It had been a strange day for the most part , having been incredibly quiet throughout even lacking the usual movement from the stone-faced ladies , however when nightfall would hit then it would all commence as he knew. The crying , the wails , simply just left to build up from the other side of the stony building and frightfully having gotten more louder and demanding as time went on.

And the weird thing being ,

There had barely been any visits by them as of recent , only a few came from what he could recall and that had been a couple of days back , yet his mother had become more inconsolable than ever in these coming nights.

Which was strange to him as he thought that with the less of those bad men coming to her , he thought she would be a better peace if anything , but sadly that wasn't the case.

Though to be honest he was aware of this behaviour , the sudden emotional hysteria his mother would have at a certain point of the year , somehow in alignment with the festival which still had yet to pass but was closer than ever now. For years now he had realised that her crying and sorrow would grow so unbearably intense on these nights especially , making him wonder if the nights leading to the festival held some form of significance to the long midnight haired woman herself.

Making him wonder , if her incessant cries and pitiful sobs could have possibly been her own prayers being made towards the gods in effort to be heard like he and everyone else had been doing for the numbered nights.

Though of course…With the sins that she had been guilty of committing with the devil , he was sad to know that her cries would not be answered anytime soon as she had made the deities very angry. And once they were angry , wrath would be incurred and was destined to be set.

So no matter how much she had cried or suffered in plea , it wouldn't change the judgement of the gods. That much he could deduce after hearing years of attempts and futility.

However that's exactly what had made him so ardent in his own efforts. That maybe he could be the reason why his mother might be forgiven if he asked on her behalf. He had recently heard one of the stone-faced ladies making prayers on behalf of their family ; children , sisters , brothers and such , so that must have meant it wasn't exactly wrong to ask for someone else's fortune or fate either.

And with the recognisable hysteria he would hear night in night out , having only grown more heartbreaking and apparent with each occurrence this year , it made him even more desperate and determined to have his prayers heard by the gods and have the cruelty imposed changed for the both of them.

Given the plan that he made to himself , he made no notion to become lenient with it. Having accompanied himself with those few books and trying to decipher what his young mind could in terms of that which pleased the gods and could be used in measure of their worship and for supplication.

Also having been given the chance recently to accompany one of the stone faced ladies again to the marketplace after so long , he also was exposed to the gist of devotion that had swelled up astronomically and had completely changed the vibe of the normally energetic yet detached atmosphere there usually would be present.

Given all of that and his flame of firmness , he believed he was truly giving his all to learn the ways of the people and how they got themselves heard by the gods. Surely with the amount of effort and dedication he had been applying , the nation's deities must have noticed and taken into consideration his wishes he had been avidly asking them about.

And trying to do so in a more articulated and solemn manner like he saw and heard being done.

Even tonight , he had finished his prayers to the gods , this night possibly being the 13th time he had attempted to do so after his first try. Thankfully he didn't overwhelm himself as much like he had previously , even though the tears would still prick here and there when he relayed the contents of his heart to the gods. But all in all he had learned how to be more sturdy and probably 'better sounding' for the favour of the gods with all the material he had studied and would still study until the destined date.

Such as now.

He sat on his bed with one of those books open , this time being the book the adults would usually be nose deep in. Though of course this book wasn't anywhere near as easy to read or comprehend as The Voice Of Reason , given that first there were barely any illustrations , and the ones that were there were incredibly abstract and he didn't understand at all. And of course there were a lot of words.

Many , many, many words.

Words he did not understand or could even try to , words he was most likely mixing up the pronunciation of when trying to read , words that didn't even sound like they came from the tongue that he or the others he heard spoke when he tried to read them aloud.

Yet that wasn't going to deter him.

If the gods liked people to be doing this , then he would do so too. And in doing such , his sincerity and effort would hopefully be recognised and his desires would be granted as a result , and hopefully quickly with how much he wanted it to be done.

If the plan was a success.

