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The Helpline Chapter 3

Driven

By Kendo Kawabata

Sharon opened the door to her home and sighed as she heaved the grocery bags inside, landing them with a thud on the nearby hall stand. The thin paper bags were heavier then they looked, most of the weight coming from the four litre bottle of milk she purchased. Although they were threatening to fall apart the moment she pulled them from the car.

"Thomas, come and help me with the shopping please" she called out to her son as the female zebra stretched her arms for a moment to get some feeling back into them. Although the trip from the car was a short one, it felt like it had taken forever on that short walk. "Next time, I am only carrying one, not three" she told herself, although next shopping trip she'd forget she made the promise. Again.

"Thomas, I said come and help me" she called out to her son again as she emptied her pockets of her car keys and her phone, leaving them on the hall stand with the bags. She then turned around and left through the front door and headed back out to her car, where several more bags were located in the open boot.

When she noticed that her son wasn't following her she sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, making an annoyed sound in her throat before she grabbed another couple of bags and walked back into the house. The bags were joined on the floor next to the others as she huffed in annoyance before she walked down the hallway and entered her sons room.

"Thomas, didn't you hear me?" she said firmly as she found her son in front of his computer, where she had said goodbye to him that morning. At least he had showered and dressed himself, which was about the extent of his ability to take care of himself. Her sons room was impeccably spotless, not a thing out of place. The bed was hospital grade neat and the floor was free of clutter. Sometimes she wondered if it was borderline psycho crazy.

"I'm studying mom" Thomas said without looking back at her from his desk. His eyes were glued to the computer screen as his fingers typed over the keyboard at a faster then normal speed. Several books were across his desk, open at various chapters and a few post it notes were stuck across his computer screen. The teenage zebra was focused on his screen, the tip of his tongue poking through his exposed teeth.

"Well, you have all evening to study, and you've probably been studying all day, again. You can help me for five minutes, it wont kill you" Sharon said to her son, not looking impressed.

Her eyes wandered breifly against her sons walls, seeing that a number of new papers were pinned against the surface. She hardly stepped into her sons room nowadays, as he had slowly started to become somewhat more hostile to his parents in regards to his privacy. The papers on the walls had almost doubled in number since her last peek in well over a month ago.

"Mom, I am studying" Thomas said as he looked over at his mother, giving her a death glare, in a tone of voice that suggested his studying was more important then giving her assistance. He narrowed his dark eyes at her through his glasses, his closely cropped mane barely shifting as he moved. "Get dad to do it, he's been asleep since he got home from work" he said pointedly.

Sharon sighed at her sons insubordination as he turned his attention back to his monitor and resumed his interrupted typing, giving her a quick wave with his hand to signal that he was done with her. She narrowed her eyes at the rude gesture, showing where his son had managed to learn the same gesture.

Without a word, she then proceeded to walk up to her sons desk and stood behind him with her arms crossed before her chest as she tapped her foot impatiently. She knew full well that he was aware she was behind him, but he continued to ignore her rather well as his typing didn't slow down with her behind it.

She waited just long enough to let him know she had been waiting before she uncrossed her arms and reached behind the monitor and grabbed the power cord. With a brief yank she pulled it out of its socket and the monitor went dark.

"MOM" Thomas shouted as he suddenly stood up like she was brandishing a gun. "For gods sake, I'm in the middle of something. Do you HAVE to interfere?" he turned to his mother with a glare in his eyes. She however, did not back down at her angry son. She had suffered through each and every one of his temper tantrums while he was growing up, and she never showed a fault when he confronted her.

"Thomas, your father works sixteen hour shifts. He deserves his time to sleep. You are not even in college yet and still under our roof. If you want to study all day, then move out. Untill then, you are living under our roof, so you are still our son. So get your butt outside and help me, or I'll pull the power cord on your computer and lock it up in the utility drawer" Sharon said firmly to her son.

Thomas looked like he was about to argue with her as they both narrowed their eyes at each other, both almost daring the other to make the first sign of backing down. However, it was a war that Thomas had never been able to win with his mother and she and him knew it. So instead of delaying the inevitable, he simply stormed out the room with the air of a child who was not getting his own way.

"That kid...." Sharon said to herself as she rubbed her muzzle with her hand, rubbing her eyes against her fingers in frustration. "The minute he leaves this house, I'm changing the locks" she said with a small smile to herself as she removed her hand. Realising that she was actually alone in his room for a moment, she took the opportunity to look around.

College addmittance. Every single paper on the wall was a representation of his desire to head to college. Information about campus' and lectures, sign up schedules, criteria, practice application letters, his wall was crawling with an obvious desire to get out. The wall was almost covered, she had been wrong about how much it had grown.

And information about scholarship programs. She counted at least ten different programs that would vastly help his admittance into any of the colleges that he chose, and she had no doubt that he would get it. He was very determined in every way to prove he was worthy.

She let out another long sigh as she shook her head again. The problem with him getting out, although she and her husband would be glad of it after the way he was acting lately, (her husband had suggested champagne), was that each of these colleges, was very expensive. If he didn't get a scholarship, she and her husband were not able to afford to send him on his way.

If her son was acting like a prude in a brothel while he was looking for college, she hated to think what his behaviour would be like when he was actually accepted. Or perhaps worse yet, if he wasn't accepted. He didn't take any kind of rejection well, and she was worried about how he'd go about it if he didn't get out.

At least the colleges were all several states away, which meant that he wouldn't be able to visit regularly, or without giving advance notice. She wondered briefly what to do with the bedroom once he was out of it. Maybe a sewing room, or a room dedicated to scrapbooking.

Speaking of her son, she could hear him mutter curses at her from the hallway as he passed by his bedroom door, carrying the last of the shopping bags into the kitchen with a disgruntled look on his face. He passed by again, cursing again as he grabbed the bags from the front door, which he promptly shut rather loudly. Presumably with his foot. Realising her time in her sons room was up, she left and shut the door behind her as she walked into the kitchen.

"Happy now?" Thomas demanded as he rather callously dumped the paper bags on the kitchen counter, clearly not taking into consideration about anything fragile that she might have bought. "Am I done here, or is there more manual labour I have to do?" he demanded as he pushes his glasses up his nose.

"Thank you for your generously donated help" Sharon said, not looking amused with her sons attitude. "Now go and wash up. Dinner will be arriving soon. I've ordered pizza" she said as she walked past her son and began to unpack one of the bags.

