Warning, this chapter is going to be quite dark and might contain sexual themes, so if you have a weak heart be careful.
Ever since she was told that the door in the western hall was completely off-limits for her, curiosity had been nagging at the back of her mind no matter how many times she tried to drift her thoughts elsewhere. She couldn't help but wonder what was in that room that Xibalba didn't want her to see, or perhaps that room brought him painful memories of some kind. She didn't dare ask Xibalba about it, he had being really serious about it, these days they were getting along really well and she didn't want to ruin it. Maybe there were some clues about his father in there, and that's why he didn't want her to see it.
But maybe… what Xibalba didn't know wouldn't hurt him, would it? She could just take a peek into the room and see what was inside, then she'd walk away like nothing had happened.
When she was certain Xibalba had fallen asleep, La Muerte skipped down the halls of the castle towards the western hall, marking her steps carefully and making sure there was no one around while avoiding the lizards the best she could. When she was finally before the dark doors with the claw marks, La Muerte felt a shiver run down her spine and she started reconsidering what she was going to do. Perhaps this was not such a good idea after all, if she got caught Xibalba would never trust her again.
"I'm not going in." she thought to herself. "I'm just going to take a peek inside, and then I'll go back to my room like nothing happened."
But curiosity is a very powerful feeling. With a trembling hand she turned the knob of one of the doors and silently pushed it open, and before she knew it she had stepped inside as silently as she could.
The room was very dark, and La Muerte had to summon a small red fireball to illuminate it. It was clear no one had visited this room in a very long time. The obsidian furniture had long lost its shine and was covered by a thick layer of dust, while moths had holed up the blankets and pillows of the large bed. The curtains were torn, exposing the long-shattered window and the small pile of snow that had accumulated. There was an eerie feeling to this room, it made the goddess regret coming here. In the floor she could see claw marks covering it, whoever once slept here was very big, and menacing.
A flash of golden light caught her attention. Taking her hands to her mother's pendant around her neck like it would protect her from harm, La Muerte turned her gaze towards the source of the light and advanced towards it. Atop a rotten desk there was a small, music box made of obsidian with gold edgings and beautiful carvings of flowers and birds, as well as a few diamonds and other jewels incrusted. But what called La Muerte's attention the most was the portrait that hung from the wall; half of it was covered with a cloak, the exposed part showed a beautiful goddess with silver skin and dark, dark sparkling wavy hair like the starry night sky, wearing a long dark blue dress as well as a flowing sparkling cloak. Her dark blue lips were curved upwards into a smile, the warmest smile La Muerte had seen other than her mother's, and beautiful emerald eyes were showing great purity, affection and love. A golden pendant hung from her neck. Judging by her pose maybe she was sitting on a chair.
La Muerte was speechless, especially when she noticed this goddess had a slight resemblance to her… but she knew that goddess was not her mother, so there had to be another explanation. Maybe if she could see the rest of the portrait she could learn more. La Muerte lifted her hand towards the cloak hiding the other half of the portrait, and tugged at it lightly, jumping when the cloak slid off the frame and fell to the floor with a thud, sending specks of dust flying into the air.
When she saw the entire picture, La Muerte gasped in shock.
The mysterious goddess was holding a baby in her arms. The infant was wrapped in a blue blanket with starry and snake patterns, but his face was visible; it was the face of a black little skeleton, his head rested against his mother's chest as he napped peacefully. He resulted familiar to her, but she didn't know from where…
La Muerte ran a finger on the music box, wiping a bit of the dust from it; giving in to her curiosity, she slowly lifted the lid and a little tune started to play. It was the most beautiful song she had ever heard in her life, and it had an air of melancholy to it that would make even the coldest heart cry. La Muerte could, in fact, feel tears gathering in her eyes. She failed to see the faint light that was emanating from the music box, until it flashed without warning and everything went black.
