The Red Soldier: Origins of the Red Soldier

EPILOGUE

Mable hadn't left her bed in days. She'd used every handkerchief she owned, and now they were all soaked in her tears. Everyone had come to see her, even Jack, her eldest who now lived on the coast with his own family. Her mother had spent the days since (Y/N) left in the cellar, studying the books. Her sister brought toast up every morning, leaving it on the dresser. It never got eaten though. Mable would look at it from where she lay, but the thought of eating it made her feel sick. How could she do something so mundane as eating toast when her youngest had disappeared? She wanted to know where he was, he was the only thing on her mind; not food, not water... just him.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

'Come in,' Mable groaned, turning onto her side. She'd been expecting her sister, or her niece. It was Gladys, her mother, who entered though.

'Get up hun,' Gladys McGowan said, opening the curtains and organising the plates on the chest of drawers. Mable sat up, smoothing out the creases in her nightgown.

'Get up?' she asked, 'my son... my youngest...'

'Yes,' her mother nodded, sitting at the foot of her bed, 'I've been reading.'

'Of course you've been fucking reading,' Mable scoffed, 'it's all you ever do! My son goes missing and you lock yourself away and fucking read!'

'Mable McGowan!' Gladys scolded her loudly.

'(L/N),' Mable corrected her, '(L/N). The same as my sons'.' Her mother suddenly looked a lot less stiff, shuffling towards her with a sympathetic frown on her face. She brushed a hand through Mable's bedhead. 'My son has gone.'

'Oh, Mable,' she shushed, holding her daughter, 'I...' Mable pulled away from her mother's embrace, sitting up straight.

'Say it mother,' she said, seriously. Suddenly she did not want to lay in bed, moping. Mable got out of bed, blue energy charging itself in her palms.

'I just...'

'You think it's for the best, don't you,' she snarled. Gladys remained silent. 'DON'T YOU!'

'(Y/N) will never die, Mable,' her mother said calmly, standing up now, 'he'll simply remain the same until he can exact his role in the prophecy. Do you want that? I know I don't want to see my grandson fall into depression after depression as he watches his loved-ones die around him.'

Mable's magic receded into her palms, tears falling from her cheeks, 'you can't tell me you believe in that still? Please tell me you don't.'

'Mable...'

'NO!' she yelled, 'my boy – my boy would...'

'I'd like to think the same,' Gladys sighed, closing the gap between them as she hugged her daughter, 'but the Scarlet Witch will rise. And when she does...' She paused, moving a stray strand of hair out of Mable's eye, 'and when she does, I hope (Y/N) is as far away from her as possible.'