He turns his head to see me, and looking directly into his eyes, I say, "Why are you doing this?"
"Think of it as a thank you for bringing yourself all the way towards me. I was able to find a rather exquisite group of nightmares. It seems I will be the hero of our village for some time."
Confused, I shout, "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
Looking down at mother, he says, "Did you really bring them here and not tell them? Did you start taking some substance that melted your brain?"
Struggling to speak as the swords drag her into the ground, my mother says, "Leave them alone."
Walking over towards me, he kneels down and says, "The country you're in is called Puhastatõd, the country with the closest border to Blestemate, just past those mountains that protect it. We happen to be known for a couple of things. A beautiful, strong community, great ale, rolling hills, soft wool, some of the best cheese in the world, and for being a great den of disgraced adventurers who get rich by scavenging the body parts of nightmares."
"No way, that can't be true. You're not a disgraced adventurer?"
He laughs a bit, and says, "If I wasn't there is no way I would be here. But you see, your mother over there knows I am all too well. You do one or two shoddy things, and the guild at Cordum throws you off board, and lets you drown in the sea as they give all their support to the major clans, only allowing them to grow in place of everyone."
My mother says, "Stop trying to blame that on the guild; what you did permanently damaged people's lives."
Turning and moving over to my mother, he grabs her face and says, "I definitely don't want to be hearing that high-minded moral crap from a material person like you, especially considering how much you enjoyed everything I bought with that money."
"I never asked you to sell your soul for money. To trade people's lives like they are goods to be used and sold!"
"NO YOU DIDN'T! YOU JUST TALKED DOWN TO ME EVERYTIME I DIDN'T SUCCEED, KEEP GIVING ME LOOKS OF ANGER WHEN I COULDN'T GET YOU EVERYTHING YOU DESIRED, AND NAGGED ME TO WORK HARDER OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL I FELT LIKE MY HEAD WAS GOING TO BREAK INTO PIECES."
He stops a takes a series of deep breaths, and says, "Nothing was enough for you, and you kept pushing to the point I no longer felt human. You're the one who taught me humans value can be measured in money, don't forget that."
My mother grits her teeth, and she says, "It's because I believe in you."
"OH SHUT THE FUCK UP! That girl is what, 12 years old? Just around the time you left me without a world? Then, when we met 9 years ago, I never heard a word about her existence, because you didn't even think I was capable enough to even handle that child, didn't you!"
"That isn't true!!!"
"IT IS! AND FOR THE LAST 9 YEARS YOU HAVE STAYED IN THIS FUCKING COUNTRY JUST TO MOCK ME, JUST TO LOOK DOWN ON ME, HAVEN'T YOU? FOR YOUR OWN SICK SENSE OF SUPERIORITY, BECAUSE DESPITE EVERYTHING, YOU STILL BLAME ME, AND ONLY ME, FOR THE FACT THAT YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERYTHING YOU WANT. But I am done with this now, I am finished with every aspect of this, I am taking the seeds I planted long ago, and using them to move forward in this life of mine."
Moving towards me, he grabs them and says, "Thank you for giving me food for the next 10 years."
A surge of feelings flow through my mind. The smile of my father, the pleas of my brothers, the blood flowing down my mother's body, and the fear and disgust within my heart. But more than all of that, the hatred I have for myself and the humans in front of me dominates it all.
I raised my hand and under my father's stomach, I create a metal face and shove it directly into him, which breaks his grip, and I quickly run forward towards my mother. Yet my head quickly smashes across the ground as an impact hits it from above, making the very world around me shake rapidly.
My mother screams, "ŽUDRĖ!"
Opening my mouth, I say, "Mommy?" Yet as blood from my head flows down into my mouth, I quickly close it to control my breathing.
"That was my fault, I should've known this situation would make her more dangerous. I should take off her legs just to make sure this won't happen again."
My brother faces in front of me, fill with fright, and my mother, on the floor, starts to struggle, but the pain of the swords piercing her hands, along with the strength of the grown men stepping down on her, keeps her in place."
My mother, relaxing her body, spreads her palms on the floor beneath her and the ground around caves in as a giant iron face appears and breaks up the ground around her palms.
The men behind her get sent off balance, and she forcefully pushes herself up and places her palms on their bellies before creating more iron faces that strike them in the gut.
She quickly runs forward towards my brother and creates a series of iron faces that she slams into the men around her, including those behind me. She screams, "GATHER TOGETHER!"
