THEY ARE BACK

Theia's agitated small face was shown clearly through the camera lens. Her short arms wrapped Eirene's slim neck tightly, and not even a moment later, the camera and her eyes made a chilly contact.

Although weakened through the sunglasses, those eyes were still piercing and sharp as needles coated with venom.

Once the girl found she was being recorded, hostility, cautiousness, and displeasure poured out of her.

The owner of the video immediately put away her phone when the girl looked at her. The video ended there and began to replay.

Eirene clicked on the comments with fingers that were trembling as if they were having their own earthquake. Because of that, she accidentally clicked on one of the comments, which urged her to log in or create an account.

She suppressed the trembles and clicked on the X up top. She scrolled down into the comment section filled with questions about her daughter and the identity of the woman carrying her.

While some asked harmless and genuine questions, some comments were sharp and a little creepy. They somehow managed to cancel the noise apart from Eirene's voice and make out some words.

And from heaven knows where theories and suspicion about Theia having supernatural powers or special took over in the latter half.

With the racing heart returning to normal, Eirene scrolled until the end. From what she read, there wasn't any that confirmed their identity, which relieved her more than anything.

One might confuse the feeling she had for shame, but that wasn't true. She could handle people talking sh*t about her and insulting her. That meant nothing. She had been through worse. The actress simply didn't want her daughter to be judged because of who the mother was and how she came to be in this world.

As if trying to convince her racing heart, Eirene nodded while her left hand patted the chest. With the fingers on the right hand, she scrolled back to the top comment.

But just as she was about to return to the chat room with Ares, the comment section refreshed, revealing the newest.

Eirene felt her heart being squashed. The chills she got used to these days appeared all over her body in a flash.

[Is it me or the woman lowkey look like that actress from the upcoming historical movie that stars Annabelle Raymond?]

In the reply section, the creator said, [So I'm not the only person who thought of that! Looking at the video now, it indeed looks like the villainess, Eirene Queen!]

----

'What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?..." The question looped in her head and mind, utterly blinding her sight.

The images of Theia being bullied at school. Criticised, looked at and treated differently by society.

But those images were nothing terrifying compared to the last one. A little girl in white, lonely lying motionlessly on the bloody ground made from the cut on the wrist. Even from afar, the coldness that surrounded the girl could not be contained and reached the deepest parts of one's soul.

The actress wiped away her inextinguishable nightmare savagely, which only got worse in seconds. In a blink of an eye, her bleeding daughter was no longer on the ground. It was as if a gust of wind sneakily came and whipped the dust off the floor.

But Eirene felt a presence behind her. When she spun around, Theia was looking at her in anger and sadness, still covered in traumatising vivid red liquid. "Why am I your daughter?"

Whatever the brain was in charge of, froze. No words came up. Therefore, no words were spoken as an answer.

"You did this to me." The girl touched her face. Wherever the hand made contact, it turned purplish-black as if infected with a deadly disease. "I never wished for this."

Eirene gasped out, "...I'm sorry." She stretched her arms towards her daughter.

"Sorry doesn't bring me back from the dead, mum." The girl spat out. Both her face and voice were deprived of any emotion. "Only if you weren't stupid at the time, this wouldn't have happened to me..."

"Forgive me... I'm so sorry. I didn't wish for this too. Please understand... Forgive me..." She began, taking steps towards her daughter. But no matter how much she ran, the distance between them never closed.

The girl stood there like a statue in a war zone with no intention of extending her arms to Eirene. "You should have never existed."

"...I know." The skin-irritating feelings of tears streaked down the woman's pale cheeks. "But even so, I will always want to prote-"

"If you know, what are you still doing here?"

The cold words perforated Eirene like hundreds of icicles. She froze in her steps.

"Don't you have any shame?" Theia questioned. Somehow, the voice became deeper for a ten-year-old. "Why don't you end it here?"

The actress blinked to clear her blurry sight made by uncontrollable tears. "End... what?" She knew she was foolish when she knew what her daughter was asking.

"Your. Worthless. Life."

Like a drop of rain disturbing the calm lake with a series of forced waves, the little girl's appearance shifted into those of a familiar teen.

The teen looked straight into Eirene's eyes. The eyes were more haunting than any ghosts from horror movies and hollower and more lonely than an old bomb shelter.

"Why can't we end it?" The teen asked sorrowfully with a compelled smile that was more pitiful than a clown's. As the daughter changed into a teen, the clothes were no longer the same.

