Only One

You make your way through the manor’s expansive kitchen toward the back door. You were still in only your pajamas but you didn’t care. Slipping into a pair of rubber wellingtons you kept back here you head straight to the door without your keys, jacket, phone or anything. Having Ves torn from your arms just as the pair of you had found a connection had left you **** to find her again. That protection spell your father had cast must have a range to it, surely it couldn’t cover the entire estate and all the lands around it. After such a hopeful beginning you simply had to find your sister again.

You reach for the door knob when you hear the voice of your mother.

“Jacob.”

You stop but you don’t turn. “You can’t stop me.”

“I know.” She says in that strangely familiar yet new voice of hers. The tones were richer and more velvety yet beneath it is still the voice of your mom. She approaches you from behind. You turn to face her, taking a breath to talk she stops you by placing an index finger gently upon your lips. Her clawed nail scratches your nose just slightly. Looking into your eyes, her own glowing like amber coals, she whispers. “Shhh. The less I know the better.” She lowers her hand and smiles at you. There, within that unnaturally sexual demonic form, you see a wholesome love and a deep pride beaming from within her. “How quickly you became a man. It seems but a moment ago I first held you in my arms.” She runs her hands over your shoulders and down your arms. “I’ve watched human history unfold my child, I’ve been a part of it. I’ve danced around bonfires in celebration of the first successful mammoth hunt, I shared a bed with Gilgamesh, I sat as an audience of one for Nero as his city burned.” She squeezes your arms. “I’ve seen human men at their best and at their very worst. Men great and terrible, powerful and humble, men of dignity and men of vulgarity. Men of every imaginable variety from every corner of this world.” She steps in closer. “Of all those countless men over all those millenia there is one, only one, that I call son.” She leans in and softly kisses your cheek, her merest touch sending tingles down your body. “Be careful Jacob.”

You look over her horns, her rosy skin, her glowing eyes, her sharp teeth, and her pointed ears…yet all you can see is...

“Mom.”

She lets out a soft breath and her smile widens. Reaching past you she takes the crimson and dark gray cashmere shawl she kept on the wooden hooks by the door. She lovingly wraps it around your shoulders then pats your chest. “It’s chilly outside. I don’t want you catching cold.”

You smile a warm honest smile and pull the soft garment closer around you.

She then steps back from you with a slow nod of understanding. Her arms linger in your direction, outstretched almost as if she were letting a dove fly free.

Holding the shawl together at your chest with one hand you turn and head out the door. Looking back to tell her that you loved her you find the kitchen empty, your mother already gone. You whisper the words anyway then turn back and head out into the cool dark night beyond.