We arrived at my parents home a small while later, and a nostalgic sense filled me as I gazed upon our old home, which was at the end of a dead end street. Some happiness filled me as I gazed upon it, but also a heavy does of sadness as well. This was the place where I had been so mistreated by Marcus, but also loved and cared for by my mother, although even she eventually became too scared to do anything. Right now though, I wasn't afraid, I was fully prepared to do whatever I needed to do to protect my mother.
The car was gone, meaning that he was definitely not home at the moment, and was most likely at work.
"It's a nice looking home. These are much more extravagant than the ones from my world." Cici said, admiring many different parts of the house, like the panels making up the outside, the shingled rooftop, and the glass windows. Our windows in our home back on Nagalise did not have glass, but I think the insects were too afraid of me to come inside, which I didn't mind. I hated insects.
"Yeah..." I said, getting lost in thoughts of the past.
My dad slowly becoming colder and colder towards me as time went on, of him ignoring me, and of him yelling at my mom and dragging her away when she tried to help or comfort me. What had I ever done wrong? Why did mom never tell anyone? Why was my dad allowed to be in the position he was in when he was such a bastard? It didn't make sense...
"Love?" Cici asked me, grabbing my arm, and drawing me away from my negative line of thinking. I smiled and bent over to kiss her on top of her head.
"Just was... thinking about the past, "I said, and then grinned at her, "But you saved me just like you always do."
Cico blushed but smiled as she leaned up for a proper kiss, and of course, I welcomed it. I would never get tired of her soft and warm lips. Neither pair of them for that matter.
"Shouldn't we be going inside?" Cici asked me, and I nodded as I studied the home.
With my dad being a cop, I had no doubt he had a security system. We walked up to my old home, and saw a camera over looking the door, but I didn't really pay it much mind. I was currently using my Abyssal energy to shroud myself and Cici in a small bubble, which I instinctively knew would distort us from prying eyes. Cameras should be no different. Once we reached the front door, I summoned a very small tendrils of abyssal energy, and wormed it underneath the front door.
I could actually use these in various different ways, and when I concentrated a bit, I found I actually could see through my appendages. It was weird, but I also wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It was useful. I used it to unlock the door from the inside, which would stop the system to alerting anyone, or causing any alarms to go off. Once the locks clicked, I turned the doorknob, and with Cici right behind me, we stepped inside. The first thing that hit me was the smell.
"Fuck." I said, really wishing my perception was actually lower right now.
Cici gagged and had to physically plug her nose. It smelled of rotten food, and of alcohol. I reached for the light switch near the door, and flipped it up. The reason for the smell was obvious.
"What... the hell?" I asked, with Cici's eyes widening next to me.
The house was trashed. It looked like the home hadn't been picked up or cleaned in months, which was odd as hell given that my mom was a clean freak. There was old food, pizza boxes, and fast food bags and wrappers strewn about the home, all over the tables and the floor. There were also empty bottles of liquor, as well as beer cans and bottles lined up on the table in the open living room to the right. The place was a fucking mess.
"What happened here?" Cici asked, but I had no words for her, because I didn't know.
We walked forward into the home that I once called my own, and lamented its poor state. I wanted to call out for my mom, but I also didn't want to scare her if she was here somewhere. She was pretty skiddish, and given how my pile of shit dad was, it was no surprise. I didn't want to waste time in here, and didn't want to sift through trash, so I just closed my eyes, and sent my perception out, and focused. If anyone was here, I would be able to sense them.
*Thump thump*
I caught the faint sound of a heartbeat from within the home, but the frown on my face alerted Cici that something wasn't right, which given where I was sensing it from.
"Someone... is in the basement." I said, feeling very uneasy all of a sudden.
"Is it your mother?" Cici asked, and I shrugged as I made my way towards the kitchen with her hot on my heels.
"Maybe. I'm hoping so, but I don't know why she would be in the basement." I said, and then looked around at the trashed kitchen as we stepped inside, "Nothing is making sense. The trash, the disarray, the smell... mom would never let it get this bad."
As we reached the back of the kitchen where the door to the basement was, I noticed a bunch of heavy locks, at least 5, on the basement door. I frowned even more deeply.
"Why... is it like that?" Cici asked, but I was already acting.
I smashed through the basement door, and ripped it off of the hinges, tossing it behind where it slammed on the kitchen floor. What in the hell is going on here?
"Something isn't right. We-" I said, but was cut off by a heart wrenching scream.
"AHHHHHHHH"
It was incoherent, and filled with more fear than anything I'd ever heard before. My heart twisted into a complex knot, as I knew who's voice that belonged to.
"MOM!" I yelled, and ignored the stairs as I jumped to the bottom of the basement in one go.
"ELI!" Cici yelled after me, her quick foot steps following down behind me. I reached to my right, and flipped on the light switch, and once those lights came on, my body felt colder than it ever had before.
"WHAT IS THIS??" Cici gasped, her hand going over her mouth.
There, at the back of the basement, was a fucking cage. It was big enough for a person, and there was a bed inside, but that's pretty much all there was. There were a couple of buckets inside of the cage next to the bed, but sitting on the bed, eyes wide with fear and tears, was my mother. Scared, alone, dirty, and emaciated. My vision turned red, and the ground below me began to violently shake.