And Blue quickly combines all of his arms into a giant one, which grabs me, and brings my body towards himself. My brother cries while holding me, and starts using their hands to cover up the wounds on my head.
Though all our attention is quickly grabbed by the voice of my mother. We turn our heads where we see her with a sword running through her back, my brother screams, yet I can barely bring my body to move at the sight in front of me.
My mother raises both her hands, and around our bodies, a giant sphere of iron faces forms, covering each of us, forming into a large ball. All the light fades from around us with the exception of a few cracks between the overlapping faces that cover us.
My brothers quickly smash their fists across the iron faces and scream, "MOTHER!"
My mother's rate of breathing increases, and she says, "It will be alright, boys. Just keep your hands on your sister, and keep her safe, alright?"
The sound of metal clashing against metal plays all around us, then, with a stressed tone, she says, "I am so sorry, all of you, I should have been smarter with the way I did things. I shouldn't have stayed here for so long, putting all of your lives in danger."
Picking myself up, I quickly peer my eyes through the cracks of the metal ball where I see my mother with a series of iron faces against her body. Strikes from the men bash against her shields, and her body feels the forces from each of the strikes.
Soon, blood starts leaking from her mouth, and I hear my father say, "Do you really think I am so weak as to not break through that pathetic barrier?"
He swings away at her, and she says, "I was a fool. I kept coming back here, thinking that one day I could bring myself to apologise to Clifford. But I was never able to. I wasn't always the kind mother you think of me as. I was a greedy person who always looked forward. Who only ever cared about what the future held for me, rejecting everything that couldn't reach that future with me.
If you met the old me, I would have devalued every single action, every single smile, every single dream you had until it was as perfect as my mind had. It left me with nothing, I scared away all those I love, because I didn't love any of them, I just loved what they could one day give me. Clifford, I am sorry."
The sound of the repeating swings against my mother's body slows down, and she continues, "Žudrė, I am sorry for the life I have given you, but please protect you're brothers. They all have strong bodies, but the anguish may be too much for them, so keep a strong heart. Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink, White, please never forget that I gave birth to the six of you at once, so you're all united for the rest of your lives. Now and until the day you die, never forget that. To my seven little cursed angels, I love you."
Throughout my mom's back, the shields all break into pieces as a series of blades stab through her, splashing blood directly onto my face. Yet as her body lies on the ground with her chest impaled again and again, she still raises up her hands, and the ball that encases us gains even more iron faces over it.
My brain quickly tries to make sense of everything around me, but it has no time as the feeling of the arms of my brother reach and overtake my body, as the six happy boys fill their cute eyes with tears that fall down all around me.
Grabbing each of them, I hold them all close, as I stare forward into the darkness in front of me. Overwhelmed by all of the sensations, the feelings that emerge from my heart bring me to tears as I lower my head into my brother's bodies, and say, "I am sorry, I am sorry."
-Break-
Time passed quickly after that, at a rate I barely remember. They were unable to break through our ball, and after a while, completely stopped trying to do so, and just loaded us into what I can only imagine was a carriage.
They drove us from place to place, with the only thing allowing us to keep track of time being the intervals between our stomachs screaming for food. Though the pain and hunger allowed the six of us to forget about our mother's death for even a little bit.
But in the end, it would quickly fade as someone would pour water and soup for us each time we felt the hunger overtake our bodies. We had to open our mouths under the minuscule cracks at the top of the sphere, and slowly wait our turns to get our meals.
My brothers, who could barely contain themselves when they would eat, would, in an orderly fashion, allow me to go first, and then one after another would wait for their turns.
Yet when our bellies had strength, our hearing would return to us all, and the words the men said would ring in our ears.
"We are going to be rich."
"The body is still in good shape. I wouldn't know what kind of defensive weapon they would be able to make with her skin."
"It's a shame, though we had to kill her, we could have made a farm if she were still alive."
"Though it's not like we don't have another one to do that."
"A curse like that is rather easy to turn into items, I guess."
"Don't forget we got those boys as well. Though I guess we should just sell them off, because controlling them seems like it will be harder. Still, we are going to be set for years after this hall."
"I am going to go visit Molstoria with what I make. My wife is going to be pleased."
Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting. I hate all of them. I can't stand the fact that any of them even get to breathe. The fact that they talk about my family as if their just tools or currency makes my mind go numb with rage.
I will hate them, I will hate them, I will hate them, I WILL HATE THEM!