Not My Lyra

Chapter 6

Marisa was happy that she finally told Lyra who she was to her. It still haunts her to this day, when Lyra asked who her mother was and she looked blankly at her own flesh and blood and lied and said it could be anyone. She knew if she told her the truth then, she wouldn't have Lyra now.

"You know, when you ran away during my cocktail party, I Immediately put a stop to it and ordered a search party to look for you. I searched for you for a few days then I got a letter stating the gobblers snatched four more kids. Going through my mind I was hoping  you were smart enough and got away from them, then I turned up to find you in a little cupboard. My heart sunk seeing you in there and I felt like a failure as I couldn't protect you from those filthy men"

Lyra was shocked as she initially thought her mother was just doing a routine check before she sends them off to the north. Deep down Lyra was secretly hoping that someone would find her before the left to go north, she didn't care that it was her mother in the end.

"Mrs. Coulter?"

Marisa looks up to Lyra with a smile on her face.

"What do I....... uh......... call you now?"

Looking at her child confused, till she realised she's still calling her Mrs. Coulter.

"You can call me mum, mama, mother, mummy.... anything but not Marisa or Mrs. Coulter. Only grownups call me that and now that you know who I am you don't need to call me Mrs. Coulter"

"I'll just call you mother for now and see how it goes"

Marisa just smiles and cups Lyra's face.

"Now that we have gotten to this stage, is it possible to have my windows unlocked? You see you can trust me"

Marisa just laughs and folds her arms.

"Ha, you sound so much like your dad. I'm sorry but that's not happening anytime soon. Be grateful that I'm trusting you out here"

Lyra plonks in her chair and crosses her arms and just stares at her mother.

"You can stare all you want Lyra, it's not going to work. Now go wash up for dinner please"

Lyra storms off Into the flat. Marisa looks down to her dæmon and places her hand on his head.

"What are we going to do with her?"

"Argh. What's it gonna take for her to trust us Pan? All I want to do is leave and she's making it difficult. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up"

"She's trying Lyra. This is all new to her remember, just give her time and I'm sure we'll be gone before you know it. Just be patient"

Lyra finishes washing her hands and face then walks back out to the terrace. A few minutes later dinner was served, for once it wasn't something fancy looking that tasted disgusting. Lyra was plying with her food, not to do it out of annoyance but something was making her anxious. Marisa picks up on it instantly but wasn't sure what would be making her daughter anxious, as they are the only ones out on the terrace.

"Lyra, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, something just doesn't feel right now. Like something bad is going to happen"

Marisa looks at her child, confused but smiles as it the only thing she knows how to do in these types of situations.

"Don't be ridiculous Lyra. Just eat your food please"

Both mother and daughter sat quietly at the table. Lyra hardly ate any off her dinner and just sat there staring at it. Marisa getting fed up with Lyra's childish behaviour she was about to tell Lyra off till one of her servants come out.

"Sorry to disturb you ma'am, but there's Magisterium men here wanting to see you and miss Lyra"

"Thank you tell them I'll be out in a minute. You can put them in my study till I arrive please. Lyra go to your room if your finished"

"But why? I was summed too"

"They won't see you till I say they can. Do you understand? Go now, you know what will happen if you disobey me"

Lyra got up in a huff and stormed off to her room. She didn't really want to see the Magisterium men as she remembered back to when they were last here and that's when the first incident happened, when her mother ordered her dæmon to attack Pan and hurt Lyra.

"Maybe we should sneak down to her study and see if we can hear anything"

"You heard your mother Lyra, she doesn't want us there and we should really listen to her as we don't what nor need to have a repeat of what happened last time do we?

Lyra decided to sneak out and walk softly and slowly down to her mothers study. She just got up to her mothers bedroom door and then she felt someone grab her shoulder.

"Hello Lyra"

Lyra turned around to see a man in a Magisterium uniform. She really wanted to scream out for her mother but she couldn't find her voice. Lyra tried to run back to her room but this man had a good grip on the poor girl.

"Don't you try to run or scream. You don't want anything to happen to your dæmon do you?"

Lyra looks at the man and shook her head.

"Good girl. Now come with me and no one will get hurt"

The man took Lyra by the arm and walks to the elevator and instructs the servant to unlock the elevator and let him and Lyra go down. The servant knew it was a bad idea but she didn't want to disobey a higher ranked person. Just as they stepped into the elevator Lyra screamed.

"MOTHER, help me"

"You shouldn't have done that you silly girl"

Marisa heard her daughters screams and quickly got up and opened the door.

"LYRA. Let her go"

Before Marisa could reach the elevator Lyra was gone. This pain that was going through Marisa's body was the same pain she experienced when she told Asriel to take Lyra after she was born. Marisa presses the button for the elevator to come back up, but by the time it got back up Lyra was gone...... long gone

"Lyra.... no come back. Bring me my baby. Bring her back to me"

The other Magisterium man just stood by Marisa and just shook his head.

"You knew this day was coming. You couldn't keep her away from us Mrs. Coulter"

The man walks into the elevator and gives Marisa a final look.

"Not my Lyra, take me instead"

"You know that's not possible. You knew this day was coming"

Marisa falls to the floor and just lets everything go. She knows she's not the perfect mother and human being, but her daughter meant everything to her and this was slowly killing her.