Wings of Blood and Cruelty

A Hemlock Grove fanfic by Glamoured By-Eric

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.-Friedrich Nietzsche

Chapter 11 - Motherly Love

The werewolf watched through the bushes as the woman ran by and began stalking her, purposely making noises in the bushes to startle her. It was important that the women's blood was pumping faster through her veins as her fear settled in. The more afraid the prey was, the greater the satisfaction of the kill.

The werewolf chased her, dragged her and tore into her.

Blood. It was everywhere.

Tom Sworn came to himself and began screaming and tearing at the handcuffs that had him attached to the bed railing to the point where his wrist started bleeding. At the sight of his own blood, Tom screamed and tugged at the handcuff even harder.

"Where have you been, Liv?" asked Norman. "I missed you."

"Yes, Mother," Roman said as he walked into the conversation. "Where have you been keeping yourself?"

Olivia gave Roman a cool look and replied, "I had a short visit at a spa. I feel quite rejuvenated." She raised her left eyebrow at Roman as if she were challenging him to comment otherwise.

"You look fantastic, Liv," complimented Norman, giving her an admiring look. "As always."

Peter, who was standing behind and to the side of Roman, noted that Marie was glaring at Norman and Olivia.

Feeling a little uncomfortable, Peter said, "Roman, I think we are going to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Roman nodded. "Sure. Tomorrow. We still have a lot to talk about."

Peter couldn't bring himself to visit Letha again and walked across the room to where Destiny and his mother stood. "I'm ready to go."

Lynda said, "Yes, I think that is best. There is bound to be more family drama. Are you okay, honey bun? I know this had to be hard for you."

Peter shrugged and nodded.

Destiny asked as they walked, "Who is the woman that came in with Olivia Godrey?"

Looking across the room, Peter saw that the woman in question was standing by the casket. "That's her sister Ana visiting from Italy. Apparently, they had lost touch with each other."

"You know she is upir, right?" said Destiny.

"Yes, I had worked that out for myself."

Walking toward the foyer, Peter loosened his tie and managed to unbutton the bane of his evening, the top of the shirt. He rotated his head to the left and to the right, feeling the freedom as if he was just released from a dog collar.

"My poor baby." Lynda took his arm as they exited the building.

Norman felt his cell phone vibrate in his suit jacket pocket, stepped back from the group, and answered, "Norman."

"Dr. Godfrey. This is Dr. Casey. I'm calling about Tom Sworn."

"What's the problem, Benjamin?" asked Norman.

"He's taken a turn for the worse. Had some kind of psychotic break. I know this is bad timing, but if there is any way you could swing by, we'd really appreciate it."

Norman looked around the room and saw the look on Marie's face. "No, no problem. I'll be right there."

He walked back to Olivia and said, "Liv, I have to go to the hospital. One of my patients is in crisis. Thanks for coming tonight, but I have to go."

"Okay, darling. I'll see you at the house."

At the hospital, Norman spoke to Dr. Casey. "What's going on?"

"He's asking for you and extremely agitated. Before I called you, he was screaming and thrashing in the bed to the point that we had to restrain him again. He bloodied his wrist trying to free himself before that. He was saying that it was all his fault and kept talking about blood. He's been staring into space since then, muttering to himself."

"Okay, I'll go talk to him," said Norman.

Inside Tom's room, he found Tom staring into space muttering. "It's all my fault. It's all my fault."

Norman walked around the bed and noticed that Tom was sweating profusely. He placed his hand on his forehead and then the back of his fingers on his cheek. He was burning up. He walked into the restroom, grabbed a wash cloth and ran it under the cold water. Walking back to the bed, he placed the now folded cloth on Tom's forehead.

"What's your fault, Tom?" he asked as he pulled up a chair to the side of the bed and sat down.

"My fault."

"Tom, it's Norman. Talk to me."

Tom slowly turned his head toward Norman. "Norman," he said. "I killed them."

"Who?"

"K-Karen and Stephen Ferris. I turned into a wolf and killed them. So, so much blood."

"How could you kill them, Tom? You are handcuffed to the bed. It's not possible."

"I did it, Norman. I was there. I chased Karen through the park and caught up with her at her front door. I closed my jaws around her and drug her back to the park. I fuckin' ate her, Norman."

Norman shook his head, "Look at yourself, Tom. Does that sound reasonable to you? You would be covered with blood. The only blood I see is coming from your wrist."

"So, so much blood. Running down my throat. Then Stephen came with a baseball bat." He looked directly at Norman. "I killed him too."