Focusing his dark golden brown eyes on the book , his index finger pressed against the thin paper as he used the moonlight breaking through to illuminate the text he was trying to read. His vision read across the words he was still struggling to make sense of how to read or understand , going over and over hoping it would just come to him , chewing his bottom lip in slight frustration before he was broken out of his waning focus again by the amplifying hysteria.

'Mother…'

The dark haired woman struck thoroughly through his thoughts he had been trying to keep his mind occupied by , feeling his heart pump harder as the sounds of her cries got more painful to hear. Each breath he could hear laced within her sorrow only spelt agony and misery , each pitch of tone conveyed a new level of the desire to be heard.

And deep down , he really wanted to go and see her , to go and check up on his mother and see if he could do anything to try and help her. He spent so long away from her , only having heard her voice and actions and his child's heart couldn't help but want to have his natural attachment to her nourished.

To be able to see her and hold her like she used to do for him.

But he knew he couldn't

'I'd get in trouble…'

Jellal thought about the consequence that would await , knowing already how awful it was to go against order and having been reminded countless times of not to do so. Though he was aware that tonight none of them would be coming anymore , both from his own observations and having heard the stone-faced ladies confirm amongst themselves , he knew being outside of his room without permission probably wouldn't be the best move lest he made someone angry again.

'I'll just try and block it out again…'

The azure haired boy decided to be wise in his actions , holding his book in front of himself with a firmer grip in his bandaged hands as he commenced the task he had been broken out of again. Trying his best to immerse himself in the text of the adults and trying to make more understanding of that which had been glossing over mindlessly.

But with each attempt he had started , only to stop not too long after as his mind would constantly be stolen by the wails that pierced the walls. A tremble began to exist in his hands , evidently pained from what he could hear yet he tried to ignore it. Swallowing thickly he looked over at the wall of text again , finding that it looked even more unintelligible than the last few seconds he had glimpsed at it as what had been letters and words simply just looked like random patterns of ink through his hazed gazed.

His vision had become blurred , the ache of his heart having gotten too strong. It was once again bringing forth his true emotions , this time enough to stop him in his actions completely as a thought broke him out of his already fragmented concentration.

'Why is no one coming to help her?'

The stone faced ladies usually never took this long to tend to his mother , they would be swift in making her tantrums and hysteria come to end , whether that would be through a bout of harsh words , that weird thing they gave her which made her silent instantly , or by something less pleasant like a hit or two , they would eventually bring her back to being manageable.

But for some reason tonight , no one had done that.

Not the old stone faced lady , not the stone faced lady with shiny hair and colours on her face , not the quiet stone faced lady or the stone faced lady with bandages. Neither of them had come to her aid and he couldn't help but be questioning why.

Were they not in the house to hear all of this? Had they gone out or something? The house was a lot quieter than normal , and he didn't detect presence at all other than his mother's avid one.

Come to mention it , some of the stone faced ladies he did remember going out of the house in the direction of the capital and not returning , notably the one with the bandages and the one that was more quiet , but that should have meant that the stone faced lady with made up face or the one who was the oldest should have been around.

They should have been there to help his mother calm down.

And he was hoping they would , as it was getting more distressing and heartbreaking to hear her hysteria. The sound of her cries becoming so throaty and raw tore into him like he couldn't believe , and it shook him to the core with the longer he was forced to listen to such and nothing was being done to stop it.

'Please come quickly…'

He thought to himself in desperation , feeling his blood pump and his skin become colder as his own anxiety started to root. Swallowing thickly , he tried to make another attempt to lose himself in that book that made no sense to him , bringing the pages close to his face so he could read better despite his vision becoming teary , however that attempt also came to a miserable failure.

Especially with what he heard unexpectedly.

SMASH

His heart jumped with no warning from the sound of glass being broken. Eyes went wide with alarm and his skin paled immediately as the sound of the smashed object seemed to reverberate in his mind with piercing intensity as a pit started to form in his stomach , his insides turning from the thoughts that started to flood his brain as everything came to a halt.

'What was tha-'

"AGHHHHH!"

His thoughts were cut short as the sound of a new pain mixed in her incessant cries started to sound against the walls. Horror started to settle in his small features as the sound of her like this was something he dreadfully recognised.

