Word Count → 3+
mommy loves you.
Once again, her world had darkened.
Things had been going continually, progressively wrong for the Apothecary. Her children were catalysts - It seemed they oozed their wrongness into every aspect of her life. She loved them regardless, although the love seemed strained sometimes, founded on guilt rather than genuine emotion. It was more so with the young girl-child; Elvira fluctuated her life between chasms of guilt and spearpoints of frustration. She knew it was not the pup's fault, for her soul had been made wrong, whereas Elijah's mind had been. For that, she found herself more able to love the faulty blue-eyed boy. His piercing gaze reminded her of the unspoken son, the one she had lost to the heathen with the blood-red eyes and the viper's tongue.
Her palm itched with the satisfaction of having made forceful contact with her face. Another catalyst, that day had been - The day that her youngest had spoken his first and only words, and her oldest son had crushed her heart.
She had cried a bit, in the days afterwards, but despair was tolerable now. She had experienced so much of it, that as with any drug it lessened its hold after progressive use. The ache beneath her breast remained, another inner scar that could so easily open and bleed her all out. She had been a husk once before, a zombie surviving only on the wayward scent of hope, and loathed the thought of reaching such pits again.
Odette was more active now. Her older age meant that the girl often forayed on her own, playing with the small pack of puppies that had been birthed to Cour des Miracles this year. She was a natural child, and once she'd overcome her shyness, had become a vibrant addition to the playful group. Elvira and Elijah, however, had not, and Alaine had a violent suspicion that they never would be. Elvira had no need for them - Her independence had been unfaltering since birth, and those her age only seemed to infuriate the beautiful little girl. Elijah, however, suffered the cruelty of whelps; He was different, and different was so easily labelled for exclusion.
She sought the boy out now, wanting to question him again as she had every day since the catalyst, hoping beyond hope that he would give her some more treasured words. He was old enough to be allowed to explore the hotel, although Alaine had forbidden both her children to leave its grounds. The day was warm and clear, and she went to sit on the step of the open front door, emerald eyes scouring the thick grasses beyond. A small call left her maw - A series of barks and huffing sounds that was instinctively programmed to retrieve her children. Elvira was adept at ignoring it, but Elijah never had.
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