Sleep now with a Psycho Lullaby.

Chapter 10: Contract

Age: 25

Lucas and John played joyfully in the ball room, each moving gracefully on the marble floor fencing swords in hand. This was a daily practice for them. John and Lucas' hair flying as they went back and forth, a mixture of John's straight brunette hair and Lucas' wavy strawberry blonde. They normally would have done this outside but it was late with the moon high in the sky. Their mother had allowed them to stay up late to wait for their dad to come home from his trip to Florence, but had chased them back in when clouds obscured the crescent moon. They laughed as they moved until Lucas disarmed his older half-brother John. He gasped then ran to the fireplace and grabbed a nearby stoker, turning just in time to parry away Lucas' blow but in the upward swing he broke through the fencing sword, managing to also slice through Lucas face as if it was warm butter and gouge his right eye out, the stoker having been red hot without John's notice. Both the boys screamed as Lucas fell to the floor, the blood flowing freely, unable to clot because he was a hemophiliac. His mostly crushed golden brown eye fell to the floor, John stepping on it, destroying it, as he ran out of the room.

"Oh Das-thul, Lucas! Stay here," John yelled in terror, using the name of their forgotten god. "I'll get mom," he had said before taking off through the house, screaming at the top of his lungs for their mother. His mother was down in the cellar, slowly sowing a body up.

"Now your beauty will last forever now," she muttered quietly, unable to hear her step-son's cries in her solitude. She gently tied off the stiches around the wrist and set the arm down. It was almost done. A man with a strong body and broad chest, he was both handsome and had the capability for magic that surpassed even her own. She smiled and tucked a piece of parchment that contained a blood contract into her blouse. This woman, the boy's mother, Maria, was a necromancer, forever working on her creatures, several of which roamed the house serving them while under a blood contract of her design. She tilted her head up, feeling the alignment of the planets and stars; she needed to find a soul soon. December 21st 1637, this solstice the planets Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Pluto would align, war, love, power, and death, all needed for this, her greatest creation. The moment was almost right, just another hour or two and-

"Mother!" John yelled before busting the wooden door to the cellar open, his dark brown eyes wide with fright.

"What?" she asked annoyed, turning her head sharply, making her curly blonde hair, which she kept pinned up, bounce. Even at her age his mom was still beautiful with large green eyes, fair skin and a lineless face with not a single scar from pass sicknesses. John never understood why his mom was so distant, this was his mother, the woman that gave him life, or so he thought. Only Maria and the boy's father, Alfred, would know that John was actually Alfred's previous wife, Monika's son. This always caused Maria to be more distant with John while she doted on her fragile son Lucas. She also feared that one day John would find out that Maria had caused his mother's death by carefully slipping his mother just a gram too much of some medicine while bed ridden with Spanish influenza.

"M-mom, L-Lucas, he's hurt," he stuttered, face paling while her green eyes widened as she quickly strode out of the room. "We were playing in the ballroom when-" John started but Maria didn't need to hear any more before she had the folds of her many layered dress gathered in her hands and was running up the stairs two at a time. She ran the whole way to the ballroom, practically falling when she got to Lucas and dropped onto her knees.

"Lucas! Lucas honey," she yelled, pressing her ear to his chest, but it was silent. "No," she muttered before screaming it quickly trying to revive him with her own dark magic. "Vrátiť dušu. Vdýchnuť život späť do tohto tela," she shouted over and over, trying to breathe his soul back into his body in this quick spell. A green light encased her hands while she repeated it but it was to no avail. "No, no! This can't be happening! Lucas!" she shouted one final time before breaking down into tears and holding his thin body close to hers, the blood covering his button up shirt, brown pants and suspenders.

"I'm sorry mother," John mumbled, staring down at his black leather shoes while Maria sobbed over her dead son's body. When he spoke though she stood, letting Lucas' body drop to the floor, and slowly facing him.

"You! You did this!" she shouted, facing John with fire in her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry mother. I didn't mean to, it was an accident. I didn't think I would hit him," he nearly yelled, pleading with his mother.

"You are not my son. You belong to that harpy! You killed my son!" her face bright red while she shouted in rage and before either of them could realize what she was doing her hand had sunk into his chest, broken through his sternum and was squeezing his heart. Maria paused, eyes wide as John stayed still, the light slowly leaving his eyes but in one final movement she pulled it out. She stood there watching his heart do one last feeble beat, releasing the rest of the blood in it to pour onto the floor with a sickening noise while John crumpled to the ground, his blood mingling with Lucas'.

Maria took a step back and chuckled, the sound of it easily showed her deranged mind. "I-I can fix this. Th-this is my job. I can do it," she mumbled to herself before picking Lucas up and running back to the cellar. She slammed open the wooden door and roughly shoved her latest body off the table before setting Lucas down softly. "Don't worry my sweet. Mommy can save you, you may not age but you can live again," Maria whispered softly, moving Lucas' wavy blonde hair back away from his face.

