4.3 Sarla
How could I be terrified of my own daughter? My 'biggest baby' as I used to call her. My sweetest, most well-behaved, obedient, but intelligent and independent child of all.
I tried to get a hold of myself. There was surely some logical explanation for her strange appearance and behaviour.
"Viveka?" I said again, still feeling unnerved by the strange way she was staring at me.
I took a step forward, intending to go to her, to touch her forehead. Fever was the first thought that came to my mind. She did look feverish. Almost animal-like with that intense, vulpine look on her face. A hungry look.
But for some reason, I couldn't walk all the way to her. My feet just stopped. It was fear, I know now. Despite the evidence of my eyes, my other senses were already screaming to me that this was not Viveka, this was not my daughter standing there before me. This was someone else... someone dangerous. My instincts knew the truth at once.
But my conscious, rational mind couldn't accept what my instincts were telling me. How could it?
"Bete?" I said yet again, trying to connect with her. If she would only speak, just once. If I could just hear her voice.
She parted her lips. Finally, I thought with a faint sense of relief.
But instead of speaking, she howled.
Really howled, the way a lioness or some other predatory creature howls. Baring her teeth. And what teeth they were--yellowed and filthy as if she hadn't cleaned them in weeks. Her open mouth was like a dark maw of some animal's snout. I felt the blood drain out of my head. Those teeth, those eyes...the way she howled made my skin creep with horror.
"Viveka?" I cried out. "What is it? What's happened to you?"
I forced myself to move again, to go towards her, to comfort her and hug her. Help her. I was her mother after all. And something terrible had happened to her somehow, even in the safety of our own house.
The instant I moved, she broke off that awful, soul-scraping howl.
And she leaped right at me. Her hands reaching out like claws, mouth bared like a vixen pouncing on her prey.
I tried to get a hold of myself. There was surely some logical explanation for her strange appearance and behaviour.
"Viveka?" I said again, still feeling unnerved by the strange way she was staring at me.
I took a step forward, intending to go to her, to touch her forehead. Fever was the first thought that came to my mind. She did look feverish. Almost animal-like with that intense, vulpine look on her face. A hungry look.
But for some reason, I couldn't walk all the way to her. My feet just stopped. It was fear, I know now. Despite the evidence of my eyes, my other senses were already screaming to me that this was not Viveka, this was not my daughter standing there before me. This was someone else... someone dangerous. My instincts knew the truth at once.
But my conscious, rational mind couldn't accept what my instincts were telling me. How could it?
"Bete?" I said yet again, trying to connect with her. If she would only speak, just once. If I could just hear her voice.
She parted her lips. Finally, I thought with a faint sense of relief.
But instead of speaking, she howled.
Really howled, the way a lioness or some other predatory creature howls. Baring her teeth. And what teeth they were--yellowed and filthy as if she hadn't cleaned them in weeks. Her open mouth was like a dark maw of some animal's snout. I felt the blood drain out of my head. Those teeth, those eyes...the way she howled made my skin creep with horror.
"Viveka?" I cried out. "What is it? What's happened to you?"
I forced myself to move again, to go towards her, to comfort her and hug her. Help her. I was her mother after all. And something terrible had happened to her somehow, even in the safety of our own house.
The instant I moved, she broke off that awful, soul-scraping howl.
And she leaped right at me. Her hands reaching out like claws, mouth bared like a vixen pouncing on her prey.
posted by Ashok K. Banker at 12.10.05
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