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Again, Malachai woke to the bright sunlight that was streaming onto his bed from the window, turning towards it instead of away from it. So warm, the sun…wait a minute. He shot up straight in bed, finding his head foggy and unclear again. He could remember who he was and where he was, but he could not remember the day before to save his life. He tried desperately, unfortunately resulting in nothing but a headache.

"Mal, honey…are you awake? Breakfast is ready," his mother called cheerfully, and he could hear the sound of her approaching footsteps on the stairs. Soon, she peered in the doorway, still wearing that bright smile that she always wore. "How are you feeling this morning? You're certainly looking much better."

Now he was really confused. "I…what happened? Why does my head seem so foggy?" he asked, rubbing his forehead in hopes to quell the pain behind his eyes. There was something important that he should be remembering, he knew it. A face…a voice, he'd heard.

"Well, we were getting ready to go to town, and suddenly you fainted. Thankfully the doctor was here, so he took care of you. He said you had a fever, so he thought that maybe it was a relapse from the fall you took. It's been known to happen," she told him evenly, swiping her hand across his forehead.

"Are you sure? That doesn't sound right," Malachai answered, eyeing her a bit. His first instinct had been to flinch away from her touch, finding himself somewhat angry with his mother. Why should he be angry with her in the first place?

His mother's face darkened a bit, her smile falling into a near grimace. "Excuse me? You're going to argue with me? Sweetie, you can't even remember what happened," she challenged uncharacteristically, her expression twisting then into a smirk. Her words were anything but soft and gentle, giving the boy the chills just hearing them.

"Of course not, Mama. I'm sorry. I just still don't feel well. Maybe I should go back to sleep for a bit," he said shakily, playing up the act a bit by looking tired. In truth, he wasn't tired at all, but it would give him a chance to think about what was going on.

As if someone had thrown a switch, the woman's face was bright and sunny once again. "That's a good boy. I'll bring up your breakfast a bit later, okay? You just rest and feel better. Kuro's been wanting to play with you since yesterday," she replied, planting a delicate kiss on his forehead before leaving the room.

Malachai waited until her footsteps had faded into the distance before releasing a shudder, turning over in his bed to stare out the window. With a look of determination on his face, he decided that he was going to figure out what was going on once and for all.

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It was quite a while later when Malachai emerged from his room, heading downstairs at the request of his rumbling stomach. He looked frustrated, no closer to any sort of answer than he had been when he woke up that morning. It was almost as if something was preventing him from remembering, like a roadblock.

"There you are. Do you feel better now?" his mother asked sweetly, placing a sandwich in front of him when he sat down at the table. She watched as he stared at the plate for a long moment, as if his mind truly was somewhere else. "Mal, honey…the sandwich isn't going anywhere. Why don't you eat it instead of glaring at it?"

He jumped at that, forcing a smile onto his face. "Sorry. Just really deep in thought, that's all," he explained, making a theatric of biting into the sandwich and enjoying it.

Hanna eyed him then, not sure that she liked what was going on here. "Oh? And what's got you so thoughtful? You usually tell me what's got you stumped so that we can work it out together," she pressed, masking the danger in her words with her usual soothing tone. She had a feeling that she knew where this was going, and she was going to put a stop to it immediately.

"Just about yesterday. I need to be more careful, don't I?" he quickly offered in reply, sensing the sudden danger of the situation. He hoped that his explanation would be enough to get her to calm down. Something wasn't right about his mother, that much he could see now.

"Perhaps you should. You wouldn't be lying to me, now would you?" she asked just as sweetly as before, her smile faltering just a bit.

Swallowing both the bite of sandwich and the lump in his throat, Malachai took a minute or two to answer. "Why would I lie to you?" His voice grew shaky once again, the mix of fear and frustration roiling around in his stomach like a sickness. It didn't even really sound that convincing to his own ears.

Time stopped after that, the harsh sound of her palm connecting with his face echoing like a death knoll in the now quiet room. "You think I don't know what's going on here? You thin think I don't know what's going through that empty little head of yours? I know more than you do, sweet little-" she started to snarl at him, realizing what she had almost said in her fury. After another moment, a wave of shock poured onto her face when it dawned on her that she had actually slapped him. Just like the last time she lost him. "Malachai…honey…Mommy's sorry…please, please don't leave me again. I'm such a bad Mommy, aren't I?" she murmured ashamedly, collapsing to her knees on the floor as she cradled her face in her hands.

The boy truly didn't know what to do. He could feel the sting of his cheek as he held it in his hand, as well as the faint trickle of blood on his lip from where he bit it. A swell of instinct had told him to hit her back, but the sight before him was just too pitying. "Mama, it's okay…I know you didn't mean it…I'm sorry too, for being so much trouble," he answered soothingly, trying to stop her ranting.

Hanna looked up at him with her tear-stained face, her eyes wild with a troubled mix of emotions. "No, you're such a good boy. Mommy's the bad one…I'm always the bad one," she continued to mumble, her eyes going dull and unseeing as she seemed to go off to another place. She clutched at the boy, crying softly into his shoulder.

"Mama…how about you go to bed now? Maybe you need a nap?" he asked, watching as she nodded. She was limp in his arms, making it difficult to carry her to the couch. Once he had her laying there, still trembling and crying softly, he decided that he needed to get as far away from her as possible, at least for a little while. "I'm going to go play with Kuro now…how about you come outside when you feel better?"

The woman nodded faintly, turning away from him as she rolled over on the couch and continued her mumbling. Her voice and tears and stilled to a dull quiet, barely decipherable.

Malachai sighed, getting to his feet and heading out the door before she could stop him. A dull pain throbbed in his cheek, and he knew that his lip was going to swell by how tender it was when he touched it. Sitting down on the front porch, he petted the dog's head as it rested in his lap. "What am I going to do now, Kuro? What am I going to do now?"