Sleep tried to sneak its way in, suddenly a weight that had never been there the entire time rested upon her eyelids.
She had to open those eyes. Needed to.
Sleep would have been a crime upon her soul. Her greatest failure. And so she physically fought it, surging from the hip and pushed up against the base to force sleep, one would have thought she was trying to lift a car. The weightiness of a roar included and that caused there to be hands upon her body once more.
But she had her eyes open. It had worked. To her utter surprise someone was rubbing her face, it started at the corners of her scalp, pulling away from the center, then there was the merciless pressure upon the lips, anymore and she might not have lips at all.
It was the pressure a pull of the overly familiar.
She didn't even need the mucky smell of soap and a salty summer breeze mixed with roses and ocean salt to let her know it was before she had the gunk in her eyes crunch up and yanked away with brutal efficiency.
Her eyes focused on Mother, Kate didn't' know why but she expected to see red eyes, broken mascara. Instead was the image of immaculate perfection. Mother's hair dyed black and tied into a perfect bun.
But Mother's inability to hold any level of eye contact was enough to make Kate crunch up and twist her face unable to control the well of emotion. She tried turning away and her face was twisted back to Mother who was staring back with eyes that welled with tears.
"Never my love," How Shakespearean a voice tried to distract from what was happening, "Never run from your Mother." She kissed Kate all over. "I'll always find you."
The next few minutes were spent with Kate being kissed and cooed, so long sleep tried to poke its head back in.
Kate beat it back, instead working on the horror show that was her throat. She'd just let her lips do the work.
"Mom"
"Yes Baby?"
"Where's Griff, I never heard him, I never even smelt him."
"Griff's gone."
Kate's entire world froze, eyes wide.
"Not that kind of gone you idiot."
Kate breathed again.
"But he's going to be a part of that program that you said was a good idea."
Memories flooded back. That cocky bitch, she would kill her, she'd let Mother do it this time. A bad waste to good damn rubbish. What had Kate done? What kind of agreement had been made? How absurd was the whole thing?
Kate had not the slightest intention of keeping her word. It was almost hilarious how little of a shit she gave towards honor or pride or the future beyond getting back her boy.
And that was exactly what he was, her boy. The fact that she could not even so much as smell him was a knife against her soul a searing pain forming where there should have been a kid brother, the ting of touch of his hair on her palms, she could feel it. It was there.
"Mother, I lied. I want him back."
"Girls, get out." Mother snapped, not looking at either of the nurses. "I have as good a nursing degree as all of you, and I need to talk to my child alone before she tries to do something silly like breaking out of her cast."
She couldn't see them, only auras moving, but she could feel them nodding and making their escape.
That was when Mother stood and pulled up her wrist to clear the jersey of pesky wool sleeves, wound up and slapped Kate square across the face.
Kate's eyes bulged so much that a second slap would have popped her eyes out. Luckily she saw the movement and actually closed her eyes as the follow up slap connected, not only with Kate's cheek but the whole side of her face. Kate could taste blood on the first by the fifth, there was only blood.
"You lie to me? About my boy?"
Kate had to work her lips as her mouth filled with blood, Mother had a cloth and a tiny metal bowl for her to spit.
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✨ Stand with me — follow and share as Zenith descends deeper into blood, memory, and betrayal. ✨
Mother wept, trembled, and then hardened into steel.
Her words cut deeper than her hands:
Kate was not the best thing for her brother.
Silenced, broken, and stripped of purpose,
Kate faced the unbearable truth—
that love could exile as surely as hate.
Next time on Zenith:
If Kate has no place as daughter, sister, or survivor… who will she become?