"Pizza?" Thomas said, a look of horror on his face as if his mother had just announced something personal to him. "You know I hate that stuff" he said angrily as he glared at her. She could feel her sons glare from behind as she pulled out a carton of eggs.

"I did call earlier and I asked you to prepare dinner for dinner. And guess what, its still sitting on the counter where I left it out for you" Sharon said as she gestured with her hand to the packets of noodles and the tins of instant beef stew that he was supposed to cook for dinner.

"You know I don't cook when I have to study" Thomas said loudly as he fixed his hands on his hips and glared at his mother. "My studies are more important then fixing dinner. It's not my fault you work too much to actually do something around here" he said.

"Well, then you can either have pizza, or you can go without. Your call" Sharon said to him as she opened up a cupboard and pushed a box of cereal into place. "I'm not cooking dinner, and it's already been ordered" she said.

"You are so unfair" Thomas shouted at his mother. "Why are you being so hard on me? I haven't done anything wrong" he shouted loudly.

"What's the ruckus?"

Both Sharon and Thomas looked over to see the newcomer into the kitchen. Wearing only a pair of loose shorts and looking like just woke up, Edward was rubbing his eyes as he looked at his wife and son.

"Mom is being impossible, again. She's preventing me from studying, which she knows I need to do if I ever want to get out of his crappy state" Thomas said as he pointed an accusing finger at his mother. "Anyway, he was home all day doing nothing. Why didn't you call him and make him cook dinner instead of disturbing me?" Thomas demaned as he rounded on his mother again.

"Thomas, do you not speak to your father like that" Sharon said to her son. "I have told you a thousand times before, you're father needs his sleep. Its important" she says, deliberately speaking each word as if she was talking to a child.

"Oh, so my studying isn't important then?" Thomas shouted at his mother before he turned and marched himself back to his room, thumping his feet rather hard on the floor with each step, before he slammed the door to his bedroom shut behind him. Sharon sighed and shook her head before she grabbed the cordless phone from the counter.

"I thought I heard you shout before that you had already ordered dinner" Edward asked as he leant against the counter, letting his wife make an order on the phone. She sighed and shook her head once she had hung up the phone.

"I guess I foolishly expected him to have dinner cooked when I get home" Sharon said as she shook her head again. "I guess I was wrong, again" she said with a sigh. "He couldn't even do something as simple as heated stew on noodles, and he considers himself smart" she added.

"Well, you could have called me and I could have put them in the crock pot this morning" Edward said to his wife as he ran a hand through his black and white striped mane.

"Like I keep telling Thomas, and apparently I have to remind you as well, that you need your sleep" Sharon said to him as she continued to put the groceries away. "You work far too much and you don't get enough rest as it is" she said to him. "Plus, you managing a construction site while half asleep is almost as bad as doing it drunk."

"Well, the deadline is coming up faster then we thought. And that building isn't going to finish itself" Edward said as he went to help his wife put away the shopping. "You know being in charge of the project means I'm going to be pulling longer hours then normal" he reminded her. "Plus, it doesn't help that we keep running into all those problems that kept putting us back."

"Yes. Hence why you need all the sleep that you can get" Sharon reminded him. "And Thomas can break away from his computer all the time. If he was just spending all his time playing computer games instead of looking for a job, at least I can threaten him with kicking him out" she said.

"You know he just wanted to go to college really badly, that's all" Edward said to her as he put his arm around his wife, pulling her against him. She sighed as she was pulled against her husband, slightly protesting as she had to put a few tins of peaches down. "Give him some time to actually calm down and see how the real world works, and then he'll be normal again."

"When was he ever normal anyway?" Sharon said as she pressed up against her husband with a sigh. "But you're probably right. We'll just give him some time and hope he actually gets sent off to college" she said.

"And then he's their problem" Edward said with a smile as he kissed his wife on the forehead. She smiled at the bad joke, although she still felt slightly troubled about the situation.

The pizza arrived within the time limit and the family found themselves in the dining room. Two large pizzas, a four cheese pizza and a meat lovers, a side order of garlic bread and a side salad with bbq pork ribs for Thomas, lay spread out on the table before them.

"So, how was the day at the office?" Edward asked as he helped himself to a few of the slices of the cheese pizza and piled them onto his plate.

"A nightmare" Sharon said as she poured herself a glass of wine. "We had the DA in the office today, mouthing on about new rules and regulations on how to handle things, because apparently there are various levels of 'insanity' that we don't know about. Honestly, sometimes I think that bithc is only interested in chasing the cases that we can't win without a fight" she said.

"Sounds hairy" Edward said. "This is the one that you're not allowed to discuss outside the office?" he asked her.

"Yes. It's still under legal wraps and can't be revealed" Sharon said with a shake of her head. "All that crap about 'innocent till proven guilty' and 'can't be revealed for so and so reasons' really pisses people off in the office more then we'd like. I hate cases like this, makes me feel like the offender deserves more then the victim" she said.

"Well, that's a shame. I like it when we can discuss your work" Edward said to his wife.

"Why? So you can feel smart for a change?" Thomas said as he used his knife and fork on his ribs, having taken the entire dish without offering anyone else one.

"Thomas" Sharon said sharply to her son, who didn't seem put off by the rebuke from his mother.

"What?" Thomas said as he looked up with a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm just pointing out the obvious. He only likes to talk about your job cause he's barely smart enough to do his" he said.

"Thomas, could you please show your father some respect once in a while? He works very hard to provide for us, and that includes providing you with everything you need" Sharon said to him. "You cannot speak to him like that."

"All he does all day is yell at uneducated tradesmen who are barely smart enough to hold a hammer who haven't showered in a week, and whistle at prostitutes during his lunch break" Thomas said as he carefully cut up his ribs with his knife.

"That is not true" Sharon said to her son. "You apologise to your father right now, you have no right to make such accusations at him."

"It is true mom" Thomas said suddenly and rather loudly as he raised his voice at his mother. "It is true. I honestly don't know why you married him, considering he's had the same job since high school. He's useless. A dead end job in a dead end construction company that hasn't had a decent high level project in the last two years" Thomas said fiercly. "Yeah, he's great and providing."

"Thomas, shut your mouth" Sharon said angrily as she stood up, planting her hands on the table as she glared at her son. "I cannot believe you are saying these things."

"You've been promoted at your office four times mom. Four times. And dad's still stuck in the sticks" Thomas shouted as he threw his cutlery on the floor and stood up, also glaring at his mother from behind his glasses. "You make more money then he does anyway, so you can't tell me that he provides for us" he shouted.

