking behind us as we bolted inside and shut the glass doors behind us.
We crouched down behind the sale signs that were decorated with photos from my mother's childhood and watched the monster finally emerge.
He had the total scare factor, but he wasn't very fast, which worked in our advantage.
I held my breath until my lungs burned, intent on not making a single sound, and the creature passed by eyeing his surroundings.
When he disappeared around the corner I finally exhaled, glad that I could finally breathe.
That is, until a voice came from behind me, low and stern.
"Stop right there or I blow your fucking head off."
I froze. I'd know that voice anywhere. It was the voice that tucked me into bed and sang me songs when I was younger. It was the voice that would call my school and cuss out my teachers when I was getting bullied. The voice that embodied the strongest woman I'd ever known, until she one day became passive and meek.
I slowly turned, staring her right in the face.
"Mom?"
Chapter 20
I turned to see a much younger, much healthier version of my mother. A version that I hadn't seen in a lot of years. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that she was just a few years older than me.
She stood in front of me, naked with only a bed sheet wrapped around her to hold together her decency. In her hands she held a very fake looking toy gun, aimed directly at me.
She looked me up and down as I blushed at her indecency, and the fact that she could have easily passed for my older sister.
It must have been something to do with the magic that held her hostage.
"Wait a minute, no." She dropped the gun and it fell to the floor with a plasticky thud.
"No is right. You really thought you were about to off me with a toy gun?" I raised a brow, but it seemed like she didn't hear a word that came out of my mouth.
She was too busy staring at me in awe.
"Scarlett!" She reached out and pulled me into my body tightly. "And random stranger guy!" She grabbed Colt by the collar and awkwardly pulled him into the hug too, holding him tightly against her scantily clad body.
Awkward.
"What is all the commotion love bug?" A naked man strolled out from the back part of the store before jumping at our presence and scrambling to grab something to cover himself.
I averted my eyes so quick that he was just a blur and stared up at the ceiling awkwardly.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god. Were you two having sex?!"
I felt like I wanted to hurl, and I couldn't tell if it was because of the thought or because of the possible paranormal love child inside of me.
Either way, having my lunch on full display in front of everyone was a very real possibility.
"Scarlett?" The man called out in disbelief.
It was obvious that he was my father. Either that or he was just a figment of my mother's imagination, which part of me hoped.
Meeting your dad for the first time while interrupting him and your mother's sex session wasn't quite how most people would have chosen the encounter to go down, but much like every other part of my life, this was a hot mess.
"Oh my god, I want to scrub this from my mind. Can someone please erase my memory?" I groaned.
I had to admit, out of all the ways I'd imagined my mother getting better and becoming more like herself, this was definitely not one of the possibilities that I'd imagined, and for that I thanked God.
"It's her, Gavril. It's really her." My mother had tears streaming down her eyes.
A look of disbelief.
She snapped her fingers, and in an instant they were both clothed.
Oh, thank god.
"Gavril, huh." I finally could look my father in the eye. "So you're the scary monster that visited me every night when I was young."
I took a good look at him, he looked tired, but not necessarily old. Again, if I didn't know better he could have passed for Colt's age. His chin was covered with dark scruff, and his dark brown eyes matched.
"Scary? Maybe." He smiled. "But not a monster, never to you baby girl."
His voice was soft and he came in for a hug but I held my hand up, paired with an awkward smile. "Sorry, I'm just not ready yet."
He let out a sigh but nodded.
"Then how about let's talk about what you kids are doing here? It's dangerous for you to be in a hunter trapper. Now you can't leave." There was a hint of panic in his voice.
"Actually I can. I've done it before, and I have no doubt that I can do it again." I said, most definitely to boast. "But right now we're here to get you." My eyes darted to my mother and back to him. "Both of you I suppose."
"Oh well that sounds really sincere!" Gavril let out a laugh. It was a hearty one, and his eyes lit up.
I had trouble seeing him as the fierce monster that Asher had described him as. He seemed fairly normal to me.
Or maybe my idea of normal was just so screwed by the crazy paranormal guys who were already in my life that they made a freaking demon king look like a walk in the park.
"We were kind of expecting to find you guys trying to kill each other, not trying to screw each other." I said sternly. "So yeah. I'm surprised."