Page 99 of Pet: Torment

But he isn’t here. He is doing the conversion.

My mother roughly pulls me so that I stumble, but I look back at the door, my heart aching with sadness. I don’t know what’s going on, or why we are leaving suddenly. But I knowmy mother wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. So, I mindlessly follow her through the palace without question.

Chapter Forty-Three

Remus

One year since his mother left

I hate this place. It isn’t my home. It’s filled with primitive beings who obsess over my mother. They just don’t know how powerful my father is—how quickly he could wipe out their way of life if it pleased him.

I shift my attention from my mother to another Leviathan who shows up to leave more of the flowers of this world on the footsteps of her altar. They see her as a goddess, and I understand why. In the time we’ve been here, she has changed their way of life for the better. She’s improved their language, introduced them to technology and education, all while doing simple parlor tricks to win their favor. She has used her power to heal their sick and make their crops grow. She’s even gone as far as creating her own landmasses. She has truly ingratiated herself as part of this culture, and she has subjected my sister to it, as well.

Xion came along shortly after our arrival. She is fascinated by every little thing she sees here, unaware of the true home she came from. My mother keeps saying that my father was evil and wanted to be rid of us, but I don’t believe her. Why would he tell me he was going to see me after the conversion? Why would he lie about that? Why would he promise to teach me conversion once he returned? And as much as I try to remember his face, it escapes me. As does our home. I just know that it exists. But I can’t describe it any longer.

Xion’s cries of excitement pull me from my thoughts. She’s crawling to the flowers on the altar, her fingers gripping them in excitement. I hate the curiosity I see on her face. There’s nothing special about this place, especially some damn flowers.I quickly stand from my place, moving across the marble, snatching it from her. Shock appears on her face as she looks at me, tears beginning to form.

“No. Do not touch these—agh!” I cry out as my body is thrown back by an invisible force. My mother stands over me, her eyes narrowed. She bends to my height, ripping the flower from my grasp. She looks at the damaged petal, her eyes glowing as she restores it.

“What do you think you are doing?” she asks. She’s speaking to me in this native language, and I hate it.

“This isn’t our—Agh!” I cry out as the air around me grows heavy, my mother using her power to hold me down.

“We do not speak in that tongue here,” she snaps, her anger at me speaking in the Celestivine language terrifying. Tears form in my eyes, and I let them fall as I try to remain patient, as my father wanted me to.

“I want to go home,” I say.

“This is your home,” she snaps.

I narrow my gaze.

“This is not my home!” I shout, my frustration mounting to uncontrollable levels. It feels physical as it swirls around inside of me, needing some way to release. I need something more than this waste and everything it supplies. The air, the people, the language—it’s all toxic to me.

My mother’s eyes widen slightly at my outburst, and I suddenly feel the weight of her power release. She continues to watch me in shock as I stumble to my feet, and I shift my attention past her to the sky. I don’t know where we are, or how we got here. I don’t know how to return home. I am trapped here, barely able to cling to memories of my life before.

I can see my mother warring with herself as she takes a step toward me, hesitancy at the forefront.

“Remus—”

I choke on a sob, whipping away from my mother to run away. From her, the altar, from the hundreds of weak Leviathan who constantly surround us, vying for favor. I hear my mother calling after me, but I ignore it, running as fast as I can. I don’t know where I’m going, and it doesn’t occur to me that I’ve run far beyond the city limits until I stumble over a root, tripping over my feet as I fall off the cliff’s edge. My stomach dips, and panic washes over me as I fall.

Instead of memories or my home to comfort my plunge, the world rushes by me in a flurry, wind whipping past my ears until I crash into the ground, and everything goes dark.

I jolt awake, the night sky partially hidden by the trees arching over me. I try to breathe in, but my breath hitches as blood gurgles past my lips. It takes me a moment to understand the excruciating pain I am in. I can’t move my legs, and my back feels like mush beneath me.

I can’t speak, I can’t call out, I can barely groan.

“Ngh—Hck!” Tears spill over, dripping past my temples into my hair.

I want to go home. I want my father, I want Celise, I want my bed, and the gardens in the palace. I want to be surrounded by my people, not these…weaker beings. But I am stuck. I can’t go anywhere without my mother’s approval. Even in our time here, she keeps me under constant watch, forcing me to see this as my home, trying to manipulate me into accepting that this always was.

“Remus…” I tense as a small whisper flits over my mind. It’s my father. I know it is. He’s found me.

“Fa—hck! Fa—Mngh!” I can’t respond. But I hear it…I know it’s there.

My tears intensify. And with that intensity, so do the emotions coursing through me. I don’t know what to do as my father reaches out to me. I may have been a prodigy, but there are still things I don’t know how to do. I was only beginning to learn how to make contact with things that aren’t physical. Right now, I am still a physical being, as proven by the injuries that might be the death of me.

I hear a loud wheezing, and I realize it is me. I’m suffocating—choking on my own blood. But as I sit on the cusp of death, I am suddenly aware of things that eluded me before. The coursing of my blood, the beat of my heart, the pump of my veins… I can feel each of them. It goes beyond that, I realize. The ground beneath me has a pulse—everything has a pulse.