Taking no chance to ruminate what he had just heard , the young bluenet threw his book to the end of his bed as he frantically started to dash out of the confines of his room. His feet carried him like the wind , his heart beat wildly as sweat started to permeate his chilled skin , that only grew progressively cold as a horrid feeling continued to sit inside him.

"KGHHHHHH!"

Simply growing more vivid and worrying as the more sounds he could hear approaching her room had his blood running cold by degrees. The trembling that had existed on his body had intensified with each step that he took across the stony floors of the house , nearing the small hallway attached to the main room that led to his mother's quarters.

All the whilst thoughts inducing horrid trepidation ran with havoc in his mind.

'What is she doing?!'

Having arrived at the entrance of her room , he found the door was closed and his heart drummed anxiously in his chest as his hand took a hold of the cold handle and started to operate the door. His breaths were both sparse from the sudden sprint he had worked up with no caution and the apprehension caving in from the unknown that was awaiting for him to witness as he shakily pulled the handle down.

His nerves became shot by a sudden frenzy of terror , his thoughts having caught up to him after the adrenaline dissipated as fear started to paint his mind regarding what he would see , or whether he had come in time for what she could have been doing to herself.

But there was no time to ponder upon such with what he heard erupt so closely.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Moving simply on impulse , whatever dread had seized Jellal in that moment had been overwhelmed by the desire to stop his mother's agony as her howling shrieks pierced into him brightly and strengthened his resolve.

Taking no chances , the boy took a firm grip of the handle and flung the door open , having had to use some of his shoulder strength alongside to do so due to the rigidness of the wood. A gust of wind blew into the room with his entrance , the boy panted from the rush of adrenaline as his dark and tearful eyes soon took sight of the midnight haired woman whom had been sprawled out on her mattress , barely covered by the gown that was meant adorn her as marks and bruises littered her ghostly pale skin that was illuminated by the shattering silver rays breaking through.

Though however as the sight of her began to register to his fear addled mind properly , the smell of something coppery and distinct started to linger in his senses as he soon came to realise what it was.

Blood.

And not a small amount.

Blood leaking from her bare legs and barely covered thighs and slightly above that from freshly inflicted wounds , down her forearms from the elbow down as lurid red trickled down in contrast to her pale skin , all the whilst more of the crimson liquid continued to seep from the midst of her palms as her shaky fingers tightened around the large jagged blood stained shard that had been used to damage her frail body.

And that he soon came to realise,

Was now being aimed directly at her neck.

"N-NO!"

The scream left his lips before he even could truly process what had shaken him as he immediately dashed in the dark haired woman's direction and swamped her in an embrace from behind as his hands took a hold of her arms and held them tenderly whilst he sobbed into the back of the frail figure , his tears having been soaked up by her thick cascading midnight strands as he couldn't help but be incredibly distressed by what sight of his mother he just came to see.

"D-DON'T DO T-THIS TO Y-YOURSELF!"

The words broke through in the midst of rough sobs as his embrace grew tighter and his emotions wrecked him stronger , undoubtedly still stuck in the horror that his own mother was actually causing grievous harm to herself on her own accord , and there was no knowing what else she was planning to do if he didn't come in time.

His cheeks streamed with warm and thick tears as his grip on her arms and around her body tightened desperately , feeling the muscles in her body clench with avidity after having slackened by his touch , and soon after feeling more blood trickle down her palms on onto her forearms as the glass cut deeper in her palms.

His panic grew as the smell of copper intensified in his senses , feeling her blood coat his own fingers and hands as his own lament joined her own whilst his body pressed more into her's and he buried his head into her long , knotted midnight tresses before a final cry of desperation sounded from him.

"P-PLEASE!"

He cried loudly , all inhibitions aside as his mind vividly flashed images of self inflicted gore , shaking him to the core as he held her closer for comfort and out of need before he felt the strength that was in her arms slowly dissipate before the jagged shard of glass was dropped wordlessly from her palms and fell onto the mattress with no care.