"Thomas, I am warning you, you say one more thing about your father and I swear you will be punished for it" Sharon said as she glared at him.

"He's a loser mom. You married a loser, you are the wife of a loser, and I am the son of a loser. Get that through your head" Thomas said as he kicked his chair out from behind him and slammed his fists on the table. "He can't provide for us when all he does is sleep all day and then go out and yell at idiots who stand around eating from a food truck. I have no respect for him mom, and if you knew what a loser he is as a father and a husband, you'd have no respect for him as well" he shouted at his mother.

"THAT IS IT" Sharon practically shrieked at her son as she was unable to tolerate his behaviour anymore. Fury lined across her face she moved around the table right up to her son and struck him across the face with the back of her hand.

He stumbled backwards, the force of the slap was almost enough to knock his glasses off, but he managed to stand his ground as he rounded again on his on his mother, absolute fury in his eyes.

"Untill the day that you leave this house, you will show your father respect. Or you can leave right now and be done with it. Do not EVER talk about your father like that again, do I make myself clear?" Sharon said in a dangerously icey voice.

"When hell freezes over, which means never" Thomas shouted back at her as he grabbed his plate of food and threw it against the wall. It landed with a splat against the smooth surface and the plate shattered apart. By the time it fell to the floor Thomas was already marching towards his room.

Both parents flinched when they heard the severity of the door slamming to their sons room.

"Well, that well well" Edward said rather calmly as he picked up a slice of pizza and guided it to his mouth. Sharon just stared at her departing son with with a dumbfound expression on her face, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"I...I don't know what's come over him" Sharon said as she slowly sat back down in her chair, still looking on in disbelief. "He's just...I honestly don't know" she said as she rubbed her head with her hands, feeling a headache start to come on.

"He's being a teenager. That's all we need to know" Edward said calmly to his wife as he scooped up another slice of pizza and stuffed it into his mouth. "We just gotta put up with him for a while and just accept he's a hormonal little spawn of satan like every other parent who regrets having a child" he said.

"How can you be so calm about all this, while our son is being....." Sharon said in disbelief to how calm her husband was as she drifted off a little, not sure how to describe her son in a satisfactory way.

"A bastard?" Edward asked her.

"Well, I wasn't going to say that, but it's close" she admitted to him.

"Look, Thomas is a very bright kid. He's smarter then both of us combined, and we both know he got most of it from you" Edward admitted as he paused his talking to take a few bites of pizza."And he does know it. It's only natural he'll set his sights up and raise the bar for his own expectations" he said.

"I know" Sharon said with a sigh. She could still remember when he took the standardised IQ test a few years ago. He had scored the highest in his class and had scored praise from just about everyone. He had lapped it up like a puppy surrounded by lonely people and it had kind of gotten worse ever since.

"And, he has very high expectations for himself" Edward said as he reached for another slice. "It's only natural that he's going to think and believe he's smarter then the both of us. We just have to wait until he creates a train wreck for himself to realise his limits" he said.

"Well, maybe you're right about that" Sharon said as she grabbed her glass of wine and quickly gulped it down. "But still, he can't talk to you like that. I honestly don't believe how he can grown to hate you so ...blatantly. And how he can think he can just...say those things about you. They just simply aren't true"

"Sweetheart, we all went through that phase where we hated our parents and wanted them to go to hell" Edward said as he piled some of the salad onto his plate and grabbed another two slices of pizza. "Trust me, I hated my mother for the smallest of reasons when I was his age. And don't get me started on the things that I called my father everytime he barged into my room expecting to catch me with something" he said.

"I still can't understand how you can be so calm and supportive to him, especially after what he said about you tonight" she said as she looked over at him, still amazed at how calm he was after his sons outburst.

"Look, it's just a phase" Edward said with a smile to her. "He'll be off to college soon, and he'll learn that he's not as special as he thought. He'll find that he doesn't have all the answers and that he doesn't know everything, and he'll be knocked down more pegs then he can handle.

"And then he'll come home with his tail between his legs and humbled and apologise, and after we've rubbed it in for a while, we'll make up and have a better relationship then we did before" Edward said as he started to eat his salad with his fingers.

"Even after he practically admitted he hated you?" she asked her husband.

"Hey, at least he's talking to us. If he didn't rant and rave like he did, we wouldn't even know he was alive half the time" He said with a smile to his wife. She just smiled and shook her head, still somewhat amazed at how her husband was able to handle everything about their son, while sometimes she felt like pulling her hair out.

"You really are amazing, you know that?" she said to him with a smile as she grabbed the wine bottle and refilled her glass.

"That's why you married me. It certainly wasn't for my good looks" he said to his wife. They both shared a chuckle to that before he put down his fork and pushed his plate away. "Anyway, I think I've had enough to eat. I have another early start tomorrow" he said.

"Again?" she said, looking disappointed. "This has got to be the thirteenth day in a row" she said.

"I know, I thought I had a day off tomorrow as well. But, we're behind and short on man power. And our deadline isn't shifting to give us more time to get it finished" Edward said as he gave a slight yawn behind his hand.

"These long shifts are going to be the death of you one of these days. They're running you ragged. Not to mention we're not spending any actual time together outside of a meal" Sharon said to her husband, not looking pleased at the current situation.

"It won't be forever" Edward said to her as he stood up and stretched for a moment before he leant down and kissed his wife on the cheek. "I'll be back to doing normal hours and annoying the heck out of you soon enough. Then you'll be begging me to go back to work. Want some help cleaning up?" he asked.

"No, I got it. You go get your rest" Sharon said to her husband as she gave him a kiss of her own. "I'll clean up the mess and deal with...him, when he's ready to come out and apologise. I'll make sure he does, unless he wants me to lock up his computer cables till the end of the month" she said, giving a sigh as she remembered the spilt food on the wall. And on the floor.

"Alright" Edward said as he left the dining room and headed to the bedroom, yawning again noticeably on the way there.

Sharon let her go as she grabbed a dishcloth from the kitchen and grabbed the dustpan and brush while she was at it. She knelt down beside the mess and began to clear it up, scowling slightly from the effort. Although she herself had a heavy workload ahead of her the next day, she wasn't willing to risk her husband running ragged at the sight because of lack of sleep.

Although her husband had been calm and collected and even understanding about their sons behaviour, Sharon just couldn't help but be unable to shake off her sons behaviour towards his father so easily. Strange as it may have seemed, there was something about him that made her flesh get goosebumps.

