Page 64 of Pet: Torment

Sky steps forward, crossing the room to kneel next to me. Her touch is gentle as she rubs my back. The temperature of her touch is similar to mine. And her soft words of comfort actually permeate the haze of panic, calming me down.

“How could this have happened?” I ask in the silence.

“Iriel was a loose end. I’m sure—”

“No. How did your mother manage to make RemuskillIriel? Remus’s most basic morality centers around the Leviathan people. Remus himself, even before he met me, would never bypass their choice,” I say in confusion.

Once again, silence passes over the room, confirming my fears. And for some reason, I laugh.

“You didn’t know she could do that…” I whisper.

I shift my attention between Ezra and Xion.

“How do you expect to bring your brother back when you don’t even know how much of yourselves is real,” I say. “You don’t even know what to expect!”

I see now the hesitance in taking action. They are as lost as we are as humans in all of this. They don’t know their own mother. They don’t know the extent of her power. They don’t even know what she is or where she came from. My existence has forced a side of her they are unfamiliar with and unprepared for.

I laugh again, tears accompanying my hysteria.

My entire reality was blown up in a matter of hours, and since, it has done nothing but spiral even deeper into a situation that I can barely keep a grasp on mentally. This is out of our range of understanding as humans.

“So…you’re just going to pretend this didn’t happen, too? You’re going to walk around him and pretend the last year of his life never happened? Like the gaps in his memory aren’t there?” I ask.

Xion’s expression hardens, and for once, I am glad for it. I’m sick of her pitying me, treating me like I’m a broken toy.

“Yes. Because they aren’t. He won’t acknowledge those gaps. He won’t be able to. In his mind, Iriel betrayed us, and Ezra took the brunt of that betrayal. He conquered the Earth, and that knowledge just exists…if we go questioning the specifics, we’ll be right back in this situation, but this time, she’ll come after us too, and you won’t have any allies. The Remus we know will be gone forever,” Xion snaps.

“So what? You want to sit around and wait for your mother to do more damage to him? To violate him even worse than she already has?” I snap.

I note that Ezra flinches from my words, and I finally decide to address it.

“What is wrong with you? You were so excited that Remus had even given you this responsibility! Now you suddenly don’t care? It doesn’t bother you that he overstepped you?” I ask.

Ezra furrows his brow, and Sky gently grips my arm.

“Iris…don’t,” she murmurs. But Ezra doesn’t look at me in anger. He looks hurt. His eyes are glazed over, like he’s holding back tears, and he shifts his attention to Xion.

“Look, Iris. This has turned Remus into something we’ve never known. He’s done things that even if he gets his memory back, I don’t know if—”

“Ezra!” Xion hisses.

He narrows his gaze at her, shifting his attention back to me.

“It just isn’t worth it right now. Too much has been lost. We need to be patient and let everything settle—let her think we have no opposition to what’s happening. If we push things, there’s no telling what she’ll do,” Ezra says.

“And then what? What is your big plan to remind Remus that I existed?” I ask, my voice breaking.

“He uprooted my life. He took me from my world. He made me care about him, and now he’s been ripped away from me, and all you can say to me is to be patient? How would you feel if it happened to you? If Sky or Noah was taken from you? Would you be able to be patient?” I ask.

No one responds.

I release an irritated breath, standing.

“Take me to him. Let me speak to him—”

“If we do that, he will kill you.” Xion grips my arm, holding me firm as she whips me around to meet her gaze. “Hewillkill you. You don’t know the difference in who Remus was before he met you. Do you think it was Remus’s decision to allow your planet to be servants to the empire? He wanted to wipe the world of their existence. He came to Earth to getrevenge on my behalf.Our mother did not touch those memories before you—before the invasion.”

“In Remus’s current mind, any human is equivalent to the group Noah arrived with. And they are only useful dead,” she finishes.