1. Reunion
The woman was close; Asha could feel it. Finally. She had been searching for almost fifteen years, and now she could sense the woman’s presence.
Bands of anxiety constricted her heart. What should I say? Should I say anything at all? Her eyes followed the woman who drifted silently past the tree line. The sharp smell of decay blew into Asha’s face, as broken branches crunched underfoot. Idly she wondered why the forest was thinner towards the highway like a balding head. If the situation hadn’t been so tense, maybe she would’ve laughed. Maybe.
She could feel night’s shadowy fingers touching her everywhere, making her skin crawl. She shuddered a bit and suddenly she couldn’t stop; her instincts were telling her to get out. Fast. But she refused to leave until the woman was with her.
She urged her feet to move toward the woman, but they seemed to be frozen in place by the uncommonly early autumn frost. “Mom!” she shouted, waving her hands above her head. An owl hooted in displeasure when the screaming girl disrupted its nighttime calm.
The woman continued to walk away from Asha as the whispering waves blew their briny ocean winds against them. Asha writhed in place, trying to rid herself of the invisible captor that held her in place as the woman adamantly trudged toward Luna General Hospital. Asha rocked back and forth, her desperation becoming clearer by the second.
The hospital’s bright lights seemed out of place against the dusky surroundings. The haunting light of the full moon glinted off of an expensive-looking sedan. The woman nodded in satisfaction when it caught her eye. It seemed like her plan-whatever it was-was working perfectly.
Her bulky trench coat slid from her shoulders, the biting winds waking the infants in her arms. Who are they? Asha wondered, hot, jealous tears spilling unbidden from her eyes. The woman quickly recovered the babies and continued without missing a beat. The babies’ untroubled cooing seemed odd to Asha. They seemed happy in the darkness, almost like they belonged in its bottomless depths.
The woman kept looking at the forest behind her. Asha noticed when the woman hesitated, and then looking into the forest, with wide, unseeing eyes, she shuddered. But whenever Asha looked, there was nothing but fallen leaves and the nearly inaudible sounds of padding feet. With a look of determination, the woman kept walking across the highway. It was the only thing between her and the hospital.
Asha heard the woman breathe a sigh of relief when she crossed onto the hospital’s property. That’s weird, she thought. How was it possible that she could hear a little sigh when the woman was at least five yards away? Asha shook her head because she didn’t care. As long as her mother was near, nothing else mattered.
The woman laid the children on the steps of the nearly empty hospital and backed away. The moonlight coated her face, giving it a beautifully ominous light. Asha’s hand went up, and she pretended that she could hold her mother’s face in her hand. She thought that if she could just touch her mother then everything in her life would be solidified, and her heart would be filled with love. But since she was still stuck in place, none of that could happen. Soon, Asha swore.
The woman took a small box from her pocket and placed it in the baby boy’s blue cover, making sure to conceal it from wandering eyes. She removed a silver necklace from around her neck and put it on the little girl where it shimmered, a light in the darkness.
Asha’s heart was thundering in her chest; why would her mother give away the necklace? Asha touched the hollow at her throat, her fingers scrabbling at the spot where her necklace should have been. You’ve got to get her attention, Asha thought to herself. It honestly couldn’t hurt to try again. If Asha showed her mother how much she longed for her, maybe she would stay this time. Asha hoped with everything that she was that the woman wouldn’t leave her again. “Wait for me!” Asha’s voice was ignored. The woman didn’t even turn her way.
“Stay safe, my beloveds,” the woman whispered to her babies, kissing them lightly on the forehead. “I,” she began. Her voice cracked as she choked down a sob and turned away from them. She glided across the interstate, her feet a blur as she ran faster than Asha thought was possible, and the night-blackened trees sucked her in.
Asha fell to her knees, grateful that she could move, but tormented because the woman had left yet again. Her world seemed to be spinning dismally around her; it took all she had to hang on. Broken sobs ripped from her chest for what felt like hours. A heavy sadness settled onto her body, and she could feel it concentrating in her heart.
Quieting, she wiped the dirt off her jeans and set off on the way home. All expression melted from her face as she fell into resignation. Her mother was gone and that was that. She shrugged her shoulders lightly; she knew there was nothing she could do about it, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
Asha was only a yard away from the edge of the parking lot where she had watched the woman when someone spun her around abruptly. The woman’s gentle features and small figure personified nurture. She held her arms open, daring Asha to trust her. “Mom, you came back for me.” Suddenly, the weight was lifted off of her, and it felt like her body was humming with joy. Asha could almost pretend that her sudden lightness had her floating above ground. She fell into the woman’s arms, but instead of being warm and comfortable like any mother’s hugs should be, it felt cold and hard, a brick wall. Asha tried to shift out of the hug, wonder creasing her brow.
“What’s wrong, Asha?” the suddenly maniacal woman cackled. Asha suddenly went slack; all parts of her were numb. The woman rolled her eyes at the adoration that she undoubtedly saw in Asha’s. “You were never worthy of my love. I didn’t love you or your brother Aiden,” the woman said, gesturing toward the squirming babies on the hospital step with her free arm. Asha shook her head slightly, confusion clouding her eyes.
The woman’s deceptively sweet face shone with malice, and I watched as an animalistic glint appeared in her dark eyes. Asha pushed away but the woman just held tighter; the weight was suddenly back upon her. But this time it was fear, not sadness, weighing down her limbs. The woman’s lips spread, her sharp canine-like teeth making Asha nauseous. She struggled to get out of the woman’s lethal embrace. Her chest rumbled against Asha; she was still pressed up against the woman’s oddly frigid body. That rumble, even though it was mostly inaudible, seemed like a growl. The thought of her mother growling made Asha’s blood run cold.
“You were a burden on my life.” The woman must’ve gotten sick of watching Asha wriggle under her gaze. “I’m glad I abandoned you.” Silent tears flowed down Asha’s face, her mouth too dry to speak. Weren’t reunions supposed to be sweet?
Asha’s tears broke the nonviolent façade. The woman grabbed Asha’s arms and shook her back and forth with otherworldly strength. She cried out in pain when her head snapped forward then back again, and her hair lashed her face leaving throbbing welts in its wake. An earth-shattering screech clawed its way out of her mouth when the woman slammed her on the ground, small rocks embedding themselves in her flesh. She whimpered when the woman left again, begging for her, not caring that she didn’t love Asha and never had. Asha shrieked when she shot up in bed, a thin layer of sweat covering her body.
We're not going to be reading about her thinking about the dream in the next chapter are we? I think that would slow down the story. Why don't you start off with showing her in her everyday life? Introduce usvto the character a little bit before showing us the dream. Right now, I don't have a reason to care about her. I don't know who she is. I did like your use of description and your time travel factor thing though. Keep going!:)
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