She got to work cleaning and dressing his wound, she wouldn't be able to regenerate his eye and the burn wound would scar but she still wanted her son back. She got a scroll next and used the blood on the table to start writing the contract. This one would be different. Her son wouldn't be tied to her forever, he wouldn't serve her. She wanted him to have his freedom. While she worked she was oblivious to the soft sound of the door opening and footsteps but she perked up at the sound of a click before cold metal was placed against the back of her head.

"Maria, what are you doing?" a soft masculine voice asked before she slowly turned to see a man. He had short brown hair and thin glasses that obscured his eyes, a mask usually on to cover his mouth but right now it was uncovered and tilted down in a small scowl. This was Alfred, one of the kings many Dukes and her current husband.

"A-Alfred, I'm reviving our sons," she told him. Her green eyes were wide with dilated pupils, her grin that of an insane person, face paling at the sight of the gun he had been pointing. Alfred frowned and pointed the gun just over her left eye so she could see into the barrel. It was a very crude hand gun from China, gun powder fairly new to the battlefield in such a small form but still at such a close range it would be deadly. "What are you doing?" she asked, grin fading just a bit.

"I saw what you did to John, Maria, I knew you always liked our son more but John didn't know better. To him you were still his mother yet you never treat him as any more than a nuisance. You should have protected him and tried to save Lucas not punish him and leave his body to rot before caring for your flesh and blood. In John's mind you were his flesh and blood," he said, cocking the gun. He was so apathetic, he was about to kill her but was suppressing everything, he had not cried, he was barely frowning, not about to mourn his son's death but instead seek revenge. Yet here he stood, just staring her down with a disapproving look, only one brown eye showing from behind his glasses.

"A-Alfred," she muttered before an explosion rung out and she fell backwards on top of Lucas, her left eye blown out and an exit wound hidden by her long blonde hair. He frowned and lowered the gun before looking at a skeleton pocket watch, the gears seen moving inside with each tick.

"I'll go make the funeral arrangements with the priest," he said before starting to walk out but just as he opened the front door a man was raising his hand to knock. He wore a black tailcoat with a crisp white shirt and top hat. "I'm sorry but I need to leave, my family just died," he remarked.

"I know," the man said softly before he looked up, his eyes were ice blue, his skin was almost pure white but he had shadow tattoos on his face making his head to appear to be nothing but a skull in the low light. "One of your family members was my student." The man took a step forward making Alfred step back. The power flowing from the man was pure and primal, accompanied with the smell of rotting flesh.

"Wh-Who are you?" Alfred asked while fear flooded into his veins, face paling only slightly.

"I am many things, the taker of your soul, your savior, the one who releases you from all earthly duties. You may call me Mors though," he said before laying one hand on Alfred's shoulder, making him crumple to the floor. He didn't smile as his eyes went to the door of the stairwell, "And now to find my student."

Mors walked down the stairs slowly and entered the basement. He stood over Maria for a moment before clucking his tongue. Her body was white from blood loss, her last green eye wide open and dull. "You ignorant woman, you had so much promise but now it's a waste, almost a waste that is," he muttered before the area darkened and turned more monotone, the ethereal plane being revealed so he could see Maria's soul staring at her body, her form done in nothing but whites and grays. It did not suit her for one he had always seen so full of life and dressed in bright colors and jewels. "Hello student."

She quickly turned, eyes widening, the green they were now like the color of muck as if someone had spilled mud into them. "Teacher!" she yelled running towards him. "What are you doing here?" she asked, starting to smile.

"I felt your soul leave your body. Has all my teaching gone to waste?" he asked, staying calm. He was always calm, he never smiled, he never frowned, never got angry and never seemed to love. But, it was all these things that made him seem like impossibility, a challenge; her heart had always skipped a beat at the thought of pursuing him.

Right now his tone had just enough inflection to say he was scolding so Maria looked down, "I'm sorry. Alfred killed me because I pulled John's heart out in anger," she told him.

"It's not over yet. Tell me Maria, did you ever figure out what I was?" he asked, a long bone scythe forming in his hands. Her eyes widened as she stared at him.

"You are Mors, the god of death," she said which he nodded to. "Are you here to take me to the infernal plains?" Mors shook his head no.

"I am here to make sure I did not waste my time. Your power was strong enough. You can become a lich."

"Lich. Those are the undead necromancers who control the power of ice and death itself?" she asked.

"Exactly," he replied, "do you agree to become one?"

She stared at her body and nodded, "Yes, but when reviving you can't have another body close, will you move me from my son?" she asked.

"No, you and your son's body will merge as one. Only in this household will you two be separate out in the world you will forever be combined." Maria placed a hand over her chest, her son would be forced to be beside her always, but she would always have her son while she lived as well. She allowed a small smile to touch the corners of her mouth.

"I will still allow it," she said, her eyes straying to the body on the floor. Her latest creation, so strong but it would be hard to find a soul for it. A powerful soul. She looked back at Mors, even though he could switch between both planes he was still just a spirit. She could have him under her power. As a creation, she would control him. Her body shivered some with the lust for him, both in the need for his power and carnal relations. "Before you revive me, may I ask a question Mors?"

"What is it Maria?" he asked, a knowing look in those blood red eyes. She silently pulled the scroll out of the dress on her lifeless body.

"Would you like to sign a contract?"

Fin?