Page 102 of Her Psycho Beasts

The gasp I let out is involuntary when I look upon the intubated woman on the bed, her raven hair strewn about her like a dark shroud. When my legs give away, I don’t even try to save myself, my eyes fixed only on her. My beautiful mother, fifteen years older. Paler and smaller than I remember.

Strong arms catch me before I crumple onto the linoleum, and I know it’s Scythe by his scent.

Susan strides to the bed and fusses with the sheets. Her voice is hoarse as she says, “What are you going to do?”

I gasp a breath, clutching Scythe’s arms as I get back onto my feet. Lyle comes to my rescue, stalking to Susan’s side. “What is her physical status? Can she breathe on her own?”

Susan points to the respirator attached to the intubation tube that’s down her throat. “She is on life support. Her heart beatson its own, but she has not breathed on her own for over a decade. We have been healing her to keep her going, but she would not live without these machines.”

A fresh laceration assaults my heart and I clutch the edge of the mattress. I want to cry. I want to scream. Fury tears through me, fiery hot in my blood.

“Have you sedated her?” I choke out, trying to see what’s written on the screen of the small IV machine often used for opiate analgesia.

Mina steps away from a glaring Savage, gesturing to the extensive charts they have on multiple clipboards. “We don’t need to anymore. She’s not responsive.”

“To pain?” I ask, clutching my chest. “What about analgesia?”

Mina gives me a pained look. “Her EEG has not been active for years. I’ve been re-checking…”

So her brain has no activity. She is brain dead and has been for a long time. I stifle a wild cry, thankful that Scythe still holds me as my knees buckle again. We’d guessed it from what Celeste had revealed, but to hear it, toseeit, is breaking me into pieces.

Get it together, Aurelia. We need to get her out. Focus.

“We’re taking her right now,” I say firmly. To freedom. To peace.

Susan’s face crumples as if she is relieved. “Good. That’s good, Aurelia.”

“Do not use her name,” Savage snarls. “Not after what you’ve done.”

“I’m sorry,” Mina says, clutching the pendant of the Wild Mother at her throat. “We never wanted to do this. I prayed the drugs wouldn’t work. Prayed every night the king would let her go. We begged him in the beginning, but…” She shakes her head.

I wipe my cheeks, taking the chart from Mina to glance down the long list of drugs and medical interventions. Every timethey drew blood, every time they checked her organs, had been documented with precision. There is an ultrasound machine in the corner of the room and more equipment that I don’t recognise. On the other side is a shelf with bulky folders full of paperwork.

Fifteen years worth of medical charts.

Nausea roils in my stomach.

“None of the treatments worked?” I asked. “There were…never any births?”

Susan shakes her head in shame. “None. They tried everything. None of the embryos lasted more than a week.”

Not even my worst enemy deserved a fate such as this.

I glance at Scythe and he nods, removing his arms from around me, albeit reluctantly. My feet are steady as I walk up to the head of the bed, anger, fear, and shame lighting up my blood. She looks so small and fragile in her hospital gown and the tubes keeping her alive are an utter violation. Her lips are dry around the breathing tube and pain strikes me anew when I touch her hand and the IV line gets in the way. I close off the device and start undoing the tape around her hand as Susan and Mina turn off the machines. Mina hands me a circular band aid and I remove the drip from her right hand. There are many marks from where her skin has been pierced so many times.

“Start disconnecting,” I say to them. “Be fast about it.”

They oblige me with expert efficiency.

I lean down and stroke a finger down her cheek, sniffing when I find her barely warm. I whisper into her pale, perfect ear. “I love you.”

Then I watch Susan switch off the machine that keeps her breathing. Her life support.

I’d only seen training videos of it done, and it’s well beyond my own area of practice, but I undo the tape keeping her airway in place and extubate her as gently and as quickly as possible.It’s a horrible process, messy and noisy, but Susan guides me through it without question.

Gritting my teeth and fighting tears, I listen to her instructions. I could have made her do it, but I need to rescue her from these foreign, heinous objects. I need to make up for what my father had done.

My mother takes a breath on her own, rattling and weak, hardly a real breath. But it makes my heart leap for just a moment. I catch Susan’s eye and she shakes her head. I look at my mother’s face again, free from obstruction.

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