Cracks in the Window

Natalia's life was coming apart.

She'd done everything in her power to be a good mother, and to make sure her children were safe. She'd given up her name, her life--everything to give them a chance at a good future. Everything she was, she was no longer.

But she hadn't thought to protect them from each other. Even if they were half their father, she'd thought that the steps she'd taken would be enough. Not telling them what they were. Not talking about him. Giving no hint of the truth. Even when Alma was born with a tail and both of them had wings, she'd kept it to herself what those could mean. Maybe she was just a vampire with a tail. Maybe there was no reason for it. Lots of things on the island existed with no clear reason, didn't they?

But there was more of their father in them then Natalia ever wanted to admit. In Alma, it was better. She was a victim of her demonic blood, but not an assailant. Not like Aaron, whose father's blood had corrupted him. She had known so early, faced with a sudden perverse desire for her own son, and yet she'd been in denial.

She'd hoped it would stop.

She regretted that now. She should have gotten a power bracelet and forced it on him, could have prevented the whole thing, but she'd wanted to believe that her son wouldn't do that.

But he would.

And now he was gone--thrown out in all but actual physical action--and Alma was gone too.

She'd made a terrible mistake.

Natalia was definitely not at work. She was still at home, in the empty house, and wondering what she was supposed to be doing. She'd gone from the doting mother of two children to alone in the span of a week, and she was perilously close to simply drinking very heavily until she forgot that fact.

Until someone let themselves in. Natalia's senses caught the click of the house key, but the slam of the door was that much more obvious, and she rolled carefully off the couch, tense as could be.

But she knew before long it was Alma. In the dark she could see her as she crept forward, and when it was obvious, she stopped creeping.

Her eyes watered.

"Alma," Natalia said. "Thank god you're safe." Safe and home, even if she didn't seem to be planning to stay.

There was a bitter irony that of her two children, the one who looked more demonic was the one that hadn't given in to her father's corrupted urges. It was the one who could pass for fully vampire who was the most demonic in nature.

"No," Natalia said. "I've been home since you left. I know you're probably wanting to leave, but I already got rid of it - burned and disposed of. And he isn't here either, so you can stay, and at least talk." She'd done a lot to try and make things comfortable. Disposed of the bed. Cleaned the house up. Moved things around so nothing would feel familiar and disgusting. Even Aaron was gone, kicked out in so many words.

"There were reasons," Natalia said. "Good reasons."

Maybe not reasons that Alma would feel were good, but reasons that Natalia felt were good. She had the clearest view of the situation, in her own opinion. Her children didn't know everything she'd been through. They didn't know the truth of what had happened, or what she'd been protecting them from.

"Can we just - can we just sit down, in the kitchen, and talk? There's things I have to give you, even if you are going to stay away from the house. It isn't safe."

Natalia knew what her priorities were. Safety for Alma came first, before all else, even above explaining herself.

"This first," Natalia said, as she dug into a drawer in the kitchen. If Alma was paying attention, she might have noticed Natalia reaching into the drawer at an angle, popping a secret compartment and holding up a small white envelope.

Without context, it might have been mistaken for drugs, and she set it down on the table carefully.

"I only have one," she said. "But before anything else - if you storm out or anything - you need to take this with you. Keep it in your home. Wherever you feel is home, that's where it needs to be, and it'll keep you safe."

Well, not safe. Safe from the worst things that she could imagine.

"How much do you know, aside from that? I'll tell you everything."