Sharon felt like pulling her hair out. Or throwing something through something. Like her office chair through the window. Her office desk was covered with papers, the cubicle walls covered in news articles, both new and old. It was only ten in the morning, but she felt like she had been in the office for hours already.

Although she tried to focus on her case and try and actually do her work, her thoughts kept coming back to her son and about his tantrum the previous night. She tried to forget about it, but she just wasn't able to shake her mind off it.

What bothered her the most, as she leant back in her chair and stared at the articles pinned behind her computer monitor, was that every time he blamed something that had gone wrong, it was Edwards fault for it happening. He hadn't blamed his mother for anything wrong in months.

And nothing she said seemed to convince him that not everything was Edwards fault.

"What in the hell has gotten into him? I just can't see why" she wondered yet again as she leant forward in her chair and rubbed her face a little. Her manicured fingers rubbed over her face slowly as she felt another headache coming on. Although it felt like the type that would progress to a migraine without effort.

"I can't focus on this damn case with Thomas' behaviour disctracting me" she said to herself as she turned her attention back to her monitor. A few clicks of her mouse and she brought up her casework and began to revise it, but her headache was definitely turning into a migraine just looking at the complex paragraphs before her.

"God, I need a drink already" she said as she pushed herself away from her desk and stood up, feeling her body silently scream for joy at being able to move after being seated in a chair for the past few hours.

She left her cubicle and began to head towards the employee break room, her cubicle crammed amongst dozen more in the large corperate office. The break room was just a cleaned out storage room that had been given a fridge and a coffee machine that tended to break down every time you tried to fix anything.

She let out an inwardly silent curse, well, a string of them when she ran into someone she hadn't expected to see that morning, but she regained her composure as best as she was able to as he caught her eye and made his way over to her, not giving her a chance to duck away first.

"Sharon" said the rather impeccably dressed bull. He was more slender then most bulls, dressed in a rather well fitting suit and tie combo. Although Sharon was well dressed in her own formal fitting business dress, it was obvious his outfit came with a better price tag.

"Tony" she said flatly as she didn't bother to stay and resumed heading to the breakroom. Unfortunately, he followed her.

"We need to talk about how you're trying to attack my client" Tony said as he followed her, closing the door to the break room behind him. It muffled some of the noise behind them from the office, but she paid no attention as she opened up a cupboard and pulled out a paper cup.

"I have nothing to say to you, or your legal team about your client" Sharon said to him as she opened up a tin of instant coffee, inspecting the contents as she focused her attention away from him.

"You are attacking her, and our defence" Tony said as he stood in front of the door with his arms crossed over his chest. "And I'd like you to stop it. The preliminary hearings have already been established, there is no need to continue to attack us as you are. Its completely unfounded" he said.

"My reasons for attacking, are not unfounded" Sharon said as she inspected a nearby drawer for a disposable spoon. "You're client has claimed insanity. We are merely inspecting her medical records in order to see if its true. Which you and I both know, are not" she said.

"My client has every reason to claim insanity, given the circumstances of her mental state at the time" Tony said.

"She has claimed that she has had mental problems for the better part of the previous year. We have her doctors consultations. She has not been under any prescribed medication, nor has she been seeing any kind of professional for these so called 'mental issues'' Sharon said sharply.

"Then why are you trying to attack her by forcing a psychiatric evaluation on her?" Tony said.

"Because she is not insane" Sharon said sharply as she turned around to face Tony. "And you damn well know it. What she did, was premeditaded. And she has no shown no remorse for any of her actions. The only reason that she is claiming insanity as a defence, is because she is sorry she got caught."

"You can't make those assumptions" Tony said to her as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"She is white trash" Sharon said sharply. "Her two children, she can't name the father of them. They live in a delapidated caravan, and her children do not even go to school. And you know damn well they found a good stash illegal narcotics under her bedframe" sharon said.

"That doesn't mean she can't claim insanity. She has every right" Tony said firmly.

"She has had a string of boyfriends, and every single one of them, has abused her children. They are both under-age, and they have had broken bones and visible bruising, both of them admitted it was her boyfriends" Sharon said. "Her oldest daughter, is only eight, and she has admitted her mother nt only knew of the abuse, she encouraged it. She found it funny" she said, her anger starting to rise.

"Her children are underage, they can't offer a testimony, it would be inadmissable in court due to their age" he said. Sharon just looked at him with a dumbstruck look on her face, unable to believe he was actually defending her.

"She took a clothes iron to her sons lips and held him down for five minutes. He's only six years old, and he suffered third degree burns to the lower half of his face" she said. "The only reason she was caught, was because her daughter ran out and got the police, who found that bitch beating him around the head with her frying pan. She wouldn't stop, even when they wrestled her from him" she said.

"She can claim insanity, due to the fact that the stress of raising two children on welfare was taking a toll on her. And the drugs were confusing her. We can't waive that right away from her just because of the instance in which she was found" Tony said firmly, keeping his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"She knew exactly what she was doing" Sharon said. "And you have the absolute nerve to partition for her to have rights to see her children while they are recovering. Those children have been traumatised and abused by that woman, and you want her to continue to have access to them" she said.

"She has every right, she is their mother" Tony said firmly to her.

"How the hell do you sleep at night, knowing that you're helping a monster like her?" Sharon said to him. "Knowing full well that she is responsible for what she did, and yet you think she deserves more then her children?"

"I do this because its my job, Sharon, just as it is your job to put her in prison, where the bitch belongs" he said firmly. "I'm only doing my job here, and you are getting emotionally worked up over this. You need to stop thinking like a mother and start thinking like a lawyer."

There was silence in the break room for several moments before Sharon grabbed the coffee tin and threw it at the wall, where it collided and sprayed the instant mix across the wall. She then grabbed one of the chairs at the flimsy plastic table and sat down in it, hanging her head in her hands.

Tony said nothing as he ignored the mess and walked over to the fridge, opening it and extracting two cheap brand named cola cans. He shut the fridge and took the seat opposite Sharon and slid one of the cans in front of her.

"I don't sleep at night, not very well, when I have to defend someone like her" Tony said to her rather calmly. "People like her are disgusting. She doesn't deserve her children, and she doesn't deserve the right to visit them either. If it were up to me, I'd throw her in prison and let the inmates sort her out."

"But unfortunately, this stupid country has that consitutional right where everyone has the right to a fair trial. And the right to a lawyer. Because we have to be fair to the bad guys" Tony said as he popped the top of his can. "Innocent until proven guilty, am I right?" he said.

