A Beast with a Smile
Chapter 18 (Scarlett): Mother of Time

The second I stepped through the portal I felt my insides churn. The speed at which we were traveling was faster than the speed of light and I definitely felt every ounce of the G-force. I couldn’t see anything but blurs of blue and white with a mix of a tornado blowing in my ears. There was a man hole that marked the end of the journey and I was pretty sure we were going to shoot out of this cannon straight into a wall. I made the mistake of looking at Christ, who winked at me when I noticed his never-ending stare.

“Don’t worry your little head, le mien bella donne, Christopher is here to protect you.”

This was one of the very few instances in which I wished to know any type of cuss word in Italian. I rolled my eyes and clenched my fists and braced for the impact. When we reached the portal end I flew out and smacked into an oversized, fluffy mattress which was laid straight up on the wall and was clearly intended for a giant 30-foot giant. I then fell onto another mattress of equal size and comfort that was lined up against it.

The bed was so comfortable that it made me realize how exhausted I was. My eyes grew heavy and my body began to weaken. I was sinking into the mattress and the more I struggled to get out of bed, the weaker and more exhausted I became. I sank further and further into my slumber and into the perfect cushions of the bed.

“Scarlett!” I heard from two familiar voices that had abandoned me earlier that day.

My vision blurred. I tried to get out one last time, but you can’t win a fight with a bed, you can only give in to its demands.

I awoke in what seemed like a hospital room. There was the same type of machines, but I was placed in a large tent outside; I could feel the wind gently blowing through the open flap. There were no lights on inside the tent or outside. The only thing visible was the faint glow of the machines.

I attempted to sit up but was met by a hand pressed on my chest.

“You need to stay in bed, Ms. Archer. We have a very busy day tomorrow,” she said in a soothing mother like tone.

I could feel my energy being sucked away again: no matter how hard I tried to stay awake I couldn’t resist the urge to sleep.

“Don’t try to resist Ms. Archer, just close your eyes and sleep.”

“Archy and Elly,” I managed to muster.

“They are safe. I want to ring both of them by the neck, but they are safe,” she soothed with her motherly tone.

I remembered what Chris had said before we walked through the portal.

“Are you the Immortal? The one who grabbed Elly and Archy through the…the… sha…dow...machine thingy.”

I heard her let out a small chuckle, “I guess that nickname has really stuck, hasn’t it? Yes, I am the un-immortal immortal.”

As I continued to ward off the need to sleep, the tent began to get brighter, enough that I could make out some of the woman in front of me.

I noticed the baggy skin and wrinkles on the hand that was holding me down stealing my energy.

“You are quite powerful, Ms. Archer. No one has ever resisted for this long, not even Scavenger.”

The pure whisper of his name gave me a cold rush up my entire body and suddenly I felt like I was having more of a sugar rush than the effects of her sleeping pills. I was able to sit straight up now, and I could sense the amazement from my captivated audience.

“Impressive, Ms. Archer, quite impressive,” the Immortal said with shock and amazement.

“I’m not one for taking naps,” I said picking her crinkly rainbow nailed hand up off of my chest, “I’m assuming you know my reason for being here?” I asked, climbing off the bed, but her face was completely hidden in the shadows of the dark room.

“I think I can take a wild guess. You’re looking for Scavenger.”

I nodded in recognition. She let out a motherly chuckle.

“You know what? We are too. The two miscreants brought you here because they thought you could help.”

Elly and Archy were clearly the troubled children around here.

“Those two keep sneaking out of here and going to the facility in hopes of rescuing our so brave and honorable abandoner, Scavenger,” she said sarcastically.

I looked out of the flap into the darkness, thinking about the millions of questions I had for this Immortal lady.

“I understand the unfortunate complications that have engulfed you in unanswered questions and the unseen truth.”

“Can you read minds?” I asked.

She chuckled again, “No, I could only wish for such a blessing.”

She stood from her chair and walked closer to me. She wore a bright red dress with a hood that covered her head and left a black veil of darkness covering her face.

“Unfortunately, my abilities are far worse and much more horrid,” she said while pulling back the hood, revealing her true appearance.

Her skin was torn and stretched like an old leather couch and her eyes were sunken deep into her skull, which was missing the skin that would hide the bone. Her hair was just long strands of silly string flowing in the gentle breeze. The more I looked, the deader she became.

“Are...are…you alive?” I asked.

She smiled with her crinkled face and said, “Is anyone truly alive on a Monday?”

“Did the serum that Elly and Archy told me about do this to you?”

“Not entirely. It is the only thing keeping these wounds from taking what’s left of my life. You see, Ms. Archer, I looked like a monster before Atom made me a monster.”

“How did you get like this?”

“It is a long and sad story.”

