"I’m going to pretend you’re about to start your period so you’re unnecessarily spouting bullshit. I’ve got so chocolate ice cream in the fridge, so eat that and don’t give a headache."
Karliah turned back to her chest, but by the ti her head was turned, Bekka was sitting on top of her chest.
She couldn’t say that she had ever seen her daughter overlook chocolate before...
"Ma, I’m serious about this. I’m trying to keep you safe-"
"I am not the child here, Bekka. Let’s not forget who pushed who out."
"Technically, you didn’t push out in this life..." Bekka murmured.
Flashes of hurt appeared deep within Karliah’s eyes. Even though her expression showed only anger.
"...So that’s what this is all about. You think you’re better than ."
"Oh co on..."
"In your mind, you’re just this great big perfect goddess who gets to tell everyone else how to live their lives while disregarding their wishes and-"
"I’m not even going to dignify that with a response." Bekka rolled her eyes.
"Of course you’re not, because why would you need to? Things are the way you say they are and there’s no room for deviation."
"That’s a big word for you."
"And now you’re calling dumb too, fucking classic." Karliah growled.
Bekka sighed in exhaustion and leaned forward.
Begrudgingly, Karliah allowed her to take her face into her hands. However, she was clearly unhappy about it.
"Spare all of this soft shit..." she complained, but she didn’t move away.
Bekka pressed their foreheads together and ran her fingers through her mother’s hair. Sothing she had never really done before.
"I love you, Ma. For better or worse you’re the only mother I’ve ever had and the only one I want. And suddenly, the most unhinged man I have ever seen is after you and I don’t know how I am supposed to pretend like that doesn’t scare .
You can hate . You can call all the foul little nas you want and try to make seem like I don’t give a shit about anything but myself, but I won’t apologize for wanting you to stick around long enough to see all of your grandkids turn 20,000."
Bekka may as well have dumped a smoking bomb into her mother’s lap. She was no less frozen now than if she were about to blow up.
Even though Bekka and Karliah had a sowhat stable mother-daughter relationship, Karliah never really did the things that a motherly figure would be expected to do.
Such as saying ’I love you’ or ’my grandbabies are cutie patooties’.
That might have bothered so people, but Bekka never really took any issue with it.
Her mother just wasn’t wired the sa way as everyone else. But that didn’t an she didn’t care.
Physical and ntal domination flowed through her veins and gave her purpose, but it wasn’t all she thought about.
....It was just incredibly fucking difficult to get her to admit that out loud.
But Karliah wasn’t a heartless monster. She could be reached and reasoned with like anyone else.
"I’m asking you, as your child, please stay with . Just so that I can have so semblance of peace of mind."
Karliah didn’t always understand her daughter. They were raised on two entirely different wavelengths, so Karliah usually let Bekka do pretty much whatever she wanted.
It’s like watching a baby babble around the house and touch new stuff. You kind of just watch them in amusent.
But now, Bekka was taphorically walking up to her mother and asking for sothing that Karliah didn’t know how to give her.
Maybe she wanted to stay. But that felt a bit too much like weakness for her liking.
"...I’ll stay if you let fuck your husband."
Bekka’s picture-perfect smile threatened to crack.
"...You’ll stay because you love and the kids." she insisted.
"I want Lisa too, because that is a thick woman and I bet she can really-"
"RAAHH!" Bekka ripped free two fistfuls of her mother’s hair.
"OW! Bitch!" Karliah held her head. "Why the fuck would you do that?!"
"Because violence is the only thing you respond to, you dirty heifer! If I have to brutalize you to get my fucking points across then so be it!"
"You little sh-" Karliah started to swing at her daughter.
All of a sudden she heard an audible rattling and felt sothing cold wrap around her arm.
Before she could stop herself, a black chain flung her clear across the room and planted her in the middle of the bed.
The chains slithered around the length of her body and bound her tightly, triggering a panicked response.
This was, of course, not the first ti soone had been chained up in Karliah’s room. However, this was the first ti it happened to her.
"A-Alright, I was kidding about the Lisa thing!" (No she wasn’t.) "Just let out of this, Bekka!"
"I think maybe you need to sit here for so ti and think about how much you love your family. And , your favorite daughter."
"You’re my only daughter, nitwit! Now let out of these chains before I fucking combust!"
"God, you’re whiny."
Bekka was all-powerful here. Her mother could struggle all she liked, but she was never breaking free.
"Mind scorching over a bit? Kidding." Bekka cackled as she crawled into bed beside her mom.
"I swear to god I should have treated you like I was a pregnant teenager and left you in a dumpster!"
"Well, you left with Canis Osa, so..."
Bekka and Karliah looked at each other.
""Sa thing.""
Bekka casually pulled out her phone and stopped paying her mother any mind.
Karliah, realizing that she wasn’t escaping, tried to make the best of a bad situation and watched her daughter’s screen.
"...Got any porn?"
"Mama, I’m not watching porn with you."
"Well you can just turn your head the other way or sothing but I wanna be entertained while I sit here in bondage!"
"Don’t make this situation weird please."
"...You locked up. And now you’re telling not to make things weird...?"
"I locked you up cause I love you."
"Ugh, stop saying that, you sound so soft." Karliah rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." Bekka rotated her phone to the side and began watching reruns of ’Hell’s Kitchen’.
Karliah felt her face get uncomfortably hot.
She turned her head to the side and stared at her dresser so hard that it started to lt.
"...you too, or whatever..."
Bekka paused her show. Her ears rose to their full length. "...What was that?"
"I said you too, or whatever. Take that how you will." Karliah snapped.
"Is that your way of saying you love ?"
"Please shut the fuck up."
"That really ans a lot, Mama. I’m glad to hear it even if it sounded kind of unnatural coming from you."
Karliah whirled around. "You know what, you little shi-"
A pair of lips gently crested against her cheek. Karliah froze.
Bekka went back to watching her show like nothing happened. Her mother turned her head away once more and pretended that nothing had happened today.
"...Bitch."
"Heifer."
-
Courtney was wandering about the hallway of her ho, taking it all in for the last ti.
She knew her parents pretty well by now. They would never continue to stay in a place where an enemy had actually managed to break in.
No doubt, they’d see the place as unclean. Tainted.
They would want to build sothing new and untouched.
She was surprised they didn’t do it when Chaos invaded, but maybe it was because of the nature of their enemy that they just skipped over that step.
But after all the shit that’d happened today? Courtney knew there was no way she’d ever see this place again.
Her suspicions were confird when she passed by the living room on the first floor. Or what remained of it.
Her mom was a bit of a perfectionist. If Valerie were planning to have them stay there, she would have fixed it by now.
Courtney thought she saw Behemoth sitting beside Ziz’s enclosure, but she didn’t stop to take a longer look. She didn’t really think it was her business.
Besides, if one of her brothers was in that kind of predicant, she probably wouldn’t have been easy to move either.
Courtney kept walking until she arrived at one of the dining rooms.
Through the ceiling-high windows, Courtney could see her sister leaning against the banister all by her loneso.
Courtney went to her, maybe because she could sense they were both on the sa sort of wavelength.
She pushed open the doors to the balcony and stepped outside.
Hearing her, Yemaja turned around without bothering to wipe her face. Courtney was stunned.
Rivers of glowing blue tears ran down her sister’s face without showing any signs of stopping.
Her pained eyes seed to scream ’don’t ask’.
Courtney knew just what that felt like.
"Want so company...?"
Yemaja nodded slowly.
Together, the two of them stood on the balcony and stared out into the sky.
It was thirty minutes before the two said so much as a single word to each other.
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