Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 59
59
"Oh, gods... Oh dear, sweet gods..." Vicky had gone to the window to close the curtains when the snow started to come down heavy, but now her hand was frozen on the cheap fabric. Her own reflection stared back at her from inside the glass, a pale spectre almost invisible against the driving snow. Everything outside was either grey, white, or pitch black, except for a single spot of colour far away, a tiny speck of orange halfway up the mountain, flickering feebly in the dark.
They were coming.
"Ma?"
Vicky screamed out loud and clutched at her heart, feeling like the damn thing had almost jumped right up her throat.
Theo was standing in the doorway, dressed for bed, one pudgy little hand wrapped tightly around his favourite blanket, and he was looking at her with those big, questioning eyes. He knew something was wrong, but he was too young to understand what was happening.
What should I do? Oh dear, sweet gods, please, what should I do?
She looked out the window one last time, but it wasn't even worth thinking about. She might be able to last for a while, but what about Theo? He was barely four! Out there in the cold and the ice, in the snow and the wind, out there in the pitch dark?
Oh sweet, sweet merciful gods, she never fully understood until now. She never fully _believed_until now!
Vicky drew the curtains with a sharp rattle and scooped up her son.
"Ma?" he said again, a lot less calmly this time around. "Ma!?"
"Hush, sweety. We're going to - We're going down cellar, okay?"
"Why?"
There's food down there, candles, a sturdy door with a lock...
"Because it's a game, sweety. We're going to spend the night there."
"But I don't wanna!"
Oh gods, please. Oh dear sweet, sweet gods please...
"Sure you do, it'll be fun."
"But there's daddy longlegs down there and I don't wanna!"
He squirmed in her arms, fighting and kicking. This was the same child who had walked right up to Ander like it was nothing, a great big giant Wolf with fangs and claws, but he refused to be in the same room as a tiny little spider? In what world did that make sense? And since when did he get so heavy? It was hard enough to walk without tripping over his damn blanket, and now...
Oh gods, please! Just pleeeeease!
She set him down in front of the cellar door, got down on one knee, and took him by the shoulders, gently but firmly. "Theo, listen to me. Listen to Mommy."
He wasn't crying yet, but she could see the warning signs: a shine in the eyes and sniffle in the nose. It wouldn't take much to set him off.
"There's nothing to be scared of, okay? We're gonna have lots of fun. We're gonna wrap up nice and warm and stay up late and I'll tell you as many stories as you want."
"But the daddy longlegs're -"
"There are no daddy longlegs down there, sweety. It's too cold for them this time of year."
Oh you filthy liar how can you lie like this to your own son you're going straight to hell but no I have to get him down there we have to go somewhere please we just have to please oh dear sweet gods please...
Theo was old enough to be sceptical, but there was no real distrust in his eyes. Why would there be? She was his whole world. Why would she ever try to keep something from him? Why would she ever lie or keep secrets?
Oh gods please Theo don't make this difficult.
He eyed the door with the big brass lock, a door she had told him time and time again to stay away from. There was a long flight of stairs through there, and she was terrified of one day hearing a scream, a tumble, and the snap of bone. She was terrified of rushing back here to find this door ajar and her precious baby lying at the bottom with his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. She'd never even sent him down there to fetch a jar of jam, so of course he'd be suspicious.
"Listen, sweety," she said, trying to sound as normal as possible. "I know you're scared, and that's perfectly fine, it's okay to be scared, but -"
But what? But what!?
"- but you have to be brave for Mommy, okay? You have to - You have to -"
Don't cry Vicky don't you dare cry if you cry then Theo will cry and there'll be no getting through this night so you better get your act together right now or -
Theo gave her a little hug and a pat on the back. "Okay, Mommy."
"O-Okay?" Vicky hugged him back almost automatically, feeling his tiny little head pressing against her neck.
"I'll be brave."
"Really?"
"Mm-hm."
"Oh thank you, sweety. Thank you so much. It's only for one night. I promise I'll protect you, so there's nothing to be scared of."
"But it's okay to be scared, right?"
"Of course, sweety. You don't have to feel bad about that. It's only if you're a little bit scared that you can be brave."
"Is that why you're so brave? Because you're a little bit scared, too?"
What was she supposed to say to that? Vicky didn't know, so she squeezed her son extra tight so he wouldn't see the tears start to well up in her eyes. "Yes, sweety," she finally admitted. "I'm a little scared, too."
"Of what?"
"Of the daddy longlegs. But we'll face them together, okay? We'll go down there and we'll show them who's boss. We'll show them how brave we are by not even giving them the time of day. We'll just ignore them and have lots of fun together, just you and me, and we'll make those creepy spiders so jealous. Does that sound good?"
"Okay, Mommy."
"Okay." Vicky wiped her tears and put on a smile before standing up and unlocking the door. The key made a soft little clicking noise as the latch pulled back. Such a small piece of metal holding such a thin rectangle of wood in place. Was this really the only protection she could offer her son? Was this really the only thing standing between them and whatever was coming through the mountain?
She scooped up her son, but hesitated at the top of the stairs, looking back into the living room and the tacky butterfly curtains covering the window. They would be gathering at the pass like moths to flame - two sides, two peoples, and a single wall between, just like the mountain that had separated them for generations.
It all came down to this.
She kissed Theo on his precious little forehead and started to descend into the darkness of the cellar. She closed the door behind them and turned the key, listening to that pathetically tiny latch slide home. Once she got Theo to fall asleep (gods willing) she would go back to the kitchen for a butcher's knife. Just in case.
She would die before she'd let anything happen to her baby.
I wasn't sure if I was going to upload this subchapter, to be honest. One of the first rules of writing is to omit needless words, and I could have skipped right over this part of the story without harming anything, but I wanted to take a moment to remind the readers that there are hundreds of Foxes not directly involved with the defence of the valley, families just like this one, huddled in fear behind locked doors, and I thought a nice way to do that would be through these two, the mother and child who were the first to acknowledge Ander when he first set foot outside the sanctuary of Rufio and Bethany's house. It makes for a nice little bookend to that scene, in a twisted kind of way.
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