When she regained consciousness, she realized she was in the same room, but something was very different. Contrasting the decaying and abandoned state it had when she first came in, now everything looked as good as new. The obsidian furniture was adorned with golden paint, the window was stainless and the silk curtains were closed. Golden fire candles illuminated the once dark room, reflecting on the walls and the marble floor.
La Muerte jumped when she heard muffled screams behind her. The doors opened and a lizard-Lorenzo-ran in carrying towels, but the weird thing was that he ran past her without even glancing at her, as if she were invisible.
"Lorenzo?" La Muerte called out for him, but he didn't even glance at her. When she turned her head around to see what he was doing, her eyes went wide in shock.
The same goddess from the picture lay on top of the canopy bed, she was the one who was screaming. Various servants were around her, but she recognized Emilio, Regina, Luis and various others. Again, they were ignoring her as if were not here at all.
"What's going on, guys?" La Muerte stood up and called out for the lizards, but they continued doing whatever they were doing like they had not heard her. "Hola?" she walked closer to bed to see what was going on that no one paid her any attention, and as soon as she caught the sight she gasped in surprise.
The goddess from the portrait looked like she was suffering very much, her hands were gripping on the railing of the bed, her dark hair was spread out in a tangled mess and tears streamed down her cheeks. Her inflated abdomen and the blood and amniotic fluid staining the sheets confirmed her suspicions. She was in labor. A lizard wiped the goddess's forehead with humid cloths, other lizards removed the sheets stained with blood and Regina was apparently the brain of the operations, as she was in position to deliver the baby. But La Muerte noticed there was a look of worry on her reptilian features, making her realize the goddess must be having complications.
"Milady, the baby's breech!" she told the goddess. "You must push when the contraction is strong, but not too fast or hard!"
Despite the pain, the goddess nodded with teary eyes.
"One, two, three, push!"
La Muerte watched in shock, and a bit of dismay, as the goddess pushed with all her might, biting down on a tightly-wound cloth between her teeth while gripping on the railing of her bed, tears of pain streaming down her cheeks. La Muerte didn't want to imagine the agony she must be going through, breech births were said to be the most painful.
A few minutes later, however, after pushing between contractions and tears of excruciating pain, a baby cry echoed in the room and throughout the castle. La Muerte gasped as she watched the wriggling little figure in Regina's arms. A tiny skeleton made out of tar and what seemed to be green ectoplasm, small feathered wings that were covered in fluid and sharp teeth. The baby was crying angrily, wriggling and kicking as he flapped his tiny wings. La Muerte found that baby familiar once again.
As soon as the goddess heard her child crying, she forgot all about her pain and barely managed to lift her head, wanting to take a look at him.
"He's a boy, Lady Selena." Regina smiled at her mistress, patting the child dry and swaddling him in a blanket before handing him over to his mother. On one side, Emilio was vomiting on a bucket that Lorenzo had brought, assuming this would happen, and the rest of the lizards took the stained sheets and blankets away.
La Muerte's eyes widened when she heard the name of this goddess. Selena… Was she…? This meant… Realization dawned on her. She was in the past, this was a memory, this explained why no one seemed to notice her presence. Selena smiled down at her baby as she cradled him in her arms, stroking his cheek with her thumb tenderly. The baby seemed to soothe down at his mother's touch, and was calmed down by the familiar beating as he rested his head against her chest.
"Xibalba…" Selena whispered tiredly yet warmly as she held her child closer and kissed his head.
La Muerte couldn't help but smile as her eyes swelled up with tears, her heart warming at the scene. She never imagined she'd see her husband, the great and powerful Xibalba, the most feared of the death gods, in the beginning of his life, when he was such an innocent little thing. He looked so cute as he nuzzled against his mother's chest, searching for life-giving breast milk. Selena gently guided him to her nipple and he latched on almost immediately, suckling in the warm milk.
The door creaked opened. "Mami?"
