Hey guys! I know it's been a while, but I was busy sewing my prom dress (WHICH IS THIS WEEKEND!), so I took a break to put this down for all of you :3

Do not own~


A Symbol of Hope

Chapter 6

My mum came to visit me once. By then, I was finally done with college and applying for a full-time job at Night's Wing, and it was also about six or seven months since Magnus first texted me.

I like my mum. She's a kind woman with a bit of that iron maiden in her. Victoria was my hero when I was younger and then she was my best friend as I grew up.

It kind of reminds me that I really did hurt her when I left for America. However, she forgave me, and I still hurt her. When I act like the dad I've never met, it reminds me how awful I would've actually turned out if it wasn't for my mum.


I was excited. Mum was coming for a weekend visit! You could probably understand why I was excited; I haven't seen her in about eight years.

Ankh stared at me from his perch on top of the refrigerator, probably wondering why the hell I was rushing around like a mad woman, stuffing things where they should be and cleaning everything in an OCD fashion. Normally, he would be in my way, begging for something or other since I tend to forget anything and everything, but he's a smart Egyptian Mau and I think that he knew that this was important to me.

A couple of hours later, the doorbell rang. mum came through without knocking and said, "sweety, are you here?"

"Mum!" She was still taller than me by a couple of inches, but I was slowly catching up to her. "How have you been? Would you like some tea?" I sat her down at the table, listening to her babble on about London, the weather, her trip over here, and how lonely she has been since I've been gone.

Thinking back on that, it still hurt even after eight years. After Dad left Mum when she was still pregnant with me, she hated being alone. Mum surrounded herself with people and animals so she could forget how much it hurt that people would leave her. Mum one told me that she developed it when she was younger, but she never told me the exact age.

There were a lot of mysteries surrounding Mum, but I loved her none-the-less.

"Sorry, mum," I told her, setting some sweet chamomile tea in front of her. "I wanted a better education." I wanted to get away from the memory of my father is what I wanted to say. "I'm sorry if you were alone, Mum." She smiled and waved it off.

"I had the animals and my job to keep myself surrounded." Mum sighed at the warmth of the tea. "Though Elizabeth does not make tea the same way that you do."

"That's because I make the best tea and crumpets mum." We had a good laugh about that; we both knew that the butlers of the queen probably made better tea than I ever would.

Laughter tapered off into warm silence. For some reason, it was never awkward around mum; she seemed to always have this calm aura that seeped into the environment around her. It was just another mystery that made Mum... mum.

"So what have you been up to, my little fairy?" I smiled at the nickname that my mum gave me. When I was younger, I wanted to be a beautiful fairy when I grew up. Victoria always indulged me, and so had always called me her little fairy.

"I applied for that job a while back and got it. Also, remember Magnus?"

"That man that you always talked about? Yes."

"Apparently he's bi, but I swear if he was any gayer he would outshine the sun!" Then I shrugged. "Sadly for me but great for him, he's enamored with this guy and only sees me as his best friend." Mum's smile grew sad and she apologized, but I said, "I'm over it, so it's just me and Ankh now."

Said Egyptian Mau jumped onto the table and immediately demanded attention from the both of us. I rolled my eyes but did as the little spoiled cat demanded. "He's lovely, Anastasia." I nodded in response. Ankh then curled up into a ball and proceeded to purr happily right there on the table.

"Honey, there's a reason why I came." I looked up to my mum and was startled. Victoria suddenly seemed much older, more weary and weather-beaten than she had ever been. she reached across the table and held my hands in her own. Her smile was small and shined with the sadness that now radiated from her. "In about a month, I'll be having a surgery. It's to attempt to remove the cists and tumors that I have obtained."

Her hands, thankfully, anchored me to the earth. Mum, dying? And a surgery... "Why haven't you told me before?"

"I wanted you to be happy for a bit longer. Don't worry," she patted my hands. "I'll be fine." Victoria stood up and laid a kiss on my head. The area tingled from that little kiss.

I couldn't ask her to promise me that she would be okay, that she would survive. Fate was a funny thing and didn't always turn out the way that I wanted them to.

"Sweety, I have to catch my flight." I looked up in shock. She was leaving already?! She just got here. "Now stay safe, okay? Remember that little prayer?"

I started to recite the thing from memory:

"In the first darkness,
protect us with the
white of life.

In the second darkness,
protect us with the
grey of reality.

In the third darkness,
protect us with the
black of dreams.

Let all our prayers
protect us with our
love and faith in You.

Amen"

Mum smiled, a proud twinkle in her eye. "Good girl." We then exchanged our goodbyes before she left in the taxi cab that brought her here. "Good luck, Mum." I said, watching the car leave until it was long out of my sight. "May your faith and love in Her bring you through this surgery."

Sighing, I turned to walk back into the warmth of my apartment.

"Amen."


Mum's a really strange person. She gave that poem to me when I was younger and always said that it would help me one day when my time came.

Honestly, before my death, I never really understood the poem.

However, considering where I'm at the moment, it would probably explain a log the of things that I couldn't previously explain about Mum.

Out of all the things that have happened to me in the past few days, getting a white cup shoved in my face by a dead woman seemed to be a very small thing.

I sighed and drank the mystery contents, reciting the poem in my head. mum has some explaining to do when I woke back up.


Hello~ Hope you all enjoyed Victoria, Anastasia's mother :D Had to introduce her somehow, so going almost completely off track seemed to do the trick :3

To my reviewers:

RonaldGarcia91: Yeah, you'll find that out in... several, SEVERAL chapters later xD Glad you liked the suspense :3 It was my first time toying with that kind of style, so I'm glad that you appreciated it :3 Thanks for the review!

RedCoral: Thank you~ Yeah, nearly got killed after my friends read it ;3 Thanks for the review!

Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter~