Page 89 of Demons & Damnation

Kyla snorted. “Don’t you fucking dare. I would never do to my own child what you did to me. Not that I’ll ever have a chance to prove that.”

“I’m sorry, Kyla. Really, I am. I’m sorry I made a terrible error in judgement, that you suffered like you did, that we lost each other, that you feel you have to do this to quiet the anger in your soul. I’m sorry.”

Kyla felt her breath catch in her throat, a lump lodging itself as tears started to prick at her eyes. She couldn’t deny she was angry, so very very angry. She’d spent so many years, lost so many years being full of hate and bitterness. An entire decade of her life had been robbed from her.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Kyla pushed the rising emotions away, focusing on what brought her here. Seconds later, she opened her eyes, marched over to her mother and grabbed her by the throat, yanking her to her feet.

Anna-Rose didn’t make a single noise nor resist. When garbled noises from Tony filled the air, she still kept her eyes on her daughter, wanting to keep the eye contact, to force Kyla to face the reality of what she was doing.

“Now,” Kyla whispered, her eyes glazing over with a hardened stare. “Seeing as you apparently care for me so much, it’s only fair I share my pain with you, right?”

Staring her mother straight in the eyes, Kyla placed her free hand on Anna-Rose’s stomach. Her mind flooded with memories from that fateful day, from when Tony had almost caused her to bleed to death. Kyla channelled all of her fear, all of her agony, and all of her desperation into her energy, her palm tingling as the heat from her magic flowed out of her.

Within a few seconds, Anna-Rose crumpled, clutching at her stomach, her eyes scrunched shut as she screamed in pain. Kyla tightened her grip on her mother’s throat, forcing her to straighten up. Kyla could feel her mother’s pulse beneath her skin, the racing beat, the slight sheen springing to the surface of her skin.

“Are you feeling it?”

Kyla pressed her hand harder against her mother’s abdomen, against the loose skin that had once been stretched by her own limbs as she grew inside that stomach. Now though, that meant nothing. All she could think of was the cold, thin metal being forced inside her, ripping through her delicate tissue, tearing her to pieces.

The memory of that day had been burned into her mind but now, now she imagined it wasn’t her laid on her bed, spread eagled to a cruel tormentor, but instead her mother. In her mind’s eye, she built up a huge shovel, like a snow plough, and pictured every speck of emotion and feeling from that day being pushed out of her and into her mother.

Anna-Rose began to tremble, her knees struggling to support her as the overwhelming emotion from Kyla flooded her body, breaking her down chunk by chunk.

As Kyla’s festering emotions poured into her mother, the heat from her palm began climbing up her wrist, then seeping into her forearm, each second she kept the touch on her mother notching the temperature up a degree.

When the heat emanating from her reached borderline scorching, Kyla let out a frustrated scream. She wasn’t done ploughing her mother’s quivering wreck of a body with all her pain and fear. She would make sure she sucked up every last drop whether she liked it or not.

Letting go of her throat, Kyla placed her other hand on her mother’s stomach, wanting to share the load between both hands. The instant she did this, it was as if a dam wall had been broken—everything flowed out of her at twice the speed.

Anna-Rose wailed like a child. Tony continued making noises, the girls muffled screams almost drowning out his grunts of protest. Anna-Rose collapsed, her legs buckling beneath her.

As quickly as Kyla wished she had some support to hold her upright, the vines from the hole next to her sprung to life, coiling around Anna-Rose like a snake, stretching her into a standing position. Her entire body from head to toe shook violently as Kyla continued her outpour of hatred.

Finally, after another minute passed, Kyla felt her palms turn ice cold. She knew then that it was all gone, all of her seething, fermenting negativity, all of her excruciating agony, she had finally shared it with the one person who deserved to feel it.

Stepping back, Kyla bent over and placed her hands on her knees, taking in big deep breaths. Every part of her felt as heavy as lead, like all of her energy had been sapped away, leaving her nothing but a body stumbling around.

But at the same time, she felt light, like a shadow had been lifted from her soul, the heavy weight of old scars and painful memories dealt with and packed away. For good.

Standing up straight, she smiled. This was what she’d been waiting for. And boy was it worth the wait.

Looking at her mother’s face creased with anguish, her eyes screwed shut as she hung limply by her neck, the vines taking all of her weight. She began shaking violently, blood trickling from her groin. Seconds later, the trickle turned into a flood.

Anna-Rose turned a sickly shade of grey and in that moment, Kyla knew she was there, right in that moment when she knew Tony had caught the little foetus and tore it from her womb. Anna-Rose’s light denim jeans were staining dark red, a stream of blood coming from her, pooling onto the floor beneath.

At this point, Kyla had passed out, during the real thing, but of course, her mother wouldn’t be given the same mercy. Kyla narrowed her eyes, ready to prick at Anna-Rose’s consciousness to keep her awake if necessary.

Seconds later, her mother vomited, the acidic stench of bile seeping through the air. An almost clear, runny liquid dripped from her chin onto the vines wrapped around her neck.

She opened her eyes and looked at Kyla, tears leaking from her eyes. “I’m sorry, Kyla. I had no idea.”

Kyla raised an eyebrow. “It shouldn’t have taken this to get an apology.” Anger bubbled in her veins, the reality of the situation overflowing yet again. Kyla couldn’t help but let it out in a scream so loud, her voice box cracked with the exertion of her yells. “I didn’t even want an apology back then—I wanted my fucking mother!”

Anna-Rose dropped her eye contact and turned her face away, her tears now soaking into the vines around her neck to the point of changing their colour.

“You can think on that whilst I continue,” Kyla said, whirling around to face Tony.

She grinned at him. She knew this one would be particularly fun.

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