Catching Feelings

Chapter Thirty-Three: Me Too

Chapter Thirty-Three: Me Too

"What are you doing here?" I ask when I remove my hands.

My mom simply smiles at me, "I'm so proud of you, angel. I can't believe my baby girl is all grown up and graduating in the same dress she wanted to wear all those years ago."

I run into her arms, "you sent it to me, didn't you?"

She laughs lightly as her arms close around me, "I did. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't break some rules for my daughter?"

My shoulders start to shake as she rubs my back soothingly, "I'm not supposed to see you. Why can I see you?"

My mom smiles at me again, her eyes looking lighter than ever before, "they gave me a few minutes before horrible things starts to happen," she explains, looking away from me absently.

"What kind of bad stuff?" I ask warily.

But she doesn't answer me, just hugs me closer to her and sighs, "They never thought you were going to be so powerful. I know what you did with that darkness , they didn't like it, but they've been watching you closely, and they know the type of person that you are. You are not a bad person, angel, just someone who makes bad decisions sometimes."

I shake my head in confusion, "mom, who are you talking about?"

My mom sighs, "I wish I could tell you baby, I wish I could tell you everything. But it's not time yet. I wish things didn't have to be this way, but I'm not allowed to interfere."

"I don't-" I squint, wondering what's going on, before it hits me and my eyes widen. "I'm not dead, am I?"

She laughs, her smile warm and so familiar. "No baby, you aren't dead. And you're not going to die from rejecting your father. To be honest, you made the right choice."

I look at her in confusion., "I thought you would have wanted me to go with him."

She snorts and looks away, "Malum isn't the person he says he is. He had me under the same spell." She sighs, "I've tried so hard to get through to you but always blocked me from getting to you. Malum's a lot more powerful than you think. He's not the father you needed all those years ago and he's not the father you need now. You were so much better off without him. But he fought his way into your life, just like he did with me."

"I don't understand," I tell her, "I thought him coming to town was a good thing. He talks about you all the time, mom, he still loves you."

She shakes her head firmly, her eyes darkening. "Your father lied about a lot things when we were teenagers, but surprisingly, I love you was not the biggest lie he ever told me. Malum should've never come back to Belmount."

"Malum isn't a bad person," I tell her, feeling like I'm talking to a brick wall. "He made mistakes, but he's making up for them."

But my mom only shakes her head at me, pity written all over her face and remains quiet.

"This is why I can't tell you, you won't understand. Your father found a way to weasel himself into your head. He is not a good man, he has done very horrible things, and leaving Belmount all those years ago was not one of them."

"You're wrong," I tell her, getting angry, "Malum is a good person. He came back for me."

My mom simply stares at me, her face twisted with sadness. "You've been working so hard to move on from the horrible things that have happened, but what you don't realize is that you're giving everything away in the process. You've let the past change and steal parts of you. You're father is taking everything away from you and you don't even see it. You don't realize that you're living your life in a dreamlike state. When are you going to wake up Skylar? When it's too late?"