187 Frozen heart III (2/2)

Detra began to cry. The past that she had forgotten, that she was trying so hard to keep forgotten, had just been dug, mocked, and spit on.

The image of her daughter that she loved so much, alongside the image of herself killing the poor girl, all because she allowed a demon to get closer to her, a demon that played them like fools just to make use of her suffering to feed himself.

Her greatest fear, to remember her buried past.

Marcus stepped forward and confronted the forest, ”how could you do this?? How can you just do that to someone??”

The forest then dropped her smile and glared at Marcus, ”I would do a thousand times worse if it meant to keep invaders away from me... This is but a mere example of how much I can punish you if you are foolish enough to try and move further...”

The forest walked away from the two and just vanished among the fog, but not before parting with her final words of warning.

”If you understand who you're dealing with now... Then leave... And never return!”

Marcus was left alone with his mother.

At this moment, he didn't know what to think or what he should be thinking. He always assumed that the woman was just a cruel being who took joy in tormenting others and tried to mask it all by saying that it was for their own good.

But now? So many things about her were starting to make sense.

Her hate for demons was because of how much she suffered in the hands of one of them. Not only that, but suffering during a time where she tried to show compassion by taking him in as part of her family.

Her desire to rid the world of cursed beings was a sign of her devotion to make sure this kind of thing would never happen again, to stop kindness being repaid with misery.

Why she was so harsh on others was to make sure they would be strong enough and smart enough to not let themselves get fooled like she herself was, and at the same time, why she always tried to be so close to Ellie who probably reminded her of her own child, always trying to make her listen to her commands and her obsession on trying to make her strong enough to survive a fight against demons and monsters, was a desperate attempt to avoid seeing Ellie in a similar situation.

And to top it all of, the reason she refused to allow herself to try and get closer to those around her, was because she was afraid of going through the pain of losing them again by avoiding being attached.

The scar this demon created on her heart was deep enough to make her lose all of her humanity. To the point where when she became a goddess, her desire for revenge was so strong that it became everything she lived for... A world of peace without demons.

Marcus approached the broken woman and crouched as well to meet her eyes with his.

He could see it from her expression. She was more devastated than any person he had ever met, even more than his own father moments before he vanished from existence right in front of him.

Marcus tried to call out for her, but he didn't know what word to use. Mother? Detra? East? Natasha?

Not too long ago, he felt all he knew about this woman was how much he hated her and how much he wanted her out of his life. But now, he felt he knew so much he didn't even know what his feeling towards her were anymore.

He just kept looking at her, a mother mourning over the loss of her child, a sight he never expected to see from her in a million years.

The lad just lost himself in his own thoughts and decided to hug the lady. She tried to fight him. Tried to push him off, screamed for him to go away, bit his neck, but the young man just kept holding her without letting her go.

And before he noticed, he was also crying alongside her.

The woman finally stopped fighting Marcus, and decided to hug him back, now shedding tears and screaming even louder than before, as if her heart had been shattered into pieces.

They simply stayed there for a couple of hours until Detra passed out in his arms. Marcus moved the hair away from her forehead and gazed at her face. For the first time ever since Marcus had been brought into this life, the face of his mother didn't make him shiver in terror.

He then carried her in his back and walked out of the ring of fear to reunite with Ellie and Lilith.

Ellie spotted the pain being shown on the lad's face and tried to help them, but Marcus just explained that there was nothing she could do.

The group heard the whole story and just stayed by Detra's side for the rest of the day while she continued to sleep.

None of them had any idea how to face her once she woke up.