Affinity

Chapter 29 - The Cruelty of a Mother

*A/N: Hey everyone! Hemza here with this week's update of Affinity! So, just wanted to give you all a fair warning for this chapter's content. It does contain some graphic/gruesome injuries, so we wanted to do you all the courtesy of forewarning you in the event that it isn't your cup of tea. If that is the case, we're sorry and we hope to see you next week for chapter 30! :) As ever, take care, stay safe, we love you all!*

As blackness receded from her vision and her heartbeat began to settle, Emiko focused in on her mother. She was sitting cross legged on a chair that she'd seemingly pulled out of thin air, one pointed heel crossed over the other.

"How'd you like your dream, Miko?" Mara taunted, standing up slowly. Her perfectly manicured fingers tapped on her knees, and Emiko's stomach swirled with nausea.

"I'm sure it was nice, in the beginning."

Shoto's lips pressing into her forehead danced through her mind, the feeling of his fingers wrapped tightly around hers ingrained in her memory.

"I knew you cared for the boy, Miko. But really, it was too easy." Her mother stepped closer, brushed her fingers across Emiko's now damp cheeks. "Who would've thought that the little girl I tried so hard to break would've been so soft?" The elder redhead's voice was coloured by a disappointed pout, like a child who had just brought home a puzzle they'd saved up towards for months, only to solve it within minutes.

"One little push-" she practically sang, one dainty hand mimicking a tip of a domino and twirling gracefully through the air in a falling motion, "-and sweet Miko is reduced to a pile of rubble beneath my feet." Ruse smirked wickedly then, squatting down to face the trembling girl in front of her, eyes manically wide as she tried to catch Emiko's gaze, the younger girl fighting feverishly to resist the quasi-magnetic draw of this demon's gaze. "You are nothing, Empath."

Mara spat the words as if they were rotten food, laced the words with venom, and Emiko felt the hatred as clear as day. Sentiment still hid in her veins, trembled just below the surface of her skin like some sort of wild creature. It thrashed deep within her, scrambling as if it could hide in her chest if it fought hard enough. The normally comforting feeling now hid, as if her veins were a prison it could not wait to escape.

"You thought you could be a hero?" Ruse laughed cruelly, tilting Emiko's chin up to glare into her eyes. "You are nothing - a nobody. Just a pile of dust waiting to be swept up. Do you hear me?"

Emiko couldn't answer. Couldn't find the words or the strength to tell her mother what she really thought. It was as if she'd had her lips glued shut, or as though her tongue was made of stone.

"I asked-" Ruse shouted, whipping her hand across Emiko's cheek. "If you heard me, Miko."

The stinging in her cheek left her eyes watering, but Emiko found the strength to nod her head slowly. She knew if she didn't, much worse than a slap lay waiting for her. Flashes of pain danced in her mind, the sound of shattering glass taunting her as it always seemed to do in her weakest moments.

"Good girl. I would've hated to have to pay a visit to poor little Shoto Todoroki. Lord knows that boy has been through enough, really."

A flash of defiance danced through her at the mention of Shoto, and Emiko swung her gaze up to glare at her mother.

"Really, Miko You couldn't have picked a worse person to fall in love with, you know. You really think that a child of the number two hero could love villain trash like you?" Mara laughed brightly, reveling in the pain flashing across Emiko's face. "You're lucky he's put up with you for this long. Though he probably just feels bad for you, since he can tell that you come from a family of villains... or, I guess, that your mother is a villain."