I opened my eyes, everything was fuzzy and blurry, and the smell of oil and fire was all around. Shaking my head to remove the cobwebs in my mind, I stood up finding myself in a dark room. While not totally dark, save for the fire in the corner, I had to turn on my flashlight, which was in my hand when I woke up.

My head was hurting greatly, not something I liked due to past experience, and still I had to think in order to remember what happened.

I remembered escaping the facility in Fairport…followed by being in the chopper with June and Holiday…

And then she appeared…Mother.

I stumbled to a wall opposite the fire in the corner, flashlight held tightly in my right hand, and leaned on the wall. I didn't have anything else on me. My weapons must have fallen out of the chopper when it fell from the sky. Except for the combat knife I had strapped to my right boot, I was weaponless.

However, surviving was my top worry right now. No doubt there will be Armacham soldiers looking for survivors, and I didn't plan on being executed after I had survived a near nuclear explosion and a helicopter crash.

Fully gaining my composure, I walked out of the room and into a long derelict hallway. The smell of oil was replaced with a musky moldy odor, and the only light around was the moonlight poking through various holes in the walls and ceiling. I treaded carefully since I heard the floor creaking with each step I took.

I was breathing lightly, otherwise I would never have heard the words echo in the hall.

"I…see you…"

I didn't have to guess who that was, since the voice was light and very young. It was Mother's voice.

I moved my light to the opposite end of the hall, which was right behind me, and as soon as it the wall, a flash in my mind forced me to look away, and I thought I had seen a form where the light shined.

"My son…"

That distinct voice was again coming from the hall, but where I could not say, but I turned again to go in the direction I was going for earlier, and right when I fully turned around I was shocked to see Alma Wade standing less than six feet from where I stood. I took a step back from the surprise, but I raised my combat knife in preparation for anything.

Even though the little girl that stood before me stood like a statue, with pale blue skin and wearing a red dress, her ankles covered in blood, and her radiant golden eyes shining through the long strands of her black hair, she didn't do anything except stare at me.

I was her son; she had tried to kill me before.

She was my mother, but I was still willing to kill her should my life become endangered. Though the thought of killing a ghost didn't sound simple or easy, I didn't care.

A loud crack was heard and the next thing I knew, I was falling down, again into a dark abyss. I landed hard on my back, looking up at the hole where I had been standing just seconds before, and saw Mother looking down at me before disappearing in a small burst of black ash.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, and I heard muffled sounds as three people hovered over me, but words were soon audible.

"Is this the Prototype?"

"Yeah, one of them at least."

"Hey…isn't this the F.E.A.R. operative?"

"F.E.A.R.?"

"First Encounter Assault Recon, some stupid government group."

"Alright, what do we do with this guy?"

I didn't want to know the answer, so, I took action. I got up on my knees but their submachine guns were already on me, even if I could move faster than light, I don't know if I could outmaneuver them before I would get shot. Normally I would have killed them, but it was a bit too late right now—

-I looked up at my captors when a large yellow light came from behind them. It was nearly blinding, I had to put my left arm up to help block the light, but it totally caught the soldiers off guard.

Though I couldn't make out what was happening, I heard screams.

Screams of terror, and then screams of agonizing pain, even excruciating echoed through the building, loudly vibrating in my ears.

When I lowered my arm, I was not really expecting what I saw. Blood, lots of it. All over the walls and floor, and in the middle of it all were three complete skeletons drenched in the red liquid, and Mother standing among the carnage, looking at the skeletons. Strands of her hair covered her face so I didn't see her eyes.

Another massive headache overcame me, this one much more devastating than the ones from earlier. I held in the screams that wanted to come out, but I fell to the floor because of the pain, my hands falling into a large puddle of blood.

I had to have blinked a few dozen times subconsciously, and when I finally got my composure I saw my face reflecting off the blood.

Then I saw Mother 's reflection, I looked up at her, and she looked drastically different from before.

She no longer resembled a girl of ten years old. She was filled out, her body looking more like a model body of a woman in her twenties, blue eyes peering behind silky black hair, strands of her hair covering her full breasts, her body was also curvy. Waistline narrow and wide hips, looking like a goddess.

A goddess of death, wanting to kill all those she deems as doing wrong.

I raised my hands, but Mother gently grabbed them. Her touch was cool, fitting for the ghost she was. I no longer had the knife in my hands, disappearing sometime before, so I was at her mercy. Something I didn't like.

I couldn't feel my hands after a few seconds, but I couldn't feel the compulsion to move them. I looked into Mother's eyes, which I could see clearer now. Welled up and shinning despite the lack of light, her eyes radiated something.

For a second there, in the span of that few seconds I was within her grasp I felt like I saw some emotion other than hate. An emotion other than sadness.

For a second, I thought I saw happiness.

Maybe because I was with her? Something she had been denied the day I was born, having been taken away the moment I had left her womb, taken by her father Harlan.

Though Alma Wade was supposed to be an evil entity that was no longer human, this entity still seemed to show signs of a heart.

I didn't do anything, I couldn't find myself to smile, however, a part of me felt like this was natural. She placed a hand on the top of my head, a motherly sign I had never known, but again it felt natural.

I was her son after all, even if she had been hell-bent on killing me days ago.

We're forever…chained together…

As if someone took a red-hot poker to my brain, I pushed myself away from Mother, falling onto my back as I grabbed my temples with my bloodied hands, writhing in the pain, and hearing Mother's voice as I writhed.

My…son…

I propped myself up on my elbows, seeing her again flash multiple times to me, appearing and disappearing in split second intervals.

My mind quickly cleared itself, and I stood up, grabbing the knife from the pool of blood at my feet.

The migraine I had slowly eased, until it was gone. Mother didn't appear again, either, but I knew she'd be back.

I stood there for a minute, after the sentimental meeting we had, and I didn't know what to think anymore about Alma Wade. She proved to me that, even if she wasn't human anymore, she still had a heart.

At least, when it came to me.