The room became colder all of a sudden. I could see my breath escape my mouth as a thick white fog. The only noise that was made was the slow shuddering breaths that Deborah was taking. Gauss had his eyes shut as we all waited for the hard story mother was about to tell us.

“When I opened the door to my bedroom I knew something was wrong,” said mother, finally breaking the silence. “I should have shut that door right that instant and left, but I just couldn’t do it. Someone or something had taken full control of my body. The power forced one foot after the other until I was full into the room. It was chilly… much like it is now.”

Mother looked at me and we both knew that it was I who had suddenly shifted the temperature in the room. I could feel the anger rising inside of me. As for what I was angry at I wasn’t quite sure. Was I upset she’d never told me the truth? Or was I furious about what I was about to hear?

“The power shut the door for me with my own hand. I remember feeling something warm brush the side of my cheek like a gentle breeze and with it came these emotions of dread and fear. I didn’t want to look at the source that was radiating this energy at me. But, again, my face was turned for me. It kept my jaw clamped shut so there was no way I could scream for help.”

Gauss, upon hearing this, bit his bottom lip and plucked at the wood of the overturned storage box he was sitting on. Despite the cold in the room, he and I were both sweating. We weren’t the ones telling the story and yet we were the ones in worst shape. Mother, on the other hand, spoke with a calm voice as she retold the events.

“There were two bright red eyes, hovering over my bed. As soon as our gazes met I couldn’t look away. No longer did the forceful power need to pull me in its direction but I remember wanting to myself. The eyes were far too seductive for even I, a trained and righteous warrior of the Almighty, to disobey.”

Mother paused a moment as she thought about what to say next and at that moment, a spider dropped on a thin long web and plopped itself onto my shoulder. I tried to ignore it but could feel it eerily make its way up my face and onto my horns where it would undoubtedly try and create a nest. Something about the telling of this story had turned this once regular cellar for storage into a room of nightmares I hadn’t noticed before.

“When I was directly under the eyes I felt my armor being unlatched from my body,” continued mother. “The force even laid the plates of steel on the ground very quietly as if not to disturb anyone else. The coldness in the room turned to warm and then to unbearably hot. I had started to sweat just as the eyes had started to take a physical form. I remember a shadow appearing in the top corner of the ceiling and shooting out towards the eyes where it whirled around forming an upside-down triangular face followed by its thin bony body. The texture was the worst part. Greasy. Lumpy. Thick. It makes me sick that I remember these details but in the moment…”

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“Don’t say it mother,” I said, hot tears forming in my eyes. “Please…”

“Listen to her, Ira,” said Gauss in a somewhat shaky voice. “You need to hear this.”

“In that moment I wanted it. I needed it. Satan, the king of darkness, had overcome me with his immense power of all things evil. He stripped me of everything that night. My dignity. My self-love. My virtue. And my connection to the creator. The worst part of all was that, during that horrible night, I was in love for the first time. I felt a deep passion for this man. It was only until that next morning did I realize fully what had just happened. And then, I turned away from the Almighty. I wanted to give it all up and then, Gauss was there.”

I looked over to Gauss who had turned his head away from my mother. The firelight from the torches reflected the tears that had pulled themselves out of his tightly shut eyes. This made my tears come even more easily now. He was someone strong, someone I looked up to and to see him reduced to crying made everything so much worse.

“Gauss refused to let me leave the Refuge. He gave me encouragement and helped to bring the light of the Almighty back into my heart and into my soul. You see, Ira… The Almighty has a plan for all of us. We may talk about how horrible that night was but there is one thing that will always be true…”

“And… what is that?” I asked, tears and snot mixing together at the base of my chin. My mouth was dry and the words came out raspy.

“That I would never have given birth to you without the help of the dark king. It took only seven days before you were born. During that week I stayed in my quarters and was constantly cared for by Gauss who saw to my every need.” Mother chuckled. “He was like half servant, half midwife.”

Gauss choked loudly but tried to play it off like he had just coughed.

“My belly grew very large very fast which was extremely painful. I believed that I would not survive the birthing of you, Ira. But I prayed and prayed and sure enough, the Almighty wanted me to mother you. He gave me that gift. You were born in the middle of winter with a full set of black hair and no horns to show for. You were the perfect baby and I loved you with all my heart.”

“And then what happened?” I asked, wiping my nose with my shirt.

“And then, well, you know the rest, silly! I got leave from the Refuge. I bought our church with the money I had saved up and spent most of my time preaching the word of the Almighty and raising a good little boy named Ira!”

“So,” I said, sniffling as I did so. “When you would leave for mission trips you were actually-“

“Right, I was with my squadron. Training. Preparing for days such as this. You see, being a warrior for the Refuge is never-ending. It’s a life’s vocation, not a job. You just can’t quit.”

I was about to ask another question when the concrete floor beneath our feet rumbled. The rafters above pelted our hair with dust and stacked up boxes of books fell to the side sending literature all over the room.

“What’s going on!?” demanded Gauss, as we all stood up.

I rushed over to Deborah and placed my body over hers just in case wood or anything else fell that could harm her more than she already was.

The door opened from above and out popped Pom-Pos’ face.

“Pom-Pos! What’s the matter?” asked mother. “What’s going on up there?”

Pom-Pos didn’t answer, his mouth lulling open in a dumb like manner. Suddenly, a black hand reached out of the entrance of the door, its fingers curving through the eyeballs of the severed head of Pom-Pos.

“We have company!” yelled Gauss as he and my mother both unsheathed their swords and prepared for battle.