Soon after feeling her change of intention , Jellal's own hysteria started to simmer , though still evidently influenced , his mind had calmed down slightly from the knowledge that she wouldn't continue to do such to herself now that he had been able to stop her.

The young bluenet simply remained holding his mother from behind , his loud and harsh sobs having dissipated into tearful weeps that he choked back as he sniffled the remainders of his sadness whilst the only thoughts that run amok in his head were these.

'How badly have those men been hurting you?'

'That you want to hurt yourself?'

'That you've been hurting yourself?'

Each thought that followed caused Jellal's heart to fall deeper into throes of anguish as a mixture of emotions came over him from witnessing her distress. Horrified by the sheer fact that his mother would go to the extent of doing such to herself.

That she would go to the extent of nearly…

His chest clenched painfully at that realization.

How much pain must she have been dealt that she would submit herself to such agony willingly? That even without punishment she wanted to cause herself grief? How much had her poor soul had to incur?

He could have asked these to himself and more without end , though the only thing that would have been good for is stirring up his conflicted heart and soul even more and there was no point considering he never was answered regarding anything anyway.

Swallowing down his burning sorrow , he let out a shaky breath as he released her a bit from the hug as now there was a new concern fresh in his mind.

'There's so much blood…'

The smell of crimson was becoming staggering , all the more fuelling the worry in his mind as he let go of her enough to inspect her wounds and see which one was of most concern as of now and try to do something about it. Carefully standing up and walking around the shattered bottle that was nearby , he came to the front of the woman , carefully moving the item responsible away from her grasp before taking time to deeply look at the areas of injury.

From what he could see , there were a few gashes thrown about on her legs , looking a bit deeper as they went up but the more concerning ones were those that decorated her upper body. Cuts and intent to harm over her arms , bits of the skin above her chest , and most shockingly her palms.

His dark eyes watched with horror as the blood continued to drip from her palms that made no intent to move , noting of the fact there seemed to have been efforts to cut her palms and go downwards but broken shackles present on both her wrists stopped doing so.

There was the question if she had done anything elsewhere , to her face or such , but seeing that her head hung with no intention of lifting or meeting his gaze , and he couldn't see anything dripping from that far up , so he took that as there hopefully wasn't anything of concern from there.

But still there was still a lot for him to deal with , and his young mind was already racing to wonder how to deal with so much or even where to begin. Though considering a great deal of her blood was flowing from her hands and that's where the deepest gash seemed to be , that would be the best place he deduced.

Though truth be told , he wasn't anyone suitable at all to be handling such a thing. The stone faced ladies were the best bet , Mika especially as she dealt with doing such frequently. But she hadn't come back yet and neither did he know where any of the others were. And to make matters worse , he wouldn't have known where to look if he went to go and find them.

Not to mention , he really did not want to leave his mother unattended , after what she tried to do , it just didn't feel safe and he didn't want to risk it with her being in such a state.

So he had to try and do something himself.

And he was going to try and do that.

Evidently by recalling the process of when he would be tended by the stone faced ladies himself and how they would go about with cleaning him up after a brutal punishment.

And the first step of that being was having the items necessary. Such as something to cover the wound so it didn't bleed out more.

'What can I use to patch it up though?'

He thought to himself as he gently moved his hand in front to grasp her own , the answer to his problem becoming apparent as his eyes took notice of the bandages that were present on his own and were clean enough to be used for the purpose.

'My bandages…I'll give her some of them.'

His lacerations should have healed for the most part , it had been probably a month or maybe a bit more since he had been given them , so he believed with this in mind that it would be okay to take them off and use them for her own wounds instead.

'That should help her right?'

Taking his own fingers he started to undo the bandages on his hands , carefully unravelling the fabric from around his palms as he took a constant glance between his progress and her bloodied palms , trying to speed himself up with urgency as a cold sweat worked up his neck. His nerves were beginning to get to him as the smell of copper thickened.

But he had to remain calm.

"M-Mother i-it's okay…"

He mumbled as his fingers came to the end of fumbling with the length of the gauze , having unwrapped the fabric and revealing his healing scars before he took a delicate hold of her hand and tried to bring her to him in effort to seal the gash.