"I know you're right" Sharon said, the way she spoke voiced her stress levels as she didn't budge.

"I mean, look at Hussein" he said to her as he leant forward a little. "The bastard was born guilty, and he deserved to be put in front of a firing squad and shot at. But instead, we have to play fair and give him a trial, because its the right thing to do. It's because of this fucked up judical system where we have to waste resources trying to free obviously guilty people that we can't just lock them up where they belong. No, we have to give them a chance, even when its overwhelmingly obvious they are just evil."

Sharon said nothing as Tony sipped from his can and settled back in his chair before she sat up and brushed her hair back.

"I know" she said slowly. "You're doing your job because you have to do it, I know" she said. "It's just...how could a mother do something like that to her children then claim she didn't mean to?" she asked as she picked up her can.

"Because she's an evil bitch. And sadly, I have to prove she isn't" Tony said. "But I don't think that's why you blew up just now" he said.

"I guess not. I've had other things on my mind all morning" Sharon admitted.

"Things going ok at home?" Tony asked her as he took another sip.

"They're....stressful" Sharon admitted as she took a drink as well. "Really, stressful right now."

"Hopefully for not much longer" Sharon admitted. "Edwards is keeping a positive attitude about things, but I can tell its taking its toll on him. He's exhausted half the time, and we're just not spending enough time with each other anymore" she said.

"Isn't your son helping out, considering he's finished high school?" Tony asked as he leant back in his chair.

"I do not even know where to begin with him" Sharon said with a weak chuckle as she brushed her hair back from her face. "I have no idea where to start. Maybe I should put him on trial, it might be easier" she admitted.

"He still on the high and mighty phase?" Tony asked, a small smile on his face as he spoke.

"Sadly, yes. And he shows no sign of backing down from it" Sharon said to him. "Or backing down from us. He's taking all his frustrations out on his father, like he blames him for everything. I get the feeling that he believes it" she said.

"Tough luck getting him out of that phase. My daughter entered it about two years ago. Started dressing like a prostitute and turning into a blatant slut" Tony admitted.

"What did you do about it?" Sharon asked him as she took a long drink of the cola, then blanched at the horrible cloying taste.

"Gave her one chance. She didn't listen" Tony said with a chuckle. "So I shipped her off to an all girls catholic boarding school and left her there. Only see her on the holidays. I had no idea that adorable Irish nuns could know such foul language to teach kids with" he said with a grin on his face.

Sharon couldn't help but laugh at that, against the fact that that Tony wasn't someone she enjoyed hanging with. The bull finished off the rest of his can and then looked at her.

"Sharon, the drama at home, it will pass. But you can't let it interfere with your work here" he said. "You want to win this case, then keep pushing for the fact that she is sane. And if you think that's not working, then push for an emotional connection with the jury. They're the ones you have to convince, not me" he said.

"Giving me advice against your own client?" Sharon said, her eyes narrowing at him.

"A suggestion" he said. "You really want to beat me for once? Then do what you have to do. Because if you don't, I will pick you apart in the court room. We have to do our jobs, and my job is to defend my client. And I will do that. You should know that by now" he said to her as he stood up.

Sharon watched him leave the break room as she tossed the cheap cola into the nearby bin and left the room. Someone else could worry about the mess, she was not in the mood to consider dealing with the spilt coffee.

"Would be nice to beat that bastard for once" she thought to herself as she headed back to her workstation. "He's right though, as much as I'd hate to admit it. I have to keep my thoughts focused on the case. Thomas....I'll deal with him later" she thought, although it was easier said then done.

"Gods, I need a vacation" she said as she rubbed her temples with her fingers as she stepped into her cubicle. "Or a win for once. Or .... Oh God I don't even know what I want right now" she said to herself as she pulled her chair back and slipped into it, rubbing the sides of her head some more in an effort to ease the tension.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a note sitting on her keyboard.

It was almost staring at her, sitting in a very obvious and not at all easy to way miss. It was an enveloped sized flyer, and it was a brilliant golden colour. The side that was facing her, had seven black arrows imaged on it. She looked around for a moment, to see if anyone was actually poking fun at her with a practical joke. It wasn't that uncommon in her office.

"What is this now?" she asked no-one in particular as she picked up the piece of paper. Underneath the image of the arrows, were the words 'We Exist To Help'. She flipped the flyer over, looking for more information on it, but all that was printed on the back was a phone number. It was one she didn't recognise.

"I do not have the time for this" Sharon said as she took the flyer in her fingers and quickly tore it up. It wasn't made of actual gold, it tore like real paper. With a frustrated sigh she tore it up till the little shreds were too small to rip further, before rubbing them between her hands till it resembled a small ball, then tossed it into the waste bin under her desk. "Like I need someone phone helpline run by a bunch of kids who'd have no idea what I'd be talking about" she said as she pulled herself up against her desk and pulled up the reports on her computer screen.

"I can't wait for all this drama to be over with. Case closed, Thomas out of the house, and Edward no longer working all night" she said to herself as she tried to clear her thoughts as she began to focus again on her work.

She moved the mouse over and her hand bumped against something.

"Huh?" she said in surprise as she looked down and saw that she had rolled the mouse over the flyer that she....that she had tore up and put in the bin. She ducked under the desk and pulled the bin out, but the torn up scraps of gold paper were gone. She dropped the bin and looked at the flyer. It didn't even look creased.

"Ok, this has to be a joke. Whoever is watching, good one. You got me" Sharon said as she felt her frustration rise up again. She could actually feel her migraine start to rise up again as she grabbed the flyer again in her fingers. "Really....really fucking good" she said under her breath as she tore up the flyer for the second time.

"I really...really do not have time for this shit" she said to herself as she stood up and walked out of her cubicle and headed back to the break room. She pushed the door open rather firmly, startling two of her co workers who looked to be in the middle of their lunches. She opened up the break room window and threw the golden paper through the opening where it fluttered like confetti.

She ignored them as she headed back to her cubicle, slamming the break room door behind her as she headed back. She pulled the chair out from her desk and sat back down, putting her head in her hands again as she took several deep breaths in order to calm herself down.

"Gods, I just can't handle this right now" Sharon said to herself as she shook her head, fighting back the tears of stress as she tried to recompose herself. "Makes me wish drinking on the job was legal" she muttered to herself as she felt her head begin to throb.

She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes for a moment, feeling it start to kick in to full gear. She swore under her breath as she leant over and opened up the drawer of her desk to look for her bottle of prescription pain pills.

