Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion
The Riddles of the Phoenixes Series
The Lost Soul
Chapter three: bittersweet
“As long as I have breath in my lungs son, I will never tell you where James is..” Sophia said stubbornly, her eyes filled with tears. The Krakos roared with anger and scooped her up with one hand, and started slamming her down into the ground. Sophia gritted her teeth in pain.
Over and over and over again. Slammed into the ground. Over and over until finally Sophia went limp. The Krakos dropped her and she fell like a bird plummeting from the sky. *CRACK*
And then suddenly the Krakos began to shrink back into Tom.
A mixture of conflicted emotions ran across Tom’s face when he saw his mother lying, bloodied and broken, on the ground. He ran to her side and scooped her up into his arms. “Mom? Mom? Mom please—” Tears began to stream down Tom’s face. Sophia focused her eyes on his face and gave him a lopsided smile.
She placed her bloodied hand on the side of his face. “I still love you…Tom. But what’ve you done…some things just can’t be forgiven, son.” Tom shook his head violently, his body beginning to shake with sobs. “Not you too! Mom please! Don’t leave me…I have nothing left! He took everything from me! I just wanted—I want—Mom? Mom don’t leave me..” Tom sobbed. Sophia’s hand dropped from his face and her head lolled to the side, she stared at her dead husband and she swallowed.
“Mom?”
“Your father thought you were weak and meek..” Sophia said softly. She smiled weakly. “Guess he didn’t know how much of his temper you inherited.” And then her breaths stopped and her body went absolutely still. Tom’s face contorted with rage and sadness.
He lifted his face and screamed his pain to the twinkling stars above…
~
“Hi. I’m Lucas. You look new here. You looking for a place to stay? My mom owns the hotel.” The teenager said. He had yellowish hair and grey eyes and his nose was rather lumpish. Freckles were all over his face. Tom stared at him blankly for a second then nodded slowly. “Yes. Maybe just for a while..” Lucas grinned, he was missing several front teeth.
“Okay! Follow me!” He exclaimed. As Tom did he pulled the hood down. There was little chance of him being recognized and it wasn’t raining anymore. Suddenly he got the strange creeping feeling that he was being watched and he turned his head.
Someone vanished into the shadows. Tom swallowed and shook the feeling away. It was probably no one. Lucas led him to a small humble brown brick building with red curtains hanging in the windows. The roof was slopes and the building seemed to be two or three floors high. Inside if smelled like the house had been heavily bleached.
A older woman who definitely resembled Lucas appeared. She was a plump woman with yellow hair piled in a bun on top of her head and her eyes were a dark warm nameless color. She wiped her wet hands(She’d just washed her hands) on her apron and held out her hand for Tom to shake.
Her grip was ironlike and Tom was glad when the handshake was over. “Hi. I’m Whitney. I see that you’ve met my darling son, Lucas, ehh?” She said. Tom nodded. “And you’re here for a room?”
“Yes. Yes I am.” Tom said. “Okay. So…between the costs of a room and meals that should be…fifty six doubloons per week.” Whitney said. Tom felt another twinge of annoyance but he pushed it away. Why was everything so expensive?!
He nodded and handed a small bagful of doubloons to her. Whitney grinned. “Okay! So let me show you around. It’s time for the tour! Lucas help me out, ehh?” Lucas perked up and saluted his mother. “Yes ma’am!” They led Tom along, giving him the “grand tour”.
At some point in time Tom stopped listening and just began looking around mostly out the window. He caught sight a few familiar houses that hadn’t been destroyed.
While there was still familiar landmarks a lot had changed. In fact the world had changed. Was changing. And for the first time…Tom felt like he wasn’t going with it. He was old.
And useless basically. A old man. Who’d killed many people, yes but still a old man.
-SunnyFox57