"Not really, but I've seen many anomalies before wearing this." He mocks her.
"What are you doing here?" Laurel snaps back.
Placing a hand over his hood, he pulls it down to reveal his face.
"Hello, mother!" Sylvester greets her with a grin.
The eyes that were hidden underneath the shadow of his hood were a light shade of purple that she couldn't forget.
Alarmed, she gets to her feet and exclaims. "You have also gotten your abilities reawakened?! How did you escape?!"
In the blink of an eye, Sylvester rushes forward and grabs her by the shoulder.
"Don't scream," Sylvester commands in a hushed whisper.
Laurel swallows hard, the sound of her heartbeat echoing in her mind.
She stares into his eyes, seeing how they glow with a faint purple light. His grin is wide and devious.
"I saw Lila, was that you playing mind games with me?" She asks, still shaken.
Sylvester chuckles at her words. "Why should you care about her?"
"Because she's mine, she's my daughter!" Laurel argues whilst breaking down in tears.
'Spiteful snake, all you ever did was manipulate us with that bullshit!' Sylvester hisses in his thoughts.
"I can't bring back the dead, whatever you saw should be your past haunting you," Sylvester replies with a taunting smirk.
Laurel stares at him in silence, appalled by the revelation but also internally grateful about the news of this being for the best of Hilden.
Sylvester's eyes glisten with rage after reading her thoughts on what she truly thought about them.
Letting go of her shoulder, he grips her neck instead and whispers into her ears. "If you can't deduce the motive behind my question after five tries, you're better off dead."
Feeling the grip tighten around her neck, she sputters, "w... what is it?!"
"Why...?" Sylvester demands.
Her eyes widen in fear as she frantically tries to speak. "Wha... why?"
'Why... did you turn your back on us?' Sylvester completes in his thoughts.
His heart hurt at the thought of still caring about such a matter, but if he could hear her say it even after she thinks her daughter is dead, he would get his answer and hope Lila could also hear from where she was hiding.
Laurel's mouth agape, she looks at him from under her eyelids.
"Answer me!" Sylvester growls at her.
Gasping for air, she rattles off the first reason that comes to mind and goes with the main reason he could have sought them out.
"I… I couldn't bear to see others die because of you two and had to do it, you're both monsters!" She answers.
Watching below through the balusters of the stair landing return, Lila covers her mouth to muffle a cry.
Sensing the withheld hurt and anger building in Lila, Sylvester grows increasingly furious.
With a swift motion, he slams Laurel against the wall next to the door of the kitchen. With his free hand, he pulls her chin to force her to look up at him.
Tightening his grip around her throat, he snaps. "And we are monsters because we choose to live our lives like others?"
"There was never anything good that come from you monsters!" Laurel counters, her face scrunched up in pain as she tries to keep breathing.
Sylvester lets out a sigh while staring at Laurel and releases his grip, causing her to fall to the ground.
Thud!
"We didn't wish for any of this, we chose to live like every non-awakener, but what do we get? Hate and fear!" Sylvester speaks coldly.
"You should all be cured, the government sees you all as a threat to our civilization. They are waiting for a slip from any anomaly that can't be tamed, just one." She tries to reason, reaching out to him.
"They won't wait forever. They want us to go extinct already, it's only a matter of time till they send their weak army." He states bitterly.
Grabbing her by her arms, he drags her out of the living room, his footsteps heavy as they ascend the stairway.
"Let me go!" Laurel pleads once again.
"No! Not until you meet with your ghosts." He cuts her off before she can finish another sentence.
She cries and struggles in his grip, trying to break free.
"Any more resistance, I won't hesitate to kill you," Sylvester warns.
Laurel gives up without resistance, allowing him to pull her upstairs.
Click!
Opening a door to one of the rooms he had planned from the very beginning, he pushes her in, then leaves the room, leaving her alone.
Her legs feel numb and shaky as she sits up and looks around the dimly lit room.
It's the same bedroom she had recreated in the memory of her little girl, the blue walls bare except for a few picture frames of teddy bears on the wall.
Lila steps inside the room and closes the door behind her, standing near the entrance.
Her hair cascaded down her face, obscuring any emotion she could have shown.
Laurel pushes back tears that fill her eyes at seeing her daughter again.
'Is she real?' Laurel wonders as she crawls towards Lila.
Opening the door, Sylvester steps in, patting Lila's hair gently.
"This is a nostalgic reunion, don't you think? All it needs is father to complete the picture." Sylvester remarks with a smile.
As she watches them, the realization begins to set in for Laurel about the truth of Lila. "You deceived me?!"
"M-mommy..." Lila's voice cuts in with a stutter, her lips quivering as Laurel's words play in her thoughts like a broken record.
Laurel's attention was drawn to Lila, she forces a smile and nods her head. "Yes, my darling?"
"I need a hug," Lila mutters under her breath.
Laurel nods her head, opening her arms for a hug. "Mommy missed you."
Sylvester looks down at Lila, sensing a dark change in her mood like it had been a few hours ago with Rai.
Yet again he stops her and places a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head to signify his displeasure.
Instead, Sylvester squats to whisper in her ear, "let me handle this, okay?"
Lila sniffles and nods her head.
Laurel switches her gaze from Lila and Sylvester.
The moment Sylvester gets to his feet with a twisted smirk and glowing eyes, she could almost guess what had transpired between them.
Once he takes a step forward, Laurel gets to her feet in a rush and sprints towards the window, pulling on the handle.
'Fuck! It's locked!'' She panics, trying to push on the glass frame.
"What are you going to do, mother? Jump down the window?" Sylvester taunts, pulling her by the hair and to the floor.
She shakes her head as she screams at the top of her lungs. "No, no!!! I'm your mother, you can't do this!!!"
"Who says I can't?" Sylvester asks while pulling her backward.
Laurel cries out for help, unable to hold back anymore.
"We're in the middle of nowhere, who's going to come rescue you?" Sylvester laughs.
He places a hand on the back of her neck, squeezing it tightly.
"No, please let me go!" Laurel begs.
A momentary shock seizes Laurel's body, her heart skips several beats as she feels the pressure in her neck.
Her vision blurs and she loses consciousness, falling to the floor with a thud.
"That wouldn't do!" Lila mutters in dissatisfaction, stomping her feet.
Her eyes search for something, anything to help her make her relish the cry of pain from her mother's lips.
After looking for a while, She reaches out to grab a frame off the wall.
Smashing it on the floor, she picks up a shard and hands it to Sylvester. "This will do, brother Sylve."
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Author's note
¶ Do you think Laurel will be spared?
¶ Do check out the weekly auxiliary chapter[Bonus chapter task] to know how you can participate.