PETBE

An image of my mother appeared. Her lips were smudged green as she was struggling to make a basic soup from a can. Her fingers were bleeding red and the floor started getting painted by the same shade as her blood. I was still looking at her behind my door, watching as she was forcing herself to live. I moved slowly to her side. Because she was there she was in our house cooking. With her garments being on shreds and her eyes cracking when she felt my embrace. But she didn't hug back. Her warmth wasn't there. The familiar warmth of a mother was gone.

''I can't''She rasped broken.''I can't do this anymore.''

I could feel my head still being dizzy, from the smoke. My eyelids kept being heavy with my body sticking to the ground. As I opened my eyes, I found a woman at the age of twenty painting to the ground with a simple piece of fabric covering her body.

‘’Hey’’I managed to say as I looked around the endless darkness with one single green lantern lighting the darkest colors of the room. No windows, no glass, just a plain door a few feet away from me. But Spirits I could not even stand.

The woman replied with a mutter. I pushed my fingers to her skin and noticed that there it was. Bruises. Bruises All over her skin as if someone painted her with purple paint. Her eyes were watering her skunk smell and yet she was smiling.

‘’I…want…more’’She whispered slowly as she looked at me, exposing her neck, showing me the tattoo of the owl.

‘’What?’’ I panted and looked once more at the ceiling, finally noticing that next to the lantern there was an airway with thick smoke getting inside.

‘’Is this?’’I panicked now taking one more look at the room. Kids around my age, women swimming to the floor like the woman before, mumbling endless, muttering nonsense.

The small window from the door opened and I saw two blue eyes watching me. There it was. Ao Bing. The one that they all talked about with joy and now he was a traitor.

‘’You shouldn’t fight it.’’ He said to me, ‘’Your mind will go numb sooner or later.’’

‘’What are you talking about?’’ I asked.

‘’It doesn’t matter, I am here to help you.’’He hushed.

‘’Help me?’’ I was confused. ‘’Weren’t you…’’

‘’I thought that I made a mistake trusting’’He took a deep breath and I could hear him laughing.’’It will be fine. I promise you.’’

Where is Nezha, where is Minerva, Where is Arsu…

‘’Where is Mara?’’

The man sighed.

I did not speak, feeling my head slowly giving up, now listening to the woman’s mumbling.

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‘’Things got complicated’’ He finally said. ‘’But now I want, I have to help you and the others.’’

‘’Those documents…’’I mumbled.

‘’I made them’’ Ao Bing sounded so proud of himself. ‘’I thought that Stolas wanted to help you but he wanted all of you to end up here like the rest.’’

‘’Like the rest?’’Pain rushed stronger in my head.

‘’I just need your paper and I can make them again, free you and…’’

‘’What do you mean paper?’’ I could feel my lungs giving up.

‘’Your contract with Mammon’’

I shook my head. ‘’I have no contract.’’

‘’Then your mother’’He said after with a wide smile. He sounded so eager, so desperate. ‘’Surely she had to…’’

‘’My mother?’’ I panicked. ‘’Do you know where she is?’’

No response.

I gulped harshly. ‘’Where is she?’’

‘’I am sorry I thought you knew.’’

Why does everyone except me know something? Why is everyone lying?

‘’Knew what?’’

‘’It was a month ago, your mother was a worker to the Fourth circle you see…’’

My eyes snapped and I felt air vanishing from my lungs. ‘’She what? No, she wouldn’t.’’

‘’And she stole money from him and he caught her. ‘’Ao Bing tried to remember. ‘’He told me to walk away but I heard her say that she has a daughter. A daughter that can work.’’

My eyes opened slowly wide. ‘’What are you…’’

‘’I mean your mom sold you to him’’Ao Bing said it without any guilt, without any emotion. ‘’She did and she walked away with a suitcase from Diyu.’’

My mom? The one who loved me? The one who took care of me? She sold me?

Fairytales of heroes and villains fell on the real world. And I was the den of the villains. But unlike fairytales, I was in the real world. And none would come to save me.

‘’He probably plays a game with you because I don’t see the reason why you still don’t have a collar.’’He kept talking.

You will get a collar soon.

The deal was all a game. That he wanted to find my mother…

This memory again returned to another. How angry she was when her father was around. How tired she was when she was reading me fairy tales.

Heroes are dead in this world. None will save us but ourselves.

I was sleeping when she left. Her voice echoed.''I am so sorry. That I can't be a hero for you''

‘’Where am I?’’I asked, trying to change the subject.

My mother would never. She wouldn't she couldn’t. She was my mother. I was her daughter.

I found the woman gasping, muttering, for more. The smoke didn’t stop.

‘’Listen, only I know here that you are actually a girl. ‘’Ao Bing whispered, now sounding almost distant. ‘’If I won’t find your contract first then Stolas will and it will turn up ugly.’’

‘’Ugly?’’ I asked even more confused, falling deeply to the ground, staring at the woman.

‘’Because’’Ao Bing sighed with pain.’’You will end up like her.’’