La Muerte-as well as the shades of the other present people-turned towards the door, and saw a three-year old godling with a caiman head, bat wings and feather-covered body peek in curiously. La Muerte nearly giggled when she saw how cute Zipacna used to be at such a young age. Selena smiled at her older son with great warmth and tenderness.
"Zippy, come meet your baby brother."
The godling warily approached bed, and climbed onto his mother's bed to take a peek at his brother. Xibalba was still nursing from his mother's breast, so he paid little attention to his older sibling. "He's tiny." Zipacna's little voice whispered.
"Babies are." Selena replied softly.
"What's his name, mami?"
"Xibalba."
Suddenly, there was a small temblor as heavy footsteps were heard on the hall. La Muerte noted how at the sound, everyone in the room grew alarmed and she may say even afraid. Zipacna crawled next to his mother and tried to hide refuge in her hair, the lizards stepped away from the door with fearful expressions and Selena immediately pulled her newborn child closer to her, her eyes widening in terror. Even little Xibalba seemed to notice something was wrong, for he released his mother's nipple and sobbed, trying to snuggle deeper into her warm, protective arms.
The doors opened one more time, and a great dark creature stepped in without a care in the world. La Muerte gasped in terror. She had only heard about these great entities of European origin in legends and books, but she never thought they actually existed. A dragon. A big, black, skeletal dragon with dark bones and no apparent flesh, other than the green ectoplasm that joined his bones together. Great, dark and crippled wings were folded upon his back, as his clawed paws screeched against the marble floor. His horns were sharp, and curved. Pointy teeth stuck out from his mouth, and menacingly red eyes set on the small bundled baby on Selena's arms.
"Is that our second child?" his voice was even scarier than his appearance. It sent shivers down La Muerte's spine.
"Y-Yes, husband…" Selena barely managed to reply, trembling and trying to hold her baby as close as possible. Judging by her face and how she was shivering, La Muerte could tell they were not precisely in love nor the happiest couple in the pantheon. She couldn't understand how come Selena had married with this beast, unless it had been a forced marriage, like it had happened to her.
La Muerte gasped when the dragon approached the bed and abruptly snatched Xibalba from his mother's embrace with a paw, ignoring Selena's pleas to not hurt him. Xibalba wailed in fright when he no longer felt his mother's loving embrace. The dragon examined his son coldly like a critic examining a piece of art, not caring if his claws hurt him. After what seemed an eternity, he smirked with satisfaction.
"This is the one. This one shall be my heir."
La Muerte noticed the hurt on Zipacna's terrified eyes. The dragon carelessly returned the wailing infant to Selena and turned to Emilio, who froze in terror like a statue. "You know what to do."
Hesitatingly, Emilio nodded his head. "As you wish, Lord Akrinok."
La Muerte took her hands to her mouth when she heard the name. She realized who this dragon was, she had heard about him not once, but thousands of times. Apparently he was feared throughout European pantheons for his cruelty.
Suddenly, everything flashed and the shades disappeared, though she remained in the same room. La Muerte spotted a dark cradle a few steps away from the bed, and she heard baby-crying coming from it. Selena floated to the edge of the bassinet and picked her little one up in her arms.
"Shhht. Ya, ya, no llores, Balby." Selena cooed at her child as she bounced him in her arms. "Mami's here."
La Muerte couldn't help but giggle at the nickname. Somehow it rang a bell in the back of her brain, though. Xibalba's crying diminished into sobs as soon as he felt the familiar warmth of his mother's embrace and he stared up at her with glossy eyes, his tiny skeletal hand grasping her pendant. Selena smiled down at her child and kissed his forehead.
"Selena!"
La Muerte jumped at Akrinok's booming voice. Selena grew alarmed and she quickly placed Xibalba back on the cradle and covered him with a blanket. Xibalba was confused as he wiggled from under it, trying to get it off him. Just then, Akrinok stomped into the room and closed the door shut behind him, Selena twirled around fearfully, her hands gripping the edge of the cradle.