The woman flinched , her muscles rigid as his touch became present ,initially jolting at the contact which caused the bluenet to worry at the reaction as he halted to commence with his intentions.

"I-I didn't h-hurt you d-did I?"

He asked softly as he hoped he hadn't touched anything in a bad way for her to feel even more agony. Though no answer was given back , he took the initiative to be more careful as he tried again to take her marred hands as her blood continued to seep underneath and pool.

"I-I'll do m-my b-best to t-take care of you."

He told her through a tearful tone , small fingers trying to grab her own towards him as he had the length of the gauze ready to wrap around. However he found that he didn't need to do such as her fingers were already moving in his direction , causing the young male's features to knit with confusion as her actions seemed rather out of place.

"You…"

The first words he heard her speak to him came out in a low voice , his heart began drumming away in his chest from the thought that his mother actually wanted to speak to him instead of throwing him away or ignoring him and the like. What confusion had existed was overwhelmed from hearing her voice as his throat burned welling up anticipation as he became blind to the tones which lingered underneath.

"Y-Yes Mother?"

He could just about choke out , tears beading at his large and dark eyes as he soon felt her fingers pressing against the left side of his face , feeling her blood coat his cold skin before a pressure was dragged down his jawline and towards his neck , feeling around the circumference of it before her fingers came to rest.

The action brought back the sense of confusion that had spurned in him moments ago as he wondered why she was doing such a thing. Feeling up the spanse of his neck , and not even bothering to look up at him whilst doing so.

"M-Mother?"

The word left him with more concern than last time , his small fingers having gone to hold the hand of the woman that was on him , tears still brimming at his eyes as he wondered what else she would say to him as he started to try and move her touch away enough so he could begin bandaging her.

Though before he even gained the smallest touch on the pale hand that rested on him , the sound of a low voice erupted once again in the midst of the silence.

But this time it wasn't one that his mind could ignore the implications of.

"Don't you ever listen?"

Her voice asked with a questionable tinge as his mind wracked from trying to understand what exactly she was talking about. Her head still hanging low as curtains of darkness concealed what he knew to be her pale face as he still felt the fingers around his neck feeling around him.

"H-Huh?"

His throat started to feel tight as he could barely say anything comprehensible in response to her question , though soon he was given the answer to his bewilderment from that which came forth after.

"I told you I didn't ever want to see your disgusting face."

She hissed with no remorse as the fingers around his neck started to close him , encircling the circumference and beginning to apply pressure as her darkening blood coated against his paled skin.

"And now after making my life hell…"

A horrid feeling began to settle in Jellal's stomach as the comprehension of those words started to process , all the while he could feel panic beginning to seize him on the spot. His thoughts were all over the place as he barely could understand what was happening , though that in itself was futile as he heard all hell break loose in her venom.

"You want to take away the only chance I have to escape this all?"

His tear hazed eyes widened with horror as the breath that was in his throat was literally choked out of him , sputtering out as his lips started to vacillate in stirring anxiety as the pressure on his neck applied deeper and had his throat closing in more as his body failed to make any movement against her out how shaken he had become.

"You stupid child…"

She sneered , the bitter of her tongue sharper than the glass which she used to cut herself with as a tremble began to exist in her fingers yet she pressed tighter around him as her nails started to pierce into his soft flesh,

"You're the reason why I'm like this!"

"I'm like this because of you!"

She spat as her breathing started to match his own , erratic and demanding , all the while her strength was pushed more onto the young child before her other hand also joined to circle around the flesh that was not covered and started to choke him thoroughly.

"Only because of you!"

The final word was emphasised with a hatred that had his being shaking even more than it already was. The tears that had welled up in his eyes stung him terribly as his chest frantically tried to take breaths through his parted lips as his frail hands tried to push away the assault of the long haired woman , but it was all futile.

Jellal could feel the pain in his chest reaching a dangerous degree as his eyes remained wide and struck with fear , pants left him in effort to fight the heaviness threatening to take over as wetness streamed down his bloodied face as more gasps were broken out of him.

