Adriauna sighed heavily as she leaned over her sewing; work that earned the meager living that she and Arminius subsided on, and drew the candle a bit closer to her on the table. She was working on the hem of a dressing gown for that insufferable witch of a woman, Madam Gutien, one of the town's few affluent persons, and one of the gossips that Adriauna despised the most.
Her son, Arminius, a beautiful little boy of two years, lay in bed just down the hall, and as she heard the sound of him shifting position, she stopped for a moment, halfway between lying aside the needle and maintaining her current position.
Please, sleep well tonight! She thought with near-desperation. I can't be this patient tonight! I have to finish this day after tomorrow, and I need to work!
It wasn't as though she was a bad mother, she reasoned, for wishing her child would stay in bed. Rather, she was good for wishing him to sleep through the whole night! Since his birth, Arminius had never slept the whole night through; something she attributed to the unconscious realization of the absence of his father (so what if they said children didn't think like that! They'd never met her baby!). He would awaken, nightly, crying, but the recent times had become worse and worse.
At least there's a reason for it now, she thought, as she took up another handful of beads and small pearls. He's about at the age to have night terrors; that's what he's been having these past weeks I think, because he's still frightened after he awakens. That's the only logical explanation -
"Mommy?"
"OH!"
Adriauna jumped slightly as the sound of her child's voice called to her from the doorway behind her. She turned; expression startled, and set her eyes upon her child... her little darling Arminius.
Arminius was a small, delicate child, with soft white-blonde hair and pale, white flesh. He looked almost girlish in his delicacy, his facial features were soft and rounded, and his heavily lashed eyes were always closed as though in quiet contemplation, though in truth it was because he was blind, and had been born without iris or pupil.
"Oh, sweetie! Don't sneak up on Mommy like that!" she admonished ever so warmly, and at the sound of her voice, he began slowly walking towards her, little hands stretched out before him, head tilted back slightly as he strained to both listen for her and make certain he didn't collide with anything. "That's it, I'm right here sweetie."
"Mommy." As his hands found the fabric of her dress Arminius gave a pleased, decisive smile, and she set aside her needlework to lift him into her lap.
"You should be in bed, Armi," she chided gently, and that smile vanished from his features like a light being turned out. "You know you need sleep."
"But Mommy..." Arminius squirmed uncomfortably. "Nooo...."
"Yes, sweetie, you have to sleep sometimes." She sighed. Here we go again.
"No, Mommy, no!" He clung to her tightly, shaking his head. "Not back there! Not back there! She's still there!"
"She?" Adriauna gazed quizzically at her son. "Armi, what do you mean?"
"The bad lady!" he whimpered, clinging to her tightly. "The bad, torn lady!"
"Torn lady?" Adriauna's eyes widened at his words. "What are you talking about!"
Lady! She thought fearfully. Arminius can't even see! How does he know what he's talking about!
"She's tore up!" Arminius whimpered softly. "She's all tore up! He did it to her, and she wants him torn up too!"
"Arminius, now stop this nonsense!" She took his hands firmly, and he opened his eyes; she couldn't help but feel as if those sightless white orbs were trying to convey a message she'd never understand. "You stop this at once! There's nothing in that bedroom! There's no torn lady! And I don't want to hear you talking about such horrible things ever - "
"Mommy! She's here!" Arminius screeched, pointing over her shoulder hysterically. "She's here! Make her go away!"
"Arminius!" She turned and followed his pointing finger with her eyes, but saw nothing. However, what her son perceived must have been horrid, for he began to scream hysterically, clawing at her in an attempt to escape her embrace.
"NONONONONO!" he screamed, his eyes wide in fear as the torn lady walked towards him, her dress torn open, her flesh rent asunder, her bones exposed through that terrible gap. "GO AWAY!"
I want him torn apart.
You can see me. You can help me.
I want him torn apart.
"I DON'T WANNA HELP YOU!" Arminius wailed, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I DON'T WANNA HELP YOU! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!"
"Arminius!" his mother gasped, clinging to him frantically.
The torn woman came closer, closer, and reached out a spectral hand towards the child...
"DON'T TOUCH MEEEEE!" Arminius screamed, then howled as the lady's hand touched his arm...
"ARMINIUS!" Adriauna screamed as her little boy went limp in her arms, head lolling back, arms and legs limp and lifeless, his expression of utter terror frozen upon his face. And he was so... so cold!
"ARMINIUS!"
"A strange case." Adriauna glanced up nervously as Jan Korsenth, the doctor of their town of Ipira, at last straightened from his examination of Arminius.
"His pulse rate is slow and his breathing is shallow," Jan narrowed his eyes, shaking his head. "But his bodily functions are fine otherwise. He's in no respiratory or circulatory distress, cardiac function isn't impaired, just slow."
"He's so cold!" she exclaimed. "What about that!"
"...Honestly, I couldn't tell you." Jan shook his head. "I've never seen, nor heard of this before."
"He's been having night terrors..." she murmured softly, and Jan gazed at her curiously. "But they started a few months ago."
"Hmm... and he's been waking in terror every night since his birth?" Jan narrowed his eyes in thought as she nodded. "How very curious..."
"Doctor!" She drew in a fearful gasp, pointing to her son.
Arminius had sat bolt upright suddenly, white eyes opened wide. His face bore little animation, as though he were a waxen figure.
"Samuel Arron killed me, tore me apart." Her child's lips moved, but it wasn't his voice that issued forth. Rather, it was a woman's cold and dark voice. "He buried me in the woods, near the river, under two rock slabs, because I was carrying his baby. Find me, and punish him."
"W-what the devil - " Jan began to stammer.
"You have to make him pay, for ripping me open, for ripping my heart open." The woman's voice fell silent at last, and then life seemed to seep back into Arminius' features. "M-Mommy!"
"What in the name of God..." Jan whispered as Adriauna swept her child into her arms.
"Arminius, I want to know what it is that you see."
It was after the doctor had gone, and the sun was steadily creeping over the horizon.
Adriauna stood by the window, gazing out at the quiet town. Her son sat in bed, gazing blankly at the wall, his white eyes puffy from all the crying he'd done throughout the night and early morning.
"...People," Arminius said softly. "I see people. Bad people. Good people. And in betweens. They scare me."
"There are no people here, Arminius!" Adriauna snapped.
"They're not people anymore, Mommy. They're not like you. But they used to be," Arminius whispered, and Adriauna felt as though her blood had chilled.
"...Are you saying these people are dead, Arminius?" She turned to gaze at her child, who remained silent for a moment. "Are they dead?"
"Yes, Mommy," he said matter of factly. "That's what they told me... what's dead?"
"Arminius, you listen close." She hurried over and took him by the shoulders. "I never, ever, ever want to hear you talk about this again."
"But Mommy - "
"Listen!" She shook him slightly, her mind awhirl with a thousand fears. "To see these things is a bad thing! You don't want to see them! If you never talk about them, they'll go away! They'll have to! They're bad and you should never even think about them! Ever!"
"But - "
"No buts!"
"...Yes, Mommy..."
