Chapter Two
It had been weeks since Skye and Mama had seen their house. The weather had taken a turn for the worst and it was constantly raining now, Skye's hair was sticking to her cheeks and her back.
She began thinking about how her life used to be, how her hair used to be a beautiful maroon, of course she dyed it; her natural color was a dark blacklight brown. She missed her husband, Julien, and reminisced their days together. Where was Julien now? Was he alive? Was he like her? Her thoughts swirled around in her head and unknowingly, she was moaning. Mama nudged her daughter and snapped her back to reality.
" Mama.. Julien.." Her mother touched Skye's arm softly, to show her that she felt the same. Julien was the best thing in Skye's life, and her Mama knew that. He'd helped her overcome so many of her insecurities and was unfailingly there for Skye.
More so, Mama knew how Skye's heart yearned to be next to Julien's, as she dearly missed her husband. Nathan Killshire was ever the gentleman; he always made sure that she had everything she ever needed which wasn't much, mind you. They met back when Mama was a schoolgirl, just starting at the Medial Alternative High school. At the time Nathan was rather gawky and the two felt a trace too gauche to speak to Mama, who went by Rose at the time. Rose felt all too delicate to be going to an alternative school, everyone in her small group of friends at the time were going to the public school and it made her feel like she wasn't smart enough. She was in fact very articulate, being able to write books on the spot and poetry with more feeling in it than average fifteen year olds, but she always met the wrong people.
Every boy she'd ever dated broke her in ways that were difficult to heal, but the worst was when she started going to Medial Alternative. Prior to meeting Nathan she had met another boy, his name was Jerrod. Mama had no good thoughts about him, he was a smooth talking imp. Jerrod hurt Rose, like plucking a tulip from the ground. When they started seeing each other, Jerrod had treated her like a princess. He always told her how beautiful and perfect she was, and she believed him. Soon he would slither his way into her caring heart, and suffocate the life out of her.
Jerrod took something from Rose that she'll never again see, nevertheless, Rose forgave him.
Forgiving someone that isn't sorry, is just about the most difficult thing in the world. Soon after Jerrod leaves her life, Rose meets Nathan.
Nathan befriended Rose's family and soon became a part of it, he loved her and her family with his whole heart. Two years after they started dating, Nathan Killshire and Rose Llewellyn became Nathan and Rose Killshire. Throughout their thirty years of being man and wife, they were very much in love and gave birth to not only one, but three children.
Now they were all separated, Mama knew Skye was safe, but the rest of her children were missing.
Abruptly, Skye tripped over a fallen branch and one of its twigs had gone straight through her abdomen.
"Mama!" Mama hurried to her daughter's side and made an effort to pull her up, luckily the branch had only gone through the previous knife wound. As soon as Skye was upright Mama looked her over, "...Blood?" she asked.
"I don't... think so, Mama." Skye was terrified. She wasn't bleeding and yet she had just been impaled. What really happened to her?
They had reached the state line by the time it started snowing, Skye and Mama were both awake and didn't seem to be getting weary at all. "If I was this energized...before..then the house would be..clean!"
Mama was still the same, cracking jokes like it was nothing. Skye and Mama had been engaging in conversations along the way to kill time, they spoke much quicker now and were more articulate. Skye had explained how she'd been raped and killed by the man and with each horrific detail Mama moaned in despair. Skye was her baby and the thought of someone doing a thing so horrible to her baby enraged her. Mama wanted to find this snake as bad as her daughter did, but how?
It was now nighttime in the city of Tonopah and as soon as they'd passed the first hotel, Skye fell over with convulsions. Her mouth started to foam and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Her mother went to her side and waited.
When Skye calmed, she looked up and her mother was staring intently at her, her eyes and nose were stinging from acrid fumes. She sat up and looked around, the air was a bright red color and everything looked strange. She looked at Mama and saw a peculiar pink glow in her eyes.
"Mama?" She whimpered, "everything's red."
As Skye looked down at the knife protruding from her ribs she noticed a black smoke rising from its hilt, she touched it lightly but yanked her skinny hand back in pain. She saw the same black smoke rising from the ground in a broken pattern. Her frazzled brain snapped back to reality and remembered that she was on a mission. Her mother helped her up and they walked on, in the broken smokey path.
Skye was curious about why her mother didn't see the black smoke, perhaps because she had only just woken a month ago, whereas Skye had been up and walking for at least three or four months. Again they soon walked on, idly.