She let out a gasp as, sitting in the drawer, was the golden flyer. Like it had been placed there.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me" she said in anger as she pulled the piece of paper from her drawer. "I cannot deal with this, this is not a good joke" she said as she went to rip it up again.

But, she didn't rip it up. She instead took a deep breath and slowly lowered the flyer down as she looked over it again.

"We Exist To Help".

She could feel her temples throb and pulse under her skin as the zebress then turned the flyer over and looked at the number again. It looked like the kind of gag number you dialled and got a recorded joke when it went through. But, if it wasn't, maybe it was the real deal.

"Maybe...maybe one call couldn't hurt me" she thought to herself as she reached over and picked up her office phone. There wasn't much to lose by not calling them anyway. She pushed in the number and sat back as she listened to the dial tone.

"Hello. And welcome to the Helpline" said a calm male voice on the other end of the phone. "Thank you for calling us Sharon."

"Wait...who is this? How do you know my name?" Sharon demanded in surprise as she heard the male voice state her name.

"Please hold on as we connect you through to your appointment. Our services are now open to you. Thank you for calling us" the voice said before the phone suddenly went silent. It didn't disconnect, but it felt like whoever was on the other end had simply vanished.

Suddenly, a chill passed through Sharon as the air around the cubicle shifted, like a giant bubble had burst and a ripple had pulsed through reality around her. She blinked just once as the pulse went through her, both body and soul and then she realised that she was no longer in her cubicle. Or in her offices.

"Welcome to The Helpline. Tea?"

She found herself sitting in a white seat in front of a mosaic patterned patio table. On the table was a perfectly laden table setting. In front of herlay a white floral teacup on a saucer with a silver spoon resting on a plate next to it. A large floral pot sat in the middle of the table, with a three tiered cake stand beside it. Beautiful tea cakes, each perfectly designed sat on the stand, looking mouthwatering.

Across the table sat a doe with deep red hair that was tied back in a ponytail. It curled around her neck and dropped off her shoulder, reaching her elbow. She wore a black dress with white sleeves and a white collar. It looked like something that had once been in a museum. She had surprisingly green eyes that were fixed on her in a warm manner.

Sharon took a moment to look around and she found that the table was in the middle of a circular platform, which itself was in the middle of a huge square pond. The edges of the pond were raised up, the corners spouting a tall round brick column covered in small green streaks of moss. Green grass extended beyond the pond, meeting high hedges that towered above them. The sky was light up in the dying light of the day, evening having set in.

"Where...where the hell am I?" Sharon asked as she looked at the doe. She took another look around and noticed that, to her right, was a large sprawling grey manor house. It had an old look to it, like it had appeared out of a historical site. Sharon couldn't see inside the house, as the windows were all shut.

"You are at The Helpline" said the doe with a smile as she reached forward, her long lacy cuffs brushing over the table as she picked up the teapot. "Please sit up, your appointment has started" she said with a smile.

"What? Wait, how did I get here? And who are you?" Sharon said as she suddenly felt her frustration and stress start to melt away. The garden, as surreal as it was, was surprisingly tranquil, and it was having a strange calming effect on her.

"My name is Carrie" The doe said with a smile to her. "And you don't need to worry about how you got here. The important thing is that you are here now. Would you care for some tea?" Carrie asked as she picked up the delicate looking porcelain teapot. She leant forward and poured into Sharons cup, a thick dark red liquid pouring into the cup that smelled surprisingly like roses.

"Umm...thank you" Sharon said as she took a look at the tea. It was surprisingly fragrant and just smelling it helped her calm down some more. She carefully took it in her fingers and brought it up to her lips. She gave it a testing sip, and it ran down her throat like liquid silk. She had never tasted tea like this before.

"So tell me, what kind of help are you after?" Carrie asked as she poured herself a cup of the aromatic tea.

"I...I'm not sure" Sharon admitted as she put her cup down. Her mind was full of questions that she felt that she should be asking, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to ask them. Instead, she reached over and picked up one of the cakes. It was a black frosted cupcake, with a white and black oreo cookie arranged to look like a butterfly on top

"What is the first thing that comes to mind when I ask you that?" Carrie asked her as she took a sip of her own tea. When she asked that, Sharon didn't even have to think about it, she just said it.

"My son, Thomas" she admitted. She was somewhat surprised to find how easily it came out. And how easily she admitted it.

"Tell me what's wrong" Carrie said as she selected a cake for herself. It was a small slice, but it wsa made up of multiple delicate layers of coffee and cream. She placed it on her plate and used her spoon on it.

"I...I'm not sure where to even begin" Sharon admitted as she looked down at the oreo butterfly on her cupcake. "I...I guess it started when he took an IQ test at school. We thought it might be something fun for him to try out. It came back higher then any of us expected. He was on his way to being a certified genius" she said.

"I'm sure its not as nice as it sounds" Carrie said as she tasted her piece of slice.

"Well, we thought it was. It was pretty exciting news at the time" Sharon admitted as she picked up her spoon. "Genius in the family, who wouldn't be happy about that. We were all excited and really happy for him. And then we got offers for his high school. And things got better for him. He had offers to join all the intellectual teams, join all the study groups, hell. He got voted for all the captains before his first year was finished."

"And then...it was like a light switch went off in him" Sharon said as she prodded her cupcake with her spoon. "It was like, once he found out that doors could be opened for him because of how smart he was, he became...different."

"How different?" Carrie asked her.

"Reclusive" Sharon said as she put her spoon down and picked up her teacup. "And driven. Very driven. He wants to go to college. Not just any college, he wants to go to the best there is. On a free ride" she said. "He wants the best scholarship they have to offer, and he'll make sure he gets it" Sharon said to her.

"Sometimes it can be a good thing that a child ends up determined and driven. What is it that makes you so uneasy to know this?" Carrie asked her as she gave her a look over her cup of tea.

"Well, what makes me so uneasy, was that before Edward took the test, he loved his father and I" Sharon said to her. "They were close, those two were. Thomas was actually happy to join his father at the construction sites and see how the buildings were put together. He used to look up to his father."

"But lately...all he seems to do is hate his father" Sharon said to her. "It's like...he has no respect for him, or even has no love for him. Sometimes, I get the feeling he'd be glad to see the last of us and be done with both of us" she admitted.

"Perhaps it is just a phase" Carrie suggested as she placed her tea cup down and folded her hands in front of her as she looked over at the female zebra. "All children change and go through phases. Some where they are devoted to their parents, and some where they hate them. This could just be something that could be over with in due time" she suggested.