Barely being able to understand what was being spat in his face as panic seized the reins of his actions and impulses , yet that didn't stop her from going on.

"He left m-me…"

The woman's aggressive demeanour crumbled enough to allow sorrow to pass through her words as her actions grew incessantly desperate with the more she continued with her crazed lament.

"R-Rais left me b-because of y-you!"

"I'm s-sure of i-it!"

She rasped between her quickening breaths as her own body started to wrack with sobs , sobs that overwhelmed the sounds of her son's suffering that was occurring at her hands as her bloodied grasp pressed onto him tighter as he struggled against her in a frenzy.

Feeling her own skin being pierced into as the bluenet's nails clutched on her arms in an effort to force away in a panic. His breathing quickened and increasingly strained as her force added onto him whilst she started to lift the child off his feet.

Intent on snuffing out his life then and there.

"W-Why were y-you ever b-born?!"

All the whilst she continued to spew out harsh sentiments , her instability growing in leaps and bounds as she lifted her head to meet the azure haired boy's fading vision as she could feel him giving into the pressure of her grip.

"Y-You're a m-mistake!"

"Y-You're t-the g-greatest m-mistake!"

She cried out , her voice barely being registered by Jellal's ears as his consciousness was on the verge of fading in and out , yet he still tried to remain present , trying to fight the darkness that was suffocating him and was making him grow heavy as more desperate hacks left him,

"Y-YOU'RE THE P-PROBLEM!"

Her voice morphed into something shrill as her rage , distress and desperation combined into one. Shaking fingers having tightened even more firm as her thumbs pressed against his windpipe , hearing the boy take his number breaths as he kicked around aimlessly , trying to get her to stop her irate abuse.

Her hair away from obscuring her vision , revealing her ghastly complexion , her muted orbs and the darkened tattoo that had been marked on both of their faces. Her frantic eyes looked up at the bluenet who's struggles had started to suffer as a brunt of her doings and was finally beginning to dissipate.

A twitch on her lips formed as a broken cackle broke through her as she saw the life in him beginning to leave with the more that her frail fingers pressed into his flesh, Tears streamed down her face as anything and everything spewed out of her mouth in that moment as she felt his body beginning to go light in her hands.

"I-I hate y-you!"

"I-I h-hate e-everything a-about you!"

"Y-You m-make me s-so sick!"

His lungs were in the midst of giving up on him , it was hurting so badly to take the smallest breath. He could feel his muscles failing to act as his hold on her arm turned limp and he felt his vision spotting.

"I HATE YOU SO MUCH!"

His sight fell from looking at the darkness in the room , to the woman's face which was clearly revealed to him. Her pale features that were scrunched so tightly , the hysteria that had seized her once again , her face becoming incessantly wet and puffy as she cried and screamed with no pause.

And then her eyes.

Her eyes met his livid with anger and disgust , uncovering new depths of insanity as he looked into them and could feel his vision fading away with his falling tears as his feet slowly came to a stop and his head was surrounded by lightness.

Her gaze, having taken in the sight of him spitefully , looked up at the child with flames behind her eyes as she saw his deep brown ones looking down at her with an entrancing heaviness through thick lashes that made her movements stop.

His eyes that looked into her's were not filled with something that she would have expected from whom went through such cruelty at her hands. Rather there was no anger present , no malice intended , simply desolation and pain , volumes of it that were spoken through that closing gaze of her son as a chord struck in her in the midst of madness.

What was she doing?

An intense clench formed deeply in her heart as rigid and cold eyes became addled with realisation as her fingers and hands began to tremble horrifically. Her own lips vacillated with terror as the extent of her doings started to blare brightly at her and she felt a heaviness settling in like she hadn't ever witnessed.

Letting go of the child without thought , his nearly limp body fell onto the mattress beneath with subdued impact as the azure haired boy immediately started to cough and hack in response to the end of the torment , evidently trying to swallow whatever air he could in his large and desperate breaths that soon started to fill him plentifully as his throat burned horrifically with the intake.