"How could someone cuffed to this bed with a leg as bad as yours chase after the Ferris', Tom? You couldn't even walk out of here on your own. You didn't do this."

"I did, Norman. I was inside of that thing. That, that... devil dog or wolf or whatever it is. I'm a monster."

"Tom, you are not a monster. There is no way... " he started but was interrupted by a noise outside in the corridor. He excused himself from Tom and went to investigate.

Opening the door, he saw two paramedic teams with body bags. One of the teams had dropped their cargo onto the floor, and a bloody arm was sticking out. Dr. Casey came by and said, "You need to clean that up and take them to the morgue."

Norman asked, "Who are they?"

"Uh," said one of the paramedics, looking down at his clipboard, after picking up the body and placing it back on the gurney. "That one would be Karen Ferris."

"I've got Stephen Ferris," said one of the other paramedics.

Norman swallowed hard, placed his hand on the wall to steady himself, and looked slowly at Tom's door.

After Norman left, Olivia took the opportunity to pull Roman aside and led him into the foyer where it was relatively quiet. The bodyguards followed.

"My mother and I need to have a discussion, could you step outside and guard the front entrance?" said Roman.

They reluctantly complied.

"What did you do with the child?" Olivia asked without hesitation when they were alone, adjusting her hair on her shoulder.

"The child? You mean Aletha Michelle Godfrey? She's with her wet nurse back at the house. Norman adores the child already. So do I."

"You need to end her, Roman. She is not like us."

"End her? Never. That's fucked up. She's my daughter, and I'm going to raise her."

"But she wasn't born with a...," she started.

"I. Don't. Care. She's mine. I'll raise her as I see fit. I don't care what people think."

"One thing you'll learn when wearing the Godrey family mantle is that appearances are everything. You have to appear in control and in charge at all times. You'll find that out."

"Don't change the subject. It is interesting how you do that."

She feigned innocence. "Did I? I thought I was just giving you some motherly advice."

"You know very well that we were talking about Michelle."

"Oh. That."

"Yes, that. I don't want you anywhere near her. I want you to pack up your things and find another place to live. I can't worry about you 'ending her' all the time. I'll give you a generous allowance."

Olivia looked nonplused. "You are ordering me, your own mother, to leave my home of twenty some years?"

Roman looked firm. "I am. After what you've done, surely you knew there would be consequences?"

"What did I do besides prepare you?"

"Prepare me?" Roman asked incredulously. "You call that sick little ritual in the attic preparation? You told me nothing other than that you wanted me to kill an innocent baby. Letha's baby. I had to find out I was upir from Peter. I had no clue what I was, what I could do, or what I was supposed to do. Some preparation."

"I don't know how to respond to this hostility coming from you. Honestly, I'm perplexed."

"That's just it, Mother. You are so fucking twisted that you don't know when you are in the wrong," spat out Roman.

She looked exasperated. "Really, darling. I hardly think you should judge me so harshly when you have hardly been a choir boy yourself."

"But we are not talking about me right now. Stop trying to deflect the conversation."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Go on."

"Do you know how I felt in the attic when you told me to remember, and all the things you had being influencing me with your Jedi mind trick came flooding back? You made me fuck my own cousin. She was my best friend growing up. I loved her but not in that way. I was fucked up because I was jealous of Peter and Letha and didn't know why. It didn't make any sense to me at the time. And all the other things? How could you?"

"I did what I thought was best for you. You needed to sacrifice your own child to truly be upir. It is the way of our kind. I made a mistake when I was young and didn't end the life of a child I bore. I gave her away. I have regretted it ever since. She should have died."

"Christ, Mother. How many children have you had?" he asked. Then he continued in shock as his current thought suddenly became word. "Did you kill Juliet?"

Olivia just cocked her head slightly and looked coldly at him.

Roman had enough of his mother and said angrily, "You can come by the house tomorrow and collect your things. I'm done here."

"Where do you expect me to live?"

He turned to leave but her question had him turning around again. "Right now I don't give a rat's ass, but there is that bungalow that we own on Elm Street."

"That hovel. Surely you don't expect your mother to live there. What would people say?"

"That you are a self-serving cunt who has come down in the world," Roman replied viciously.

Outraged, Olivia slapped him across the face. Roman didn't miss a beat and reciprocated. She drew back in surprise and held her hand to her stinging face. For the second time in days, she was again speechless.

"Goodbye Mother." Roman turned and left.

A/N:

The music for the closing credits would be Trust: Bulbform.