'Well... I'm fucked! I need to leave, IMMEDIATELY!' thought Christopher when he saw a woman, standing on his left having the appearance of his mother without her shirt, showing him her mature milf body.
He was sitting on a chair like frozen and the only thing on his mind was finding a way to escape from this nightmare he found himself in.
He knew this is can't be his mother and that this woman just stole the look of his mother's body and face.
Through his mind flew thousands of memories he and his mother had together.
All the injuries he had, all the happy and sad times they had together, and now this woman is using his mother's look to get closer to him and satisfy her desires.
"Who you are? You know my mother would never act like this" Christopher looked at the woman and his gaze was burning with disgust.
The woman's eyes narrowed and her face glitched a little "B-but I am your mother, and you are my son. Don't you see how I look? I love you and I would do whatever I can to let you stay here~."
"You know your father is older now and he can't satisfy me like before. Because of that, my desires are uncontrollable..."
Christopher rose from the chair and walked to the kitchen window 'This must be just in my head. This can't be real! It's just an illusion...'
After he said that, the window in front of him cracked without him doing anything.
'What?' he thought and looked closer.
"I see, so it's really in my head..." he spoke up loud and everything around started cracking slowly.
The walls, furniture, and everything started slowly disappearing from existence when he thought about this being an illusion of his own mind.
'I was so fixed on her, that I didn't even realize that everything around can be fake.'
Ending his thought, he turned around and looked at the woman.
She started trembling under his gaze as her face started slowly disappearing, turning into pieces but at the same time, it started regenerating.
The fight for this regeneration and destruction was caused due to Christopher's fear of losing his mother.
It's his primordial fear of losing someone close to him. Everyone has it deep in their hearts, even the coldest individuals.
Maria was scared a little and took a step towards him "W-what are you talking about Christopher..." she immediately put her left hand on her mouth, and her eyes opened wide.
"And now I have my proof."
"So if I'm thinking correctly, in my head, I can do whatever I fucking want right?" said Christopher, and a second later, he was holding a beautifully engraved Colt M1911 in his right hand which he got from Ardelean the day they talked first.
Pointing the gun at the woman, he said "It was nice and all but I'm married and you are not my true mother, so reveal yourself before your brain paints my kitchen walls..."
The woman's eyes narrowed and started glowing purple "You dare to point that thing at me? ME WHO GAVE YOU THE POWER?! EXCEPT YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT ME BOY!"
"Tell me who you ARE?!" shouted Christopher and took a step closer to the woman.
Her eyes started glowing more as a creepy wide smile appeared on her face "Accept your FATE~. Your soul is already LOST~"
"Ahh, shut the hell up and get the fuck out of my head," said Christopher and pulled the trigger, emptying the magazine of his pistol into her body and head.
The bullets were glowing red and flew through her as the last thing Christopher saw before he fell unconscious was the woman and everything around disappeared with screams and shrieks heard in the distance.
[... Phoenix residence, NYC ...]
After a tiring fight that lasted the entire night, Vicki and Isobel were lying with closed eyes on the ground in the dayroom of their residence.
The furniture in that room was almost burned and the walls, ceiling, and ground had few holes in it.
The only intact thing in that room was the couch where Christopher was previously sitting before he left on his night walk, where he found Elizabeth and fought the four riders of Justice.
"Are you two finally done?" said Elizabeth as she appeared in the doorway, looking at the mother and daughter duo lying on the half-burned red carpet.
Marcus suddenly appeared near Elizabeth "Countess Elizabeth, this is for you" and handed her an envelope with a letter, sealed with the Vampiric cross sign.
Seeing the letter, her eyes narrowed and the air around her changed from normal to extremely cold.
She opened it and after a few seconds of reading it, Elizabeth's eyes turned from green to crimson red as her deep and ordering voice shook the entire mansion of clan Phoenix.
"CELESTE, ISOBEL, ROSE, VICTORIA, CLAUDIA, PACK UP YOUR THINGS. WE ARE LEAVING!"
Marcus, who was still standing near her, started crying blood tears because of the sudden damage to his ears.
Isobel and Vicki opened their eyes wide and asked "Where are we going?" at the same time.
"Read this," said Elizabeth and threw the letter in Isobel's direction, but before she could catch it, Vicki got up and stoled it, using her vampiric speed.
Looking at it, she started reading "My dear Counts and Countesses, I'm inviting you and your families to a ball that will be held in our kingdom in three days, on the night of the eclipse of our blood moon."
"WHAT?!" Isobel and Vicki said at the same time and Vicki continued "We are going to sign the peace agreement between our kingdom and the kingdom of the werewolves and then celebrate."
Isobel got up and sat on the only couch that was intact and elegantly crossed her legs "That's it? A stupid agreement between the king and those wet dogs?"
Before Vicki could say anything, Elizabeth came closer and took the letter from her hands.
"Hey, I'm not done!" Vicki looked at Elizabeth who bit her finger and a drop of her blood fell on the letter.
