Page 27

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FOUR

THE WOMAN

BEFORE

M other did not keep the woman waiting.

It seemed that the closer the two of them grew, the more quickly the serpent could find her.

What had once taken hours of focus and great gulps of foul-tasting liquid now required only sips and moments.

The woman wondered if one day, she would be able to contact Mother without the need of drugs at all, but she was not yet prepared to ask.

For all of the kindness that Mother exuded, there was still something terrible and mighty about her. It always felt like she could break apart the world in an instant, sending the woman falling into the depths.

Perhaps she could.

“My dear child,” Mother began, her voice honey sweet. “Tell me more about her. Tell me about the woman that you have chosen for us.”

“Do you not know everything before I tell you?”

Some questions were too difficult to resist asking.

“Some things are shrouded from me,” Mother said, letting out a soft hiss with her forked pink tongue. “That is why you are precious. You must be my hands and my feet within this world.”

“Amira has visited our compound many times already,” the woman answered. “She’s lonely. Her husband is busy with his career. He’s starting a new company and has little time for his family.”

“Very well,” Mother said.

“But there is a complication,” the woman ventured.

“Tell me.”

“Amira cannot move in like the others have done. She has a daughter at home, and she is not willing to leave her behind.”

Mother was quiet for a long moment. The woman imagined the floor beneath her feet cracking in two, followed by the dirt, the crust of the earth, the whole world.

“Do not worry, my dear one,” she said at last. “None of that matters. Soon, we will all return to my planet. We will all be home, in the glorious dimension of light. Fear not.”