"W-What is it, Akrinok?" she asked, trying to hide Xibalba from the dragon's view.
"Now that the boy is out of your body, you have no excuse to neglect your obligation with me any longer." Akrinok hissed, grabbing his wife by the hair with his larger paw, ignoring her cries of pain, and threw her against the bed.
"What are you doing?!" La Muerte stood between Selena and him, but Akrinok didn't notice her presence. In fact, as he advanced unto his wife he walked through La Muerte like she were a ghost. Selena looked up at her husband with terror and dread.
"H-Husband, please don't!" she pleaded.
But her pleas went through deaf ears. Akrinok's eyes glowed sickly green, and out of sudden Selena's arms were bound behind her back and she was gagged with a thick, smoke-like shadow that also forced her legs open, exposing her pussy. La Muerte gasped in horror when she realized what Akrinok was going to do.
"It seems you forget who I am." The dragon hissed. "I am your husband, and you have to be and my back and call without protest. But apparently I'll have to remind you."
La Muerte couldn't bear to watch and she turned around while closing her eyes shut, covering her ears when she heard Selena's muffled screams and pleas as Akrinok thrust in and out of her. Xibalba started to cry of fright, but his cries were muffled from beneath the blanket.
Until everything went silent.
La Muerte opened her eyes and found herself alone in the room once again, until she heard bawling coming from the corridor. The doors slammed open and Lorenzo ran in, holding a four-year-old Xibalba in his arms. Xibalba was screaming of agony, and soon La Muerte saw why; his wings were smoking, and some parts had exposed, burnt flesh while his dark feathers were now ragged and smoky.
"Stay awake, my prince." Lorenzo told the godling, carefully placing him on the bed while trying to move or touch his wings as less as possible.
Soon after Selena rushed in accompanied by Regina, carrying cloths and a bowl of cool soapy water; while Regina placed the cloths and water on the table, Selena sat down in bed next to her son and grabbed his hand tightly, there was look of worry and anguish on her face as she tried to comfort her son.
"Mami, it hurts!" Xibalba bawled, tears streaming down his cheeks as he tightened his grip on his mother's hand. "Make it stop!"
"Shh, it'll be okay, Balby. I promise." Selena cooed, stroking his head. "Everything will be alright." She rubbed her hand over his forehead. "Open your mouth." Xibalba obeyed, and the goddess pressed a tightly wound cloth in between his teeth, turned sharp because of the pain. "Bite down."
La Muerte couldn't stop staring at his wings; they looked like they had been burned. But how could it have happened…? Was it an accident, or…? She had so many questions that needed to be answered. La Muerte watched as Lorenzo pinned down Xibalba's smaller arms, and Regina did the same with his legs.
Xibalba's eyes widened when he saw his mother taking one of the cloths and drenching it in water to clean the fresh wounds on his wings. His feet kicked and his whole body flinched despite Lorenzo and Regina restraining him. They got a more solid grip on him. Xibalba bit down hard on the cloth, the scream locked in his throat as he felt the humid cloth being pressed gently against his sore and sensitive flesh; Selena tried to wipe the burned skin as tenderly as she could, but the fire had done more damage to her son's wings than it seemed. Xibalba squeezed his eyes shut. They were wet.
La Muerte felt her heart clench at how poor Xibalba was suffering. This explained why his wings looked so ragged and scarred in the present day. Xibalba continued to let out muffled screams and wiggle violently as Selena cleaned his burnt wings. They only intensified when she gently applied some alcohol with another cloth to disinfect the burns. Finally, after a while his wings were treated, and Selena carefully used her healing magic to soothe the pain, repairing some of the damage done, but she knew it wouldn't fix the state the wings were in.
"It hurts, mama." Xibalba sobbed.
Selena smiled down at him as she wiped his tears. "I promise you, they'll stop hurting in a while."