“Oh, if it’s too hard to te…”

The room around me faded and shifted. The earth moved and shifted around us. Images began to play, and I began to see her story.

“My father was a drunk, but it was a habit he picked up after I was born, after a few dozen meteors turned the entire town into rubble. My parents lived on the edge of town on a farm that was their primary source of income,” she began to walk around the room, running her finger on the bed and the machines, “When the giant boulders decided to fall on this tiny little town, they crushed everything my parents held dear. Father tried to repair the damage, but his never-ending efforts were in vain.

Years went by and they grew more and more miserable with every dollar that escaped their pocket. Eventually, my mother got a job as a surrogate mother for a rich family in Dallas. I was born eight months later; a preemie who weighed 6 pounds. The family was in love with me, but so was my mother. She didn’t want to give me up and tried to run away with me. My father was furious about her actions, so when he caught us he showered his affection towards me. He was drunk, like always, and was furious with the world for taking every dollar that he loved.

When he heard the family was going to not pay him for me, he hunted my mother down. He found us at the bus station and snatched me out of my mother’s hands. He pulled a gun out and pressed it against my head. He told my mother to get on her knees and beg, beg for her pitiful life, for her pitiful marriage, for her pitiful husband and for her pitiful newborn. She cried and begged him to not kill her baby. She sat on her knees and begged inches from his feet. He laughed at her sorrow, he laughed at her suffering: he laughed because the wicked take pain and suffering as a source of pride and joy. He grabbed an alcohol bottle off of a vending cart and took a huge swig. He proceeded to pour the vodka on my mother’s head and body. She never stopped begging for her child’s life to be spared.

‘And why should I now? It’s not like you do anything for me. The only useful and productive thing you’ve done in the past years was giving birth to this child for that rich family, but now look at you. You’re trying to run away with a baby that would have paid our bills ten times over,’ he said to her.

‘I’m sorry,’ she wailed, ‘I’ll do whatever you want. Anything to make things better’

‘It’s okay. I’m going to solve the problem right now,’ he handed me to her.

He shot her in the head while she begged for my life. By the time her body fully hit the floor the entire station was a mess. People swarmed to replace the exits after the first shot was fired. He stood over her body and screamed exactly how he felt about her. He stood over me where he laid me on my dead mothers’ chest. He smiled and held out a lighter.

‘It’s time you joined her, yes, it is, yes, it is,’ he said in his best baby voice.

He stood up laughing at the same world that had brought him so much pain. He reached his arm out, prepared to end my life with a spark of life. A bullet through his chest exploded his cruelty and he fell to the ground, dead. The lighter fell from his dying grasp and ignited the alcohol around my infant body. The flames spread up my body, melting my flesh to the bone. The woman who shot my father attempted to put out the flames, but her efforts were futile. I was already a little monster; my skin was gone, and I was horrifying.

The woman took me to her boss, Atom, and asked that I receive the Alpha-serum serum. The injections saved what little life I had left but couldn’t fully heal the wounds that will scare me for the rest of my pitiful life.”

The world began to shift back to normal. It had been like standing inside her memories.

“Who was the woman who saved you?” I asked, still dazed from what I had just seen

“She was supposedly my mother. The one whose egg was implanted inside the woman who gave birth to me. After the injections I never heard from her again. All I know about her is that she worked or still works for Atom.”

“I don’t even know what to say or where to begin. I’m sorry for what happened to you.”

“It is a sad tale, but it has its benefits. These abilities that I have mastered are quite useful when it comes to parenting a few hundred children.”

“Parenting? Wait, a few hundred? Aren’t you younger than me?”

She didn’t look younger than me, if anything, she looked like she could’ve been a hundred. She laughed again in her motherly tone.

“Every child here, every victim of Atom’s experiments, and any child who was left behind by the ones who were supposed to love them are all my children.”

She raised her arms and the tent flew off into darkness. It took me a second to realize the world I was standing on was the size of a huge dinner plate. It ended on both sides to a drop off, falling into the forever below.

She noticed my astonishment, “Scarlett Archer, we have yet to truly meet, but I look forward to your presence when you wake up. You may call me Mother Time.”

She snapped her fingers and the world faded into darkness. The land began to crumble slowly, piece after piece, falling into the eternal pit of nothing. I looked around and Mother Time was gone; the area was shrinking faster and faster. With nowhere else to go and standing on a rock the size of my shoe I began to think about what she had just said.

“See you when you wake up,” the voice repeated in my head.

“I’m asleep,” I said to myself.

Come on wake up, wake up.

The dumbest idea popped into my mind. It was that little voice that pops into your head when you’re on a high building, the one that says “Jump.” I decided to listen to it.

I leapt into the darkness.