Mothers lie

My eyes fling open to the sudden sound of a booming lightning strike. Slowly I climb out of my warm cozy blankets, and into the cool crisp air of my room. I look out my window to see tiny raindrops make their way down to the ground, and onto the beautifully colored leaves. While closing my eyes I take a deep breath in and sniff the marvelous smell of fall mixed with the smell of a rainy storm. A smile slowly finds its way onto my face, and fills me with the sweet sensation of a lovely fall morning.

Feeling unexpectedly tired, I slump down the crooked stairs of the house, and into the freezing kitchen. While standing beside the stove, pouring the warm water from the kettle into my mug, I can hear the light tapping of each and every raindrop on my roof. I pour the apple cider flavoring into the mug, and take my first sip. The delicious cinnamon tasting cider makes my taste buds dance while it slides on my tongue, then fills me with warmth after going down my throat.

“Lovely day. Isn’t it?” a familiar voice states. 

My heart pounds heavily in my chest as I whip my head around to see who is in my house. Time suddenly stops. My drink slips from my hand and comes down crashing into a million pieces onto the wood floor. I try to yell at my mother asleep up in her room, but nothing comes out of my mouth. 

“Excited to see me, I can tell.” the man teases with a smug little smirk on his face.

“Wha- what are you doing here?” I manage to stumble out.

 I can feel myself start to hyperventilate as I stare at the familiar face. 

He takes a small step forward and chuckles, “You know why I am here. You knew I would be coming here sometime.” 

I sharply look around for something to fight back with, something, anything to protect me. Nothing. 

“I have no idea why you’re here,” I plead, like a helpless child, “just please leave me alone.” 

The man eerily lures forward like a creepy clown, taking slow, sketchy steps as he comes closer and closer to my face.

 “I can't leave you alone,” he slurs like a snake, “you have what I need. Intelligence.”

“Cole,” I thought I’d never utter his name again, “please don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

His smirk grows even wider as he states, “I have to admit it was very difficult to find you. Hiding out in a small town in the middle of the woods was very smart indeed. It did slow me down quite a bit. You’ve got quite the brain there.”

“You’re insane.” I snap.

“Am I? Am I insane? Or are you just not seeing the full picture?” he questions. 

I open my mouth to speak, but quickly close it again. My head tilts to the side in confusion.

He chuckles, “Oh, Emma. Sweet naive Emma. You make me wonder how someone with as big of a brain as yours, would believe everything your mother told you.”

“What do you mean?” I ask very puzzled. 

“What did mother say about me?” he inquires, “What lies did she fill your innocent little mind with?” 

“She,” I hesitate, “she told me that you were on drugs, and that you were going crazy because of it. She kicked you out to keep me safe.”

“No. She kicked me out to keep her secret safe.” he replies. 

“What are you talking about?” I question, “What secret?”

“Come. We don’t have much time. I’ll explain everything on the way there.” he announces while swiftly walking out the door and into the cool dampness of the storm. 

It would be incredibly stupid to follow him yet here I am following my physcopath older brother into the dark abyss of a horrible storm. 

***

”I must be dreaming.” I mutter underneath my breath. 

“You’re not dreaming.” Cole states, “This is all very real.”

“Exactly, so why am I, a very smart girl who knows to not follow creeps, letting a psychopath drive around town in my car?” I question.

“I am not a psychopath.” Cole insists. 

“Right.” I scoff. 

He sighs, “Even though I’m a little crazy, insanely hyper, and a little bit of a Sherlock Holmes sometimes, that doesn’t mean I’m a psychopath.” 

“Are you even hearing yourself right now?” I ask. 

“It was a joke.” he laughs.

“You make jokes?” I respond, “Would have never thought.”

He takes a deep breath, and mutters, “Oh, how I wish I could have taken you away from mother sooner.”

“Okay, what the frick are you talking about? You keep going on and on about how mother is awful, but really she is the nicest person I’ve ever met, and she means so much to me. Don't go dissing on her, just because she kicked you out to keep everyone safe.” I hiss. 

“You don’t even know the half of it,” he snaps back, “so don’t go dissing on me.”

“Okay, fine, I don’t know the half of it,” I say, “so enlighten me.” 

He goes silent while deeply looking at the road. He looks as if he might break down and cry being seemingly helpless and heartbroken. I almost feel bad for him.

He yet again takes another deep breath and quietly explains, “Mother didn’t kick me out, I ran away. She has been lying to you this whole time. She is the psychopath.”

“You ran away? Why?.” I question.

“You know how you and I are mothers only kids?” he asks.

Confused I respond, “Uh, yeah.”

“Well we aren’t her only kids. She has dozens of more.” he implies, kind of grief-stricken. 

“What?” is the only thing I manage to get out. 

“Mother had many children before us,” he continues, “and each time one of those poor souls did something wrong, she would lock them away in a cavern of tunnels underneath the whole town, starting from her house.” 

“No. No,” I deny, “she would never do that. You are absolutely out of your mind!”

Cole puts his hand on my shoulder to help me calm down “Think about it Emma. Why is the door leading to the basement in mother’s house always locked? Any why do you think the only two people living in the town are you and mother?”

