A Mother's Love

She held her close. The petite girl's body was pale in the woman's arms, as her life force slowly drained from the gash in her stomach.

"Mu...Mum...?" Beth croaked through trembling lips, gripping the arm encircling her waist from behind.

Anne, her face buried in the crook of her daughter’s neck, remained silent, chocking back her sobs.

"I.....I’m so sorry mum...So...so sorry..." Beth continued, her voice a hoarse whisper, head resting loosely on her mother's neck.

"Shush now Beth...I did this...It’s my fault," came her mother's muffled reply, as she kissed Beth's damp neck- wet with her own tears.

Raising her head, through heavy, lidded eyes, Anne saw how the crimson pool encircling them had gotten larger. It was like a void. Waiting to consume them whole, drown them in darkness. She didn’t dare look, but she could feel it. The warm liquid trickling down the palm she had placed gently but firmly on her daughter’s wound...A wound she herself had inflicted.

Eyes scrunching up in pain, she silently sobbed in Beth's trembling shoulder. How could she have done this? Why did she do this? She could comprehend nothing. All she knew, was that the love of her life, her other half, was fading right in front of her. Oh why, why couldn’t they have been together? Why had the universe torn them apart? She wanted to scream, to yell, to stop time- JUST! Something, something to save her daughter a little longer…Spend a little more time with her. Yet all she did was tighten her arms around Beth as she felt her weak pants grow lighter.  

“Elizabeth, I love you so, so much…. Don’t hate me love, please don’t h-” 

she wasn’t able to finish for at that moment, sobs wracked her. Of guilt? Regret? She did not know. 

“I know mum…I know…l-love you too” 

Beth’s voice, barely audible, replied to her mother’s agonized pleas. With a final burst of effort, her eyes losing focus, she tilted her head and firmly pressed her pale lips against her mother’s wet cheek. A final goodbye.

Then, she was gone.

With a tiny shuddering breath, Beth’s body went limp, her head rolling back and slumping heavily on her mother. Against the hot tears trailing down her cheeks, Anne saw how Beth’s chest had gotten still. She felt how cold her body had gotten in her arms. The final chaste kiss Beth had given her, burned on her skin.

 And it was then that Anne lost all sense of reality.

It had been raining cats and dogs that night.  Inside the abandoned shed, the search party finally found the two women with the help of police dogs. The mother, her eyes wide open, stared into space, unblinking. More unnerving, was how she was sitting cross legged, in a pool of dried blood, cradling the corpse of her daughter. She was softly rocking her back and forth, humming a lullaby. The knife, covered in blood, lay right next to her.

No matter how many times the men called Anne, she did not respond. Nor did she show any signs of having acknowledged their presence. It was only when she was forcefully pried from the body did she finally respond. And her words, the men recalled, had given them goosebumps. 

In a dazed voice, Anne murmured,

 

“Don’t be rough with Beth…She has just fallen asleep. Lay her in her room please…”

And with this, she lost consciousness.

It was an open and shut case. The mother, Mistress Annebeth Thorn, confessed to the entire crime. An investigation was done and it became apparent what had happened. 

Ever since news of her daughter, Elizabeth Thorn, getting married into a family of lower class had reached her, the woman had been visibly distraught. As recounted by several servants, on many occasions the two women had been overheard having heated arguments over the topic. 

The breaking point for Annebeth, was supposedly when Elizabeth informed her of the pregnancy. Autopsy revealed Elizabeth had been 6 weeks pregnant with her husband-to-be’s child. 

Realizing she could no longer intervene in the wedding, Annebeth decided to murder her daughter. 

As told by Elizabeth’s grief stricken fiancé, they had been enjoying a picnic by the ocean when Elizabeth had received a panicked call from her mother and had hurriedly left. This was how Annebeth lured her into the shed located in the mansion’s backyard garden, and stabbed her to death, in a fit of rage. 

Most puzzling however, was that no marks of a struggle had been found on Elizabeth’s body.

“It’s as if the girl simply accepted her faith” the forensic pathologist had observed.

Yet, the mother’s motive still remained unclear. What many, including the victim’s fiancé, believed was an act of blind fury, some saw as a crime of passion.

“Mistress Annebeth, having raised Miss Beth singlehandedly, adored her to death. I can’t fathom that she would do something like this over merely inheritance.”

“She loved her daughter too much to let her go... Elizabeth was the only family Mistress had.”

were the responses of two tearful servants who attended Elizabeth Thorn’s funeral. Annebeth had not been present.

Long after her arrest and guilty verdict, Annebeth was interrogated one last time, with the same question. Why she had done it. Except this time, she had an answer.

Staring into space with glazed eyes, her lips gradually formed her reply,

“I loved her…I was her mother. It was I who gave birth to her. She was mine and mine alone…. How then could I allow her to be taken away from me? No, I couldn’t…I didn’t. She gained existence through me. And so, only I had the right to take it back. But It’s alright now. My baby is right where she always belonged…Safe and sound…”

Here, Annebeth turned her gaze fondly to her stomach, placing her palm gently over the flat surface.

“Mine and...mine alone.”

Author's Note

Reviews appreciated! ;D

Reviews

[Violet]

There are a couple of structural/grammatical errors in this piece but it didn't take away from the overall effect. I adored this.

[Saffirah666]

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review! Yeah some parts sound weird to me too xD ill try editing this. Thank you once again! :D