January 17, 2022
Words: Innocent
"The barricades will drive the scary monster away," beamed the fair maiden to her beloved child, Lucas. "If you step outside the barricades, the monster will eat you alive!"
Secluded from the dangers of the outside world was a household surrounded with scraps of metal made to protect them from foreign threats. The mother was strict to Lucas to avoid setting foot outside the house. It became a daily reminder.
Lucas would play with his mother in the living room. Playing, telling stories, and watching movies. His innocence felt radiant to the eyes of the mother.
There are times the mother enters her room, leaving Lucas alone to do whatever he desires. He wondered what she could be doing upstairs. And, like any child would do, went to investigate regardless of the consequences.
Cupping his ears against the door, he hears moaning, sometimes groaning, and rarely growling. Lucas was worried for his mother. She would shut herself inside for hours until beaming to Lucas saying "I'm alright," while struggling to force a smile.
"There was no point of worrying. Mother is the greatest," Lucas would cheer himself up.
Instead of worrying, he played by himself. Venturing upstairs, hiding in the closet, climbing into the attic, finding secret roomsー Lucas knew the house inside and out. The only thing he does not know was beyond the barricades.
The windows were nailed shut, protecting the eyes of the child. However, that did not stop Lucas' curiosity. He ran around the house finding a window that would provide wisdom to the prying child. There was but one window which was not nailed. It was the attic window. The glass used was colored frosted glass, which obscures the images beyond it.
Lucas was overjoyed. He had the urge to jump up and down in joy but the ceiling would shake, alerting his mother moaning in her room. Instead of celebrating, he fed himself with wisdom by peeking through the windows.
It was blurred, he could not make up the images beyond the barricade. Resilient, he tightly squinted his eyes in an attempt to assess the information. Outside the barricade was a figure limping towards the house. Lucas' eyes widened when the figure suddenly banged the barricade with all his might. Frightened, he lost his footing and stumbled on the attic floor. Lucas, however scared, took another peek. An obscured image of a disfigured face gazed into the soul of the child.
A hysterical scream filled throughout the house.
"What happened!?" yelled the mother who hurried upstairs.
Lucas dove into his mother's arms. One was a frightened child crying in the arms of his mother. The mother caressed his head with her cold hand, whispering comforting words.
"It's alright. Everything was a bad dream," the mother whispered as a drop of blood fell from her lips.
The sound of her voice and the soft touch of her skin lulled the child to sleep, snoring in her arms while drool trailed down her clothes.
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"I beg of you!" a yell disturbed Lucas' slumber, struggling to open his eyes from a bright light. "Please, take care of my child! He has a bright future ahead of him!"
In the dead of night, In the middle of a city tarnished in debris, the mother held the unconscious child in her arms, pleading to the people who guarded a huge gate. The gate was attached to a towering wall which safeguard the lives of the privileged.
"Is he bitten?" whispered one of the guards.
"There were no marks," replied the other.
The child's eyes were filled with confusion as he gazed into the eyes of his weeping mother, tears trailed down from her cheeks to Lucas' face. Lucas stretched his arm to wipe off the tears from her eyes.
"Don't cry, mom." Lucas said, worried for his biological mother.
"Lucas…" his mother whispered, touched by his words.
The pale skin of his mother flushed in red. After a long inhale, breath exhaled through her mouth breathing heavily. Moaning turned into a growling, startling the child. The once anxious eyes of a loving mother transformed into bloodshot eyes, staring into the gaze of Lucas. Her eyes rolled back into her head, rendering the child speechless from the horrid sight. Saliva drooling down her mouth like a waterfall from the sight of her child. She became disfigured beyond belief.
"I'm… sorry," a whisper reached Lucas' ears.
An ear piercing howl left the lips of the once fair lady holding a vulnerable child in her hands. Tears formed in the eyes of Lucas, terrified by the change of her loving mother. Attempting to comfort her, he whispered "There there," caressing the unfamiliar face.
The red pulsing veiny eyes peered into the child with a tongue out, brandishing a set of sharp teeth. Before the mother could do anything, the guards swiftly snatched Lucas away from the mother's arms, escaping the inevitable doom. The other drew his weapon, immediately neutralizing the threat.
As the child was taken in the arms of the muscular man, he witnessed the bullet passing through his beloved mother. When her lifeless body toppled into the ground, Lucas' entire world had shattered. His life flashed before him. The happiness they shared with each other disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The curtains for this chapter closed as the entrance behind the guards who dragged the crying Lucas closed shut, away from the moving lifeless corpses that wander throughout the world.
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It has been years since the unfortunate event occured. Lucas successfully ventured back into their family home to learn more of the truth. Reviewing the life of a couple, he discovered that his father's life was ended by his mother. She then preserved the body to use in the future, to relieve herself from the urges of devouring her only child, Lucas.