I slowly start to yell, “It’s a very small town Cole! Mother and I are probably the only ones who can fit in the town! And maybe that door is for storage or something! You are obviously on drugs or something, just please I want to go home. Please Cole take me home.”

“I’m doing this for your safety, Emma.” he begins, “I can’t take you home. Just please believe me. I’m not on drugs. I’m not a psychopath. I’m not anything mother says I am. Just please, please believe me.”

I sigh, “Where are you taking me anyway?” 

“To the underground cavern.”

***

While standing in the rain, getting soaked, Cole and I stare at a door hidden by a bunch of leaves and vines. I shiver at the thought of all of the spiders and bats that might be beyond the old wooden door.

“So how are we going to get in, genius?” I scoff. 

He swiftly pulls a set of keys out of his pocket and waves it in front of my face, “With these, genius. Come on.”

“Where did you get the keys to a random door in the middle of the woods?” I ask as I follow him to the entrance.

He laughs, “I borrowed them. From mother.”

“How? You haven’t come to the house since mother kicked you out.” I inquire. 

“Oh, I’ve been to the house plenty of times since mother kicked me out. You are just not that observant.” Cole chuckles. 

While walking up to the door he picks through the keys and slowly slides one of them into the key slot. The door makes a loud click and eerily opens up to reveal a long dark tunnel full of cobwebs. Cole steadily steps into the long tunnel of darkness and gestures me to follow him. He pulls up the light on his phone and walks along the cavern. 

“I came to the house several times, to check up on you, and make sure you were safe. You never noticed.” he continues, “On one of my check ups, I found those keys laying on the counter, I took them thinking they might be useful one day.”

“You would come all the way in the middle of nowhere, just to check up on me?” I wonder. 

“Well yeah,” he replies, “you’re my sister. I don’t want what happened to the rest of our siblings to happen to you.”

“Huh,” I mumble under my breath, “I guess you’re not so bad after all.”

“No, I’m not. If only you would listen to me.” he snickers. 

We continue deeper into the darkness of the cavern. The walls are sticky from the moss growing on them, and the ceiling is dripping disgusting water onto the top of my head. If Cole is right about the whole sibling situation, I don’t know how any of them could live in such conditions as this.

“Are we almost there?” I wonder, “I’m sick of the water dripping on my head.”

“I don’t know. I’ve only been down here once, when I was trying to figure out what was going on.” he explains.

I gasp, “Really, only once? I thought you’d check up on these siblings, like you did with me.”

“Nope. I barely even know our other siblings. The only time I saw them, they were yelling at me to get out of the cavern and save myself.” Cole remarks.

“So then why didn’t you rescue all of them, then?” I question, “You could have easily let them out through that one door, with those keys you stole from mother.”

“It was a bad time. I knew mother would be home any minute. I didn’t want to take any chances.” he responds. 

“So why now? Why did you decide to save them today?”

“Must you ask so many questions?” Cole inquires, “I promised I would save them all, someday. I guess today just seemed like a good day to do it.”

"But why-"

"No more questions," he interrupts, "let's just walk the rest of the way in silence. You're giving me a headache."

I quiet down even though I still have millions of questions for Cole. My head also starts to ache as I think about all this new information I've gained in the past few hours. It just doesn't add up. Mother as been so sweet to me my whole life. I just can't imagine someone as sweet as her, enslaving her own children underneath the town.

But then again how could Cole, being so sweet, lie to me about all of this? I used to think he was a psychopath on drugs or something. But now, after being with him the whole day, I see that he's just a really sweet boy trying to save everyone.

Yet, Cole could just be playing me. Maybe he's putting on this whole sweet boy act to make me fall for his trap, and torture me or something. Maybe he really is insane.

I don't know who to trust anymore. I can't even trust my gut.

My mind races with all of the different things that could happen. I stare at the ground as the million different thought hit me. Suddenly I bump right into Cole, as he stops in his tracks. 

"Do you hear that?" he says.

I really focus into my hearing, trying to hear whatever Cole is hearing. The faint sound of muffled talking hits my ear drums. I slightly smile. 

"Yeah, it's talking," I answer him, "like people talking.

Cole slowly turns his head to look at me. He has the biggest smile imaginable on his face. We stare at each other smiling for a few moments, then start full on sprinting towards the talking, while laughing uncontrollably. 

Getting closer and closer to the sound of talking, I feel happier than I've ever been before. The thought of other people caring and loving for me makes me want to cry with tears of joy. 

The sound of people gets louder and louder, as does the pounding of my heart. Cole and I run as fast as we can as we approach the tunnel turning into the room where everyone is. 

We both immediately stop as we stand before all of our siblings. Once again time stops. All of their faces light up as they look up at us. I feel like crying while they all smile at me.

Almost in tears Cole mutters, "See, I promised I would rescue you guys."

I now realize that Cole was right. He has always been right, and I was too stubborn to believe him. I don't know how I ever believed mother and her horrible lies.

"Come on guys," I say calmly, "let's blow this popsicle stand."