Rot & Romance (Rewriting)

Chapter 35

(A/N: I've added a song to this chapter. I'll let you know when to play it)

"Mom . . . mom . . . MOM!" Lainey yelled as she backed into the living room and eventually into the front door.

Oh my God!

Mom didn't relent. She emitted unintelligible cries as she approached her. Lainey tightly shut her eyes and stuck a hand out to shield herself.

Seconds later, Mom's chest was against her open palm. Heart beating rapidly.

Heart beating!

Mom was still alive.

Lainey slowly opened her eyes. Mom watched her with glossy pale eyes. Her dry lips quivered as she struggled to make her gibberish understandable.

"E-Elaine. Wh-What's h-h-happening?"

Although Lainey was grateful that Mom was still in there, she was also heartbroken. She couldn't begin to imagine the struggle Mom must be going through.

"Mom . . . I wish I knew," Lainey cried.

"Th-There's something wrong," Mom said, falling to her knees. "Elaine th-there's something wrong with me. I'm scared. Call emergency. Please."

I'm scared.

Lainey had never once heard Mom utter those two words. And seeing Mom on her knees at her foot, staring helplessly up at her was as real as it got.

"Mom, I don't think the hospital can help. Come on, off the floor." Lainey knelt down and placed Mom's arm around her neck. "Let's get you back in bed."

Mom abode without another word. Lainey stood and they shuffled to Mom's bedroom. She carefully helped her back in bed where she fell asleep almost instantly. Lainey sat by her side.

"What are you doing, Lainey?" she muttered to herself. "This isn't supposed to be happening. You're supposed to be in school right now. Not worrying about your mother turning into a supernatural . . . monster."

She sighed and looked at the clock on Mom's bedside table. It was now nine thirty-seven. Four and a half hours had passed since she'd awakened in her bedroom. Though it seemed like a lot more.

"Fawn should be in graphic design right now," Lainey said to herself. How was Lainey supposed to explain to her best friend everything that happened? About Mom being infected? "Maybe I should send her a text," she joked. "'Hey, Mom's been infected. How's your website coming along?'"

Lainey laughed. But it didn't feel right. It wasn't the kind of laugh you got when goofing off with friends. It wasn't even a happy laugh.

And the tears in her eyes weren't happy tears.

***

***

Disappointed olive eyes stared back at her. Fawn had been watching herself in her vanity mirror for ten minutes. She was ashamed of herself. She was a witch who couldn't even perform common magic--the simplest type of magic.

"I'm a fail witch," she mumbled to herself.

She'd been trying to perform common magic since Mama left for her dance classes. Trying hard. She'd attempted to close her bedroom door, turn on her TV, open her window and nothing. Mama said Fawn wasn't yet ready to perform magic because she didn't believe in magic, so the Nature can't hear her. Fawn understood that. And she also understood that she'll never truly be the person she was meant to be if she didn't get over that obstacle. She'll never become who Fawn Annette Wright was born to become.