Xibalba closed his eyes, and returned to the dark.
Once more, La Muerte felt her eyes stinging with tears. Over the time she had gotten to know Xibalba, she didn't like to see him suffering; she could see in the present day that he was suffering very much, but he bottled up his pain for so much time that his wound had never healed. Again, the shades faded away, but this time the scenery changed too and she found herself no longer in the room, but in a garden. The beautiful garden Xibalba had shown her. She saw Selena sitting in the same bench she and Xibalba had sat on months ago, holding her two sons close in an embrace, humming a lullaby for them. Zipacna and Xibalba were sobbing, trying to snuggle as close to her as possible, the latter's wings were still burned and bandaged up. They must be a bit older than the last vision, about eight and five respectively.
"Why is Father so mean?" Xibalba sobbed, wincing when his feathers instinctively bristled.
Selena stopped her humming, not knowing what to say. She simply pulled her son closer and kissed his head gently. "There, there. It's okay, mi niño."
"He doesn't want me." Zipacna added. "And he hurts you, mamá…"
"Everything will be okay, mis niños…" Selena continued to stroke both their heads. "I promise you. I'll always be there for you no matter what."
Xibalba looked up to glance at his mother. "You promise?"
She smiled. "I promise."
La Muerte sobbed when she saw them cry. She always had a soft spot for crying children, she always wanted to comfort them and tell them everything was going to be alright. She wanted to go to Xibalba and tell him everything was alright, but this was just a memory and she couldn't do anything but watch. Suddenly, the scenery changed and the shades disappeared; this time, she found herself in Xibalba's chambers-even in the past she recognized it. La Muerte saw Xibalba on bed, still five years old, but he was now crying his eyes and heart out, sobbing into his pillows. Had his father beaten him again?
"Mama…" he wailed, clutching his pillow and sobbing uncontrollably. "W-Why…? You s-said you'd always b-be here…!
La Muerte brought her hands to her lips as the tears now flowed down her cheeks freely. This could only mean one thing. "Ay, Xibalba…" she approached bed, but as she reached out a hand to touch the godling's shoulder it went right through his shade. Damn it, it was just so sad… Suddenly there was the sensation of trembling as heavy footsteps became louder outside in the hall. Xibalba gasped in fright and tried to hide under his bed just as his father slammed his door open.
"Xibalba!" he roared, scanning the room for his son. "Show your face or I'll break your pitiful wings when I find you!"
La Muerte couldn't believe it. His wife was dead, his son was suffering for it and he still didn't care?! What kind of father was he?! Xibalba gulped and crawled from under his bed, trembling. "W-What is it, F-Father?" he stuttered, his eyes wide in terror.
"You were crying?" Akrinok hissed, rows of sharp teeth glistening under the green fire of the candles. "What have I told you about tears?!" he grasped his son's wings when he tried to crawl back under his bed.
"I'm sorry, Father!"
"Sorry?! SORRY?!"
La Muerte gasped in horror when Akrinok threw the godling against the floor, making him cry in pain; tears streamed down Xibalba's face as he attempted to crawl away only to be pushed against the flood by his father's talon.
"You don't have to be sorry for anything, boy! You are the devil on earth! You are my son, act like it! Asking for forgiveness is a sign of weakness!"
"But mama said-!"
"I don't care what she said! She was a woman, and women are only useful to serve men and fulfill their needs! Their place is in the kitchen!" his grip on his son's wings tightened almost to the point of breaking them, making Xibalba whimper in pain. "But it appears I'll have to remind you."
The godling's eyes opened wide in terror. "No, Father! Please!" he continued to cry and wiggle in his father's hold as Akrinok stomped out of the room. La Muerte couldn't contain it any longer as she tried to go after them.
"XIBALBA!"
But when she left the permitted area of the memories, her consciousness started to fade away once again until everything dissolved into darkness…
