What did time have to do with any of this? All Mathew wanted to know was why all these strange events were happening one after another. He turned to his mother and said in a sarcastic tone.
"Back to that car? Oh, yeah, because nothing screams safety like sitting in a moving death trap with you behind the wheel and being chased by God knows who!"
Mathew paused for a moment, took a deep, relaxing breath, and then continued.
"Look, Mom, if you want to keep playing car chase, be my guest. I'm out."
His mother shaped to speak, but before the words could escape her lips, she hesitated. It was obvious that there was something she wanted to say but for some reason couldn't, as she was obviously holding back. Her voice wavered as finally she spoke, frustration and desperation blended into her tone.
"Mathew... you're being unreasonable right now..."
Irritated, he cut her off with a sharp glare and said.
"Unreasonable? I'm being unreasonable? You're the one dragging us deeper into this damn mess! And you don't even seem to have any sort of a plan! Do you think if we just keep running and driving in circles, they'll get bored and leave? Well Newsflash mom! They don't seem to be playing tag. They fucking killed people, mom!"
Her eyes widened and her lips parted, then pressed back together in a thin line. Glistening in the dim moonlight her eyes betrayed the pain she tried to keep hidden. She was a mother after all, and no mother would derive joy in endangering their child. But she, for some reason unknown to Mathew, was forced to put him through such trials, and at the same time, keep the reason hidden.
The bottled-up emotions were finally overflowing. I an attempt to try and get him to understand, she spoke in a low trembling voice.
"I..." she started. "Mathew I didn't want any of this to happen just as much as you. I might not be doing a good job of it, but I'm just trying to keep you safe... I'm trying to... to fix this, but I don't know... how!"
Like a dam bursting at the seams, her raw emotions were evident in every syllable as her words spilled out.
"And you're right. You're right! I don't have a plan! But still. I'm your mother. I'm supposed to protect you, but I've already made so many mistakes."
As she spoke, a single, and lonely tear slipped down her pale cheek. Looking up to him with an expression of plea and shame she said in the most desperate tone the young cynic had ever heard.
"Please... trust me. Just a little longer."
No matter how upset one is, if your mother bursts into tears and pleads desperately with their child, no one. Not even a cynic like Mathew would be able to just stand there and watch.
As he watched his mother, the full weight of her pleas sank in. For a fleeting moment, he was tempted to fire off another sarcastic remark. But the crack in her voice, the vulnerability etched across her face, and that lonely tear broke through the armor of his cynicism.
He ran a hand through his hair, and let out a long, sharp, and frustrated sigh.
"Really?... Tears?... You're pulling that card now?"
He walked forward, looked down at her desperately trying to wipe away the stream of tears, and pulled her into a loving embrace, and said.
"God Mom,"
His tone was still laced with a hint of irritation but was softer now as he continued.
"You're really laying the waterworks on thick, huh?"
After a few minutes, she had finally calmed down. And in that time, Mathew had come to accept that no after what he said right now, she wouldn't divulge any information to him. So, even if reluctantly he decided.
"Alright, fine. You win. I'll get back in the car. But let's get one thing straight,"
Raising a hand to her cheek, he wiped off that lonely tear and continued.
"But when we get to wherever it is you're dragging us, we're going to sit down and have a serious talk about this whole... disaster. No more running, no more vague 'trust me' nonsense. No more secrets."
His expression softened, and then he asked with a tone filled with more emotion than he had shown in the last few years of his life.
"Deal?"
A wide and bright smile appeared on his mother's face as she spoke with obvious joy.
"Yes, son."
After wiping off mucus running from her nose, she continued.
"I promise. No more secrets."
Mathew stiffened, pulling his arms away and hanging them awkwardly at his sides then looked away. While scratching the back of his head, he said in an awkward tone.
"Alright, alright. Enough of the sentimental nonsense."
With his gaze still averted the young cynic added.
"Just... don't make me regret this mom."
Her smile widened. "Don't worry son. I won't."
'This whole thing had better have been worth it.' Mathew thought to himself as he and his mother stepped back into the car.
The young cynic leaned his head back against the seat, staring out the window. When a thought finally came to him. It was a recollection of a question he had asked but got no answer to, so he looked to his mother and asked.
"Hey, you never answered where you got this..."
But before he could finish his question, the sound of glass shattering and the pellets striking him interrupted his flow.
In that same instant, Mathew felt a chill fill up the car. He shivered and rubbed his hands furiously, trying to warm himself but it was no use. Looking to his mother, he opened his mouth to speak, but the words froze on his tongue and his pupils instantly dilated. Illuminated by the glow of the streetlights, the sight before him was the most horrible, terrifying, angering, and at the same time painful thing he could ever see.
His mother's eyes were fixed on the road ahead, not because she was focused on her driving, after all, the car hadn't moved an inch since they sat back in their seats. No... It was a sight, he had been all too familiar with as a resident of the fifty-eighth district. All the life had left her eyes.
Mathew looked down to her neck and around it was a ring of ice and above that was a hand that reached through her broken window and wrapped around her neck. The hand squeezed tightly, cracking the line of ice. Mathew's words still refused to leave his lips, but replayed constantly in his mind.
'No... no... no... Please no.'
But no matter how much he wished he was seeing things or how much he wished to wake up from this developing nightmare suddenly, with an echo, the ice broke and the moment was burnt into his memories. Where her head once was, there was now nothing but a frozen stump of flesh.
His mother, was dead.