The torn, long brown skirt was covered in splatters of red as if been through a storm of blood. The warm-looking black turtle neck was ripped at the shoulders. But most of all, half of the teen's adolescent face was covered in dirt and bruise. It was as if she had been stung by hoards of bees and run over by a car in a forest.

"What did I do wrong?" The teen asked with a bright smile, turned ugly by the swelling on her face. "Can we go back to the way things were?" Her voice was also frail like the life force was sucked out dry.

The teen's unanswerable questions continued.

"Where did everything fall off?... Can we end it? I want to be in an idyllic place where I and Theia can feel safe. That is my only wish. I have endured for a long time. I have to run away." A tear dropped from the almost-shut eye surrounded by the inflated skin. "Will you come with me?"

"I..." Eirene looked down. She had subconsciously made her hand into a fist, and the object lying between the flesh hurt her.

When she opened it, she saw a pocket knife she usually sliced herself with. The blade was only about the size of a pinky finger but always hid its demonic self inside the handle.

Looking at it now, the blade had made a cut. But surprisingly, there was no blood coming out despite being quite deep.

Eirene looked back up at the teen, but the teen was standing right in front of her.

"Let's do it." The teen Eirene, the ignorant girl, said with a gentle tone and held the injured hand of the older in her hands. The teen brought it to her own neck and placed the exact same knife on her neck with the brightest smile Eirene had ever seen. "In count of one."

"Three." The blade pierced their skin ever-so-pleasantly.

"Two." Eirene could feel the blood crawling down her throat. Her younger self had closed her eyes closed with contentment. Like being infected, she also closed her eyes and readied herself for an end.

"One."

The two said in mellifluous unison, void of any fear of what was coming next.

The two women sliced each other's throats in one smooth movement. Both with breath-taking smiles on their lips in their last moments.

----

The small but annoying stinging in her arm slowly woke her up. But before she asked anything about her surroundings, she found a man sitting by her side with his legs and arms crossed.

The man stared straight into her eyes and moved his hand to push up his round-rimmed green glasses. "You are awake."

His olive green eyes looked like muddy water in the room, lacking light.

Eirene stayed silent and rose up. She did not need to confirm she was in her own bedroom. Everything was familiar except for the man and the tools he hooked into her arm.

"Where is Jaxon?" She finally asked after not hearing anything from the house.

"Not even a greeting, huh?" The man sighed in chagrin. "I sent him to fetch some medicines. He'll be back soon."

Eirene continued without raising her eyes to see the man. "My daughter?"

"She's asleep."

The uncomfortable silence fell when she didn't ask him any questions anymore. And hence, he didn't have something to answer.

Although her head was down, Eirene could feel him licking all over her body with his wet gaze. It was honestly a suffocating and creepy feeling. But she couldn't escape from him.

He was the only therapist that understood her symptoms and did not try to take advantage of her in the past six years. That did not mean she liked him. Quite the opposite. Out of all others, he was the least comfortable.

But she didn't have to suffer for long as soon, there was a sound of a door clicking and someone walking over to the room lightly.

"Thank goodness you are away." That was the first thing Jaxon said with a smile after seeing Eirene sitting. "I thought you had some sort of heart attack when you suddenly fainted. You really shortened my lifespan."

As he complained jokingly, he brought out medicines which the other man inspected and placed some on the table and come back into the bag.

After sorting out the packages of medicines, the therapist stood up and wore his coat. "I'm leaving."

Jaxon took out his hand for a handshake. "Thanks, Alistair. I really appreciate it."

The therapist did not take the hands and nodded. With one last longing glance, he finally left the room, letting Eirene breathe with relief.

After hearing the click of the entrance door click, she pulled out the IV from her arm and wordlessly ran out of her room. Without knocking, she entered her daughter's room and found Theia sleeping soundly.

Eirene walked over to the girl silently and sat at the edge of the bed to cover the exposed parts of Theia's body.

But the gentle movements woke her up nonetheless. "Mum?"

"Shh." Hugging back her half-asleep daughter, who sought an embrace, Eirene opened her arms and let the girl rest. Soon, Theia was out again.

In the midst of all that, Jaxon didn't dare to enter the room and only spoke deeply from the open door, leaning on the frame with crossed arms. "What happened?"

The hands on her daughter uncontrollably tightened.

"They are back."