Soulless

S O U L L E S S: CHAPTER 35

One minute I stood before the woman who claimed to give birth to me, the woman who abandoned me the first chance she got. Katerina; an elder Wraith, someone who killed innocent people, so she could steal their souls.

And the next; I was standing in the rain.

I didn't even jump from the surprise, it was like I was already numb. I stood in the middle of the road, the sky was black above me with the thunderous roar of clouds clashing together like war drums but I knew exactly where I was.

"It was you who killed me." I shouted over the lashings of rain that soaked through my jeans and clung to my skin. I turned to face her, knowing that she was here without having to look, "Why would you do that to me!?"

Katerina stared at the broken gate that my father had driven through, it had been repaired but I would never see it like it was before. I don't know how she managed to follow me back, how I even managed to get back but here we were and now there was no escaping her.

"It was your time." Katerina sighed like the conversation was already boring her. I glared at her darkly, hating this place more than I ever had before. The road my mother thought it would be best to kill me on, "Every spirit walker needs to die at some point...dying young is the best way to do it."

I felt my eyes burn but I don't know why. It could be because there wasn't so much as an ounce of guilt in her tone, she didn't even look fazed by the fact that she had done it, "You could've killed my dad!" I snapped at her, feeling a new wave of anger hit me.

This time it was Katerina's eyes that cut into me like sharpened blades, "I would never hurt him." She hissed clenching her fists by her side, "I knew he wouldn't die. I needed someone to care for you."

Maybe there was a tone of longing in her voice but I chose to ignore it. Anger was the only thing that kept me going right now and I couldn't give it up yet. I felt like the weather was portraying all my emotions; the clap of thunder was my anger; the whip of wind was my bitterness and the lashing rain was my despair.

"Why'd you leave me in the first place?" I asked, I was too tired to shout now. I wanted to be home, or with Cedric. They were the only real places I felt truly at ease. I walked closer to the hill that the car had tumbled down, there were no remains of what had happened. Too many years had passed now.

Katerina turned her head to me, there was something in her gaze that made me regret asking, "It was to protect you, both of you." She finally muttered, her voice was almost drowned out by the sound of the lashing thunder but I could hear it clear as day.

"Because you're a Wraith?" I questioned, holding my breath as I waited for the answer. The answer I had waited my whole life for, I'm not sure if I wanted to hear it now. I didn't know whether to feel nervous or downright terrified.

"Because of a lot of things." Katerina admitted casting her eyes upwards, "It's not deemed appropriate for our kind to...be with a human. Because of that; your father would be dead by now and you would... I never did think of myself to be a mother. I wanted to spare you the consequences of my decisions."

The answer wasn't what I wanted but it hurt to hear. I don't know why it bothered me so much but it did. The small light was that Katerina actually did care for my father's well-being but I wondered if she ever cared for the heartbreak she caused him, if she ever thought about us like we mourned her.

Katerina was not the woman I imagined my mother would ever be. Even now, I found it hard to vision her as the woman who carried me for nine months and give birth to me. Dad always said that he was only grateful for the one thing my mother gave him; me.