"I'd honestly like that" Sharon admitted. She wasn't sure why she felt so readily and easily able to trust her, but she did. "But, I don't think that its a phase. And it doesn't just unerve me. I think it scares me" she admitted.

"Why does that scare you?" Carrie asked.

"Because....because if its not a phase, that means he genuinely hates his father" Sharon said as she suddenly felt the urge to cry. "I don't want to admit it, but...but what if its true? What if he does think he's better then his father, better then us? What if he hates him? How can he hate him after Edward has done so much for him?" she asked.

Carrie said nothing for a moment as she finished her cup of tea and sat the cup back down on the saucer. She then slid her hand forward and passed a small black lacquered box towards her.

"I believe that we can help you" Carrie said as she sat back. "Please accept this."

"What is this?" Sharon asked as she reached forward and took the small box, taking it into her hands as she looked down at it. It looked old. Antique old. She carefully opened the lid. Inside was a small black pendant in the shape of a scarab beetle, on a chain made of fine gold.

"Our services are very special here" Carrie said. "The help that you want, may not be what you need. And the help that you need, may not be what you want. But the help that we deliver, is the help that's best" Carrie said to her with a pleasant smile.

"What...what do you mean?" Sharon asked as she looked down at the pendant. It took her a moment to realise that it was actually made of glass, and it wasn't black. The contents were swirling around inside, like a tiny storm waiting to be released.

"It means, that when the time comes that you want our help, simply break the pendant and say 'I wish for help', and we will give it to you. The help may be small, or large. It all depends on the circumstances when you ask for our help" Carrie explained.

"What's the price?" Sharon asked as she took the pendant in her hands. The small glass felt very cold against her fingers. Like she was holding a small block of ice.

"Perhaps you wish help for your son. Or, perhaps you would rather wish for help against someone else...perhaps Tony" Carrie said with a strange knowing smile as she took another sip from her cup. Sharon looked up at her, suddenly startled. She didn't think she had even mentioned the bull, so how did....

"We do not require a price" Carrie said with a smile to the look on Sharons face. "Other establishments may require cash, personal services, sacrifices, one soul in exchange for another, that kind of thing. We don't require such things here. Our services are completely free" she said.

"Nobody asks for help and gets it for free, especially in my line of work" Sharon said. "There's always a catch, or the help just doesn't work out" she said to her, giving the strange doe a look that suggested she didn't believe her.

"If there was a price to pay, it is that you have to live with the consequences" Carrie said to her. "The help that you are given, cannot be stopped. Nor can it be taken back. So, when you wish for our help, please ensure that you are ready for it" she said with a smile.

Sharon was about to ask what that meant, when she felt a pulse in the air, like a giant bubble had been broken. She blinked, and suddenly she found herself back in her cubicle.

"What?" Sharon said as she looked around, finding herself back in her seat. A quick look around her workspace told her that it seemed she hadn't been gone long, in fact, the clock on the wall seemed to tell her that she hadn't even been gone for a few seconds.

"What just happened?" Sharon said as she felt something in her hand and looked down to see the pendant sitting in her grasp. She dropped it in surprise where it clattered on the desks surface, bouncing off the edge of the keyboard. The swirling smoke inside the pendant didn't seem to stop at all.

"I...I guess that wasn't a dream" Sharon said as she touched her hand where she had been holding the glass pendant. Her skin felt cold to the touch, like she had been holding ice. It took several moments for her to feel the cold go away before she picked the pendant up.

"So...I just have to wish for it..." she thought to herself as she secured the pendant around her neck and slipped it under her blouse. It gave her a chill against her chest, the cold penetrating through her fur and against her skin. "What in the world just happened to me...." she thought to herself as it started to sink in that what happened to her was something that couldn't be explained.

She jumped when she heard the phone ring beside her, not expecting a noise so close and so suddenly. She took a moment to calm herself down and collect herself before she answered it.

"Hello, Sharon West" she said as she picked up the phone and pressed it against her ear. A moment later, she almost fainted from the news.

The house had never felt so empty as the zebress walked into her home, the house as dark as it was outside. She had spent the day in a mixture of the police station and the hospital, feeling like she was in a daze. Although it had been hours since she had first received the phone call, it felt like it was only moments ago.

"Mom?" Sharon heard her son say as she closed the front door. She looked up as she dropped her handbag and keys on the hallway table as she saw her son, for once, leave his room. He had a look of concern on his face, looking like he had waited for her to come home.

"Oh Thomas" Sharon said as she felt the tears finally spill over her eyes as she ran up and pulled her son into an embrace. She held him tightly, pressing him firmly against her as she felt the tears stream down her face. She felt his arms wrap around her and hug her back. It made her want to cry all the more, it had been so long since her son had held her.

"Mom...its not true, is it?" Thomas asked after he was held by his mother for several long silent minutes before he gently pulled away from her. There was a look of concern on his face as he looked at her, his arms holding her sides.

"Yes Thomas, it's true" Sharon said as she wiped her eyes. "Your fathers in the hospital. And the doctors don't think he'll wake up" she said sadly as she felt her body tremble a bit from the unhappiness she felt. She sniffed a few times, trying to hold back the urge to start screaming.

Thomas didn't say anything as he gently took his mother by her hands and guided her to the living room. She didn't resist as she let him help her into a lounge chair, sighing deeply as she took the weight off her feet. He turned on the living room lights and then stepped up beside her. .

"Drink?" he asked. She gave a nod, suddenly craving something strong. She sank into the chair, holding her head against her hand as she closed her eyes. She didn't bother trying to hold her tears back, she just let them coarse down her cheeks as she listened to her son rummage around in the kitchen.

"Here mom." She looked up suddenly, startled a little to see her son looking down at her, his hand extended with a rather full glass of whiskey extended towards her. She reached forward and took it from him as she rubbed her forehead a little.

"Mom, what happened? I don't know all the details, just that you left a message saying Dad was hurt and he was fighting for his life" Thomas said to her as he sat down on the couch, looking over at her through his gasses. He had a drink of his own in his hand. "Is he ok? What happened?" he asked her gently.

What she wanted to say, was to tell her son off for having a drink when he was clearly underage. But her parental instincts could wait another day as she lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip, letting it run down her throat. She put the glass down on her knee and held it there as she kept her eyes closed, resting her head against his hand.

