I wanted to soothe and comfort her, the way she had comforted her daughters.
I no longer knew what was real and what wasn’t. The lines between reality and delusion had become so blurred.
I felt like I was living two lives. One in the present and one in the past.
Things are not as they seem. You do not understand. There is no escape. This is all there is.” I had never seen eyes filled with so much sadness.
She brushed the tears from their faces and sang them a melancholy lullaby. Her obvious devotion to her daughters pulled at my heart strings, making my chest ache with longing for my own mother.
Nausea and panic rose in my throat. I had killed a man.
The poker fell from my trembling hands as my entire body shook with reaction. I fell to my knees, pressed my hands to my face and began to sob. What had I done?
Hesitating, I stood in the doorway to the room holding the proof of my sin.