The letter started glowing and revealed a last sentence "Ps: Dear Countesses Elizabeth Báthory, Isobel Phoenix, and Celeste Dark, bring the three new members of your family too, I'm going to have a word with them."
Everything went quiet for a few seconds until a burst of wind opened the main door of the residence and Celeste walked in with dark red glowing eyes.
She walked to the dayroom and sat down on the least burnt chair "Now, what are we going to do? You all know that the only one who can have multiple wives is the king. That's the stupid law of our race."
Marcus then disappeared, knowing this was something he shouldn't hear and all four of them, Celeste, Vicki, Isobel, and Elizabeth, started drowning deep in their thoughts.
It lasted a few seconds until Elizabeth looked at everyone present with a wide smile and started clapping to get their attention.
And while the girls started thinking about what could they do, Christopher was slowly opening his eyes.
[... Christopher's home, his bedroom ...]
He found himself on his bed again, but this time, looking at his body, he was wearing that black shirt and white pants from Rose.
Then, looking at his hands that were covered with tattoos, he sighed in relief.
'Oh, I'm back again.'
*KNOCK *KNOCK *KNOCK "Sweetheart? Open the doors please."
Christopher looked at the door and broke in a cold sweat when he heard his mother "Mom, I'm changing!!!"
"Oh, I'll wait in the kitchen then" he heard with the sound of slowly disappearing footsteps.
Christopher sighed in relief again but this time, it was because of his little lie.
He lied only because he needed time before he's going to see his mom again.
["What's wrong Christopher?"] he heard in his head as a wide smile formed on his face.
He got up from his bed, walked to his window, and started explaining everything, well, almost everything that happened to him while watching the city from afar.
When he ended, he turned and sat down on the inner windowsill.
Hearing ["It started sooner than I thought"] his eyes widened 'What do you mean, is it somewhat familiar to you?'.
["Yes of course, but come now, I'll explain it on the way"] as Christopher walked to his door, unlocking and opening them.
Walking down the stairs, Ardelean started explaining ["What you experienced was the power of my boss, the Darkness. It confuses its new hosts to the point when they no longer can recognize the differences between their reality and the Darkness' illusion"]
Christopher broke into a cold sweat and replied 'How can I recognize my reality?'
["Here"] said Ardelean and on Christopher's left hand's middle finger appeared a small rune.
["This is a soul rune. That means if the Darkness puts you into another illusion, I'm going to be there as well because our souls are now connected."]
["The bad thing is that I don't know where I'm going to appear, but don't worry, I'll find you."]
["In the illusion is only your soul, so when you appear there again, you are going to feel a little pushing towards a random place. That's where I'm going to be."]
Arriving at the kitchen doorway, Christopher thought 'But, why is the Darkness doing this to the hosts?'
["Because, if you think that the illusion is your reality, you don't feel threatened and you don't feel like running away."]
["If you choose the illusion as your reality, the Darkness then can take control over your body and you'll be absorbed by it, lost forever in its illusions and tricks."]
["If you don't choose the illusion, it's going to try it again and again, deceiving you until you become mad."]
["And when you are mad, you can't fight back so the Darkness can freely take control over you AGAIN."]
["Just remember, if you want to survive, never fall for its tricks. NEVER!"]
Christopher shuddered and walked inside the kitchen where was his mother.
Looking at her sitting on the couch and waiting for him, Christopher remembered how he fired the thirteen bullets into her clone.
["It's a painful memory I know, but I don't think that it's a good idea to act like Emo all of a sudden and leave your mom because of the Darkness' tricks..."]
["This is what it wants. It wants to mentally and physically break you. It wants you to be alone and helpless to become an easier target."]
["So show that you are not scared of it!"]
["Don't play by its rules. Form yours instead!"] said Ardelean, and Christopher, full of determination and motivation nodded.
He sat next to her and with a still little sad tone, he asked "How can I help Mom?"
She looked at him with a smile and placed her hand on his "Christopher, I want to give you something" and took a golden ring with a green oval gem on it from her finger and handed it to him.
Examining the ring in his hand, he asked "What is it?"
"It's a gift from me to your 21st birthday my son. I know it looks like it's not much but trust me, it's more than just a ring." said his mother with a small smile on her face.
Christopher got up and hugged her "Thank you, Mom, thank you for everything" as a small tear fell from his left eye but Maria didn't see it.
Suddenly, "I should give you something too, right?" was heard from the doorway so he turned around and saw his Dad, leaning against the doorway with a smile on his face.
He started walking towards his son and took a ring from his pocket too.
"Another one?" asked Christopher, looking at his nodding father.
He started examining it like the one before.
It was a silver ring with a black gemstone in the shape of a rectangle.
On this gem was Christopher's old family crest and the whole ring had ancient ornaments on itself, somewhat similar to those on the ring he got from his mother.
"Thank you, Father," he said and hugged Mark, hearing ["Wait, that's-"] Ardelean wanted to say something more, but at the end, he stayed quiet just thinking ['Hehe, we are going to find that out soon enough host~.']
...