Blinking, I looked at her, my mouth agape. No sound left my lips as I watched her. I didn’t know how to react to the revelation because it seemed like my brain wasn’t working perfectly.
She placed her right palm on my cheek. Looking into my eyes, she smiled. “I know it will take you a long time to come to terms with this, but you need to know that I’m not lying. I’m indeed your mother or a fragment of her soul.”
She looked so sad that I didn’t realize what I was doing until I had my palms on her cheeks.
Smiling, she placed hers over mine. “I stayed alive all these years, waiting, hoping to see my daughter before I finally meet my ancestors. You don’t know how much I had waited for this day to finally hold you and tell you who I am.”
“You are my mum?” My voice was barely a whisper. I was still trying to wrap my head around everything she said, to tell myself I wasn’t imagining it. The low bulb in the room cast a glow around, highlighting the sharp features of her face.
At that moment, it seemed I was looking into the real eyes of my mother, eyes I never thought I would ever see again.
“My beautiful Isabella.” She leaned close and placed a kiss on my forehead. “I just want you to know how much I love you, and how much I waited for you.”
The minute our eyes locked, the dam burst. Tears streamed down our faces, mingling as they fell on her thighs. I felt like I was drowning in a sea of emotions, unable to breathe.
“My mother?” I whispered again, my voice cracking.
She nodded, her face contorting in anguish.
“I’m so sorry, Isabella. Sorry for sending you to the human world, for not being there when you needed me most.”
Her words unleashed a torrent of grief within me. I sobbed uncontrollably, my body shaking as I struggled to process the revelation.
She pulled me into a tight embrace, holding me as if she’d never let me go. “I love you, my daughter,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I love you more than you can ever imagine.”
I wrapped my arms around her, clinging to her as if she’d vanish. This was so surreal. I thought the last time I would see my mother was the night she sent me through the portal to the human world, but I was wrong. Fate didn’t want things to end that way.
“Mother,” I whispered, the word feeling foreign yet familiar.
We wept together, our tears falling like rain, washing away years of pain and longing. We were suspended at that moment of raw emotion. Time stood still as we held each other, the weight of our separation slowly lifting. In that instant, I knew I’d found a piece of myself, a part I thought was lost forever.
My mother was the first to break away from the hug. She held my hand, still looking into my eyes.
“I need you to be strong for what I’m about to tell you. I know this is me being greedy, but I hope you will understand me.” She patted my hair, smiling.
“What’s it?”
“It’s time to go.”
Just two words, and it seemed like I had lost everything once more.
“What?!!”
“I have expended the fragment I have. Here.” She opened her bag and got out a thick book and a necklace with a jar-like pendant. “This will hold my spirit when I leave,” she said, gesturing to the jar. “It will capture my last essence, so you can always have me with you. And this.” She pointed at the book. “That’s my journal. It holds all the answers to questions you might have.”
As she spoke, more tears rolled down my eyes. I knew this was goodbye, could see it in her eyes and the way she tried to cheer me up. It wasn’t fair!
“Please take care of yourself and the babies.” She placed her hand on my stomach.
“Babies?”
She nodded. “There are three in there. Take care of my grandchildren.” As she leaned down to place a kiss on my stomach, shocks wrecked through my body. My heart felt tight. “I love you, my darling. If only I can stay longer with you, I will, but I can’t. It’s time to say goodbye, even though it had never been my plan.”
“No, Mother! Don’t leave me!” I pleaded, clinging to her. “We can find a way to keep you alive. You are a witch! Please do something!” I begged, clinging on to her. “Please don’t leave me!”
Tears streamed down her face as she smiled weakly. “I love you, Isabella. Always remember that. My love will always be with you, just as a fragment of my soul will always remain with you. Take care….” Her voice faded, her body beginning to disintegrate into a blue, misty smoke.
I screamed, horrified, as I watched her vanish before my eyes. “Mother! No! Come back!” I tried to hold on to her body, but they had all dissolved, and turned into smoke.
The smoke swirled, drifting toward the jar pendant. I held it up, and the mist dissipated into the jar, filling it with a soft, ethereal glow.
I stared at the jar, my heart shattering into a million pieces as everything became all too real. “Mother!” I wailed, collapsing on the couch. The room spun around me, darkness closing in.
I clutched the jar and the book, my lifelines to the mom I’d just found as tears poured down my face as I rocked back and forth, grief consuming me.
“Why did you leave me again?” I sobbed. “Why did you fucking leave me? It’s not fair! You don’t get to decide on what to fucking do! This isn’t fair!”
The silence was deafening as I wept uncontrollably, my body shaking with sobs. The weight of my loss crushed me. I felt lost and abandoned once more…
My mother is gone. This time, Forever.