Cry Me a River |✔️

Chapter 35- Surprise, surprise

^^ Ma baby! xD ^^

"When I close my eyes I see you. When I open my eyes I miss you."

Chapter 35
River's POV

Madeline.

A name so familiar. A name spoken infrequently in my house, uttered only under my father's drunken breath on my birthday when I'd find him passed out on the couch, bourbon in hand. Though I was forbidden to. After all, I didn't have the right to utter such a name.

The unspoken name swirled frequently in my mind growing up; I would always close my eyes at night, trying to picture her smiling face in the darkness of my small room. The one picture I had of her laid tucked away, hidden under my mattress, only pulled out at the dead of night to peer at briefly before my vision would blur under the stream of tears that would surface their way up. That picture. The only one I could find in my house of her. Eyes dark, hair thin, face...blank. She was the very vision of death itself; a thought that would cause heaps of whimpers to roll off my tongue every night as I'd bury myself beneath my stained sheets.

I'd done that to her.

Though here, she appeared so happy. So blissful. So different that I'd nearly been unable to recognize her but it was there. She was there.

My mother.

Though as soon as the epiphany hit me the confusion set in. Why did Parish have a picture of my mother?

I turned to him, watching as he peered up at the painting, a small hint of a smile turning his face up.

"How do you know her?"

He turned to peer at me, "I told you. She was my companion."

Companion...?

"So you guys like...traveled together?" I tried making sense of his words.

He raised a brow, "I guess you can say that," he peered back at the painting, "we grew up together. Both thrown away by our parents like heaps of garbage. Or should I say all three of us..." he trailed off.

Three?

"Though," he continued, a smirk growing on his face, "we showed them."

How could he have grown up with my mother if he is as old as he claims to be?

"Is she as...old as you?" I struggled.

He let out a small laugh, "God, you make me sound ancient. No, I met her in my previous form. You see, I live the same lifespan as one normally does. The only difference is I return each time."

"Like reincarnation?" So his body actually is ten.

"Hmm," he scratched his chin, "similar. Except I return in the same form each time. Like reliving the same life over and over again."

"So you have the same body each time?"

He nodded.

My head spun with multiple questions but there was one comment he had just made that stuck out the most, "you mentioned having parents..."

"Well, I don't grow from the ground," he let out a small laugh, "just because I return in the same form doesn't mean I just magically appear. I'm born just like any other is. Though my last weren't all that great. Not that I really had any time to get to know them...abandoned me the moment I was pulled from my mother's spread legs," he scoffed.

"You remember...?"

Most people don't remember things that far back.

"I was aware. I'm always aware, no matter the age of my form. I'm still the same here," he pointed to his head.