Jellal felt his consciousness being returned to him with no warning as the overtaking darkness was pushed away with each sumptuous take of air he managed , feeling his heart beating vividly in his chest as his lungs strengthened , trembling becoming present in his body once again as his ears became witness to a deafening shriek that left the woman's lips as her hands started to tug on the roots of her hair mercilessly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Though not long after he heard such a thing out in the open , the sound of rushing footsteps came from the direction of the door as someone entered the room in a panic and had become aware of the scene that had played out in the past moments.

"OH GODS!"

"SHE BROKE LOOSE!"

The stone-faced ladies cried with surprise as the bluenet lifted his head barely only to come to the sight of the ladies' long skirts and shoes that were treading around and had hasted in the direction the screeching dark haired woman had started to corner herself as she moved frantically away from the women.

"G-GET AWAY FROM ME!"

He heard her shriek , from what he could take from her movements she was very frantic and trying to move anywhere she could to avoid them. Screaming and crying at the lady that was intent on incapacitating her again as he felt his motion started to come back to him whilst his breathing had become more regulated.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Her volume increased in pitches , he could have sworn she even split his ear drums with how terrifyingly loud her voice was becoming. His heart had already begun to feel the brunt of trepidation as her screams and cries heightened with no end and the stone-faced ladies' movements to restrict her got rougher.

"HELP ME!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

First tortured by the feeling of her unforgiving grasp , now being tortured by her harrowing voice , the bluenet could feel his mind was spinning with no end as the panic induced in his own blood was turned alight , and he could feel about to seize him by the moment.

Though before that could happen , the ordinance for him to leave the area of conflict soon was announced to him as a splitting and incredibly demanding voice screamed.

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

Having suffered enough chaos for the night , the bluenet picked himself up with no wait , evidently dashing with what little strength his legs held inside them as his hands rubbed against his sore and bloodied throat. Tears still beading out of his eyes out of both the aftermath of pain and that which came after , he felt his throat burn as he ran away from the mayhem , the sound of her cries still ringing clearly in his ears.

Only having ran enough to leave the presence of the ladies and his mother , his back slumped against the wall , heaving incessantly as he swallowed down the pain apparent in him as his body collapsed on itself from being shaken by the sounds that came forth as the midnight haired woman was beat with no mercy.

Despite what had happened between them , his heart still hurt for her greatly , and her misery added to his own regardless. Tears burned his weary tear ducts as his fingers touched the blood that was plastered over his neck , swallowing thickly as he recalled that horridly intense pressure that kept coming and going as he felt his life being squeezed out of him bit by bit.

A chill went down his body as the thought of his vision being engulfed in that darkness that was present scared him so greatly.

So black and empty , and suffocating.

And he thought that he was going to succumb to it then given the fight that he eventually was going to lose , regardless of if he struggled or not. He could barely hold his own and everything that he could have done was overwhelmed by her force. There was no hope for him at that moment , everything was so bleak and decided , he truly believed he was going to die at her hand.

Going to die from the mad woman's doings.

But then it happened.

As he was sure the last thing he would see would be her , for some reason his mind had the urge to look at that woman's face now it was out in the open. Now that it couldn't be obscured. He wanted to see what intentions truly existed in her , what was driving her to do such and where her hate stemmed from.

To which he came to face the mad woman , in all her bitter and spiteful measure and he saw her gaze hardening with craze with the more his vision faltered.

And then that woman changed.

Even for a split second , he saw that rigid and intense look on her face soften with sorrow , the look of horror having possessed her as he witnessed the sudden change with no warning. All that venom and hatred having dissipated as if it never existed , and her eyes looking into his own having been seized with a different intensity which he never thought he'd see again.

And though that sight had come as quick as it had gone , in that moment there was something that there was no doubt in him about. And that in some way gave his fragmented heart some form of desperate solace as there was not mistaking now.

Since…

She wasn't lost for good.

She was still there.

The one he loved was still in her.

Even if only barely.

Yet that was a comfort in itself.

Because to him…

There was no doubt that at that moment in time…

That those eyes weren't of the mad woman.

Those were the eyes of his mother.