"They say...it was an accident" Sharon said to him. "One of the bulldozers was parked above your fathers office trailer at the site. Somehow....it came loose and ran down the path... and crashed into the trailer with your father in it" she said as her hand began to shake, threatening to spill her drink over lap. .

Thomas reached forward and steadied her hand until she calmed down. She sniffed a few times, more tears leaking from under her eyes.

"He's in the hospital...and he's in a coma. He's hurt all over. They said...they said he might end up in a wheelchair, and there could be long term brain damage. But that's only if he wakes up" she said as she felt herself start to cry again.

"Mom...I'm sorry" Thomas said slowly, concern in his voice. "But he'll pull through, I'm sure of it" Thomas said to her as he held her hand.

"Honey, I'm not sure. The doctors...were pretty sure of their assessment of his chances" Sharon said as she wiped her eyes a little. "I feel like I've lost your father already" she said as her voice trembled.

She managed to take a drink with her hand still trembling, gulping down a few sips of the whiskey as she sat back. It must have been starting to work because she felt a little more relaxed from the alcohol.

"Mom...I don't' want to bring this up but...did dad have insurance to cover this?" Thomas asked gently. "I know you said dad was earning good money and all, but .... I don't think we can help him on just your pay-check" he pointed out carefully.

Sharon sighed as she nodded. It was not a pleasant thought for her to be thinking about at a time like this, but her son did have a point. She was going to have to look into the long term effects of the accident, in the event that things went south fast.

"Yes Thomas. Your father does have insurance" Sharon said to him with a nod as the took another drink. She made a face briefly as something unpleasant was felt in the whiskey. It must have aged wrongly or been out of date or whatever happened to make alcohol taste bad. She just shook it from her head. Whiskey was whiskey, so she took another drink.

"Is it enough?" Thomas asked as he watched his mother drink up. "I mean, I don't know how insurance policies work, but will there be enough to cover the bills? I know medical care isn't the greatest right now..."

"It should be. But I'll have to talk with the insurance company tomorrow" Sharon said as she set her glass down. "It all depends on what the outcome of the police investigation is. They're looking at it like an accident, but one of the officers thinks it could be sabotage" she said. "Or possibly deliberate enough."

"Why would they think that?" Thomas asked rather quickly with a slightly surprised look on his face.

"Because, according to one of the supervisors, the machines are specially locked to be unable to change gears after being shut down" Sharon said as she put a hand to the side of her head. She could feel a headache coming on. "For the dozer to...to roll down and hit the trailer, someone had to put the ...put the key back in it" She said as she started to feel a little unsteady. Perhaps the drink was stronger then she thought.

"Hmm. Guess I should have remembered that when dad told me" Thomas said as he sat back and took a drink out of his glass.

"Sorry, what?" Sharon said as she looked at her son, and was surprised to see her vision going a bit blurry.

"Oh, nothing. Well, I suppose I can say I made a mistake today with the bulldozer, that's all" he said as he calmly took a drink. "Well, it's not really my fault, you know, dad being so damn boring that I just can't listen to everything he says."

"Thomas what...what's going...ooonnnnn" she found herself saying a shockingly fast fatigue hit her hard and she slumped over the living room table, the glass falling from her hand on the floor. She tried to speak, but her mind was crashing fast. She managed to keep her eyes open long enough to see Thomas, very calmly, watching her pass out on the table as he finished his drink.

She was somewhere cold. And it was spreading. She lay slumped against something solid and unyielding, her body felt limp and numb. It was dark. Dark and cold.

She struggled to open her eyes, having to force them open. It took several tried, her eyelids crashing back closed as she stirred, having to use all her strength to keep them open. She was so tired...she just wanted to fall asleep. She forced them open, finding herself staring up at a blurred vision of the ceiling of her bathroom. Something was droning beside her, something soft and melodic.

"Wha...what?" she mumbled as she tried to sit up, but she felt her body was not responding as she managed to open her eyes fully, just enough strength to turn her head. She felt cold all over, her limbs heavier then lead. She couldn't move them, they felt numb.

When her vision cleared, she came upon a remarkable sight. She was lying in her bathtub in her bathroom, soft candles flickering in the light. The smell of jasmine and roses were in the air as she saw rose petals sprinkled across her body.

Her mind was too fogged to register surprise that she was in one of her negligee, a soft pink nightgown that covered her body, sheer enough just to reveal her undergarments. It took her a moment to register that the cold she was feeling was the water slowly dribbling from the tap.

"What?" she said as she tried to sit up, but her body would not respond. It felt like she wasn't in control of her limbs as she struggled to comprehend what was going on. She heard something snap far off in the distance. It took some effort to move her head towards the sound.

"Oh good, you're awake" Thomas said as he saw that she was waking up. She looked over as she saw him remove a pair of latex gloves from his hands and tuck them into his pocket. He stood up, brushing his hands on his shirt. Her vision spun around, stretching and crushing together. She felt her head spin, feeling unbalanced.

"Thomas...what?" she said as she felt her head throb. There were candles in her vision, arranged around the bathroom, giving off a soft and eerie light.

"It's ok mom, its just a little drug in your system. Just enough to dull you down so you can't struggle" Thomas explained calmly as he looked at her in the bathtub. The water had hit the halfway mark of her body and it was slowly crawling upwards, turning the pink fabric of her night gown a darker shade of red.

"What...drug? What?" she asked as she found she was having trouble speaking, like she was exhausted and unable to talk. Her mouth felt dry, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth.

"A drug. Over the counter stuff. You know, something you can get without raising suspicion" Thomas said as he showed her a small container of pills in his hand. He bent down and placed it on a small table he had placed beside the tub. On top of the table was the bottle of whiskey and her glass.

"What...are you?" she asked. She knew that she was supposed to be scared and angry at what was going on, but for some reason, she was unable to handle her emotions. She felt oddly calm. Sick and unbalanced, but calm.

"See mom, I was right about dad all along. The man was so pathetic he couldn't even die properly. I mean, the money from his insurance if he died would have been quite substantial. But since he's only permanently injured from an accidental assault, the money isn't going to be as big as I had hoped" Thomas explained as he sat leant against the bathroom sink. She managed to make out the small speaker system against the sink. That was where the music was coming from.

"I found dads copy of his insurance papers in his office last month" Thomas continued to explain as all his mother could do was watch the cold water slowly rise up her body. "I saw what would happen in the outcomes that were covered, and I thought I'd keep a copy for myself. You know, just in case and all that" he said, his voice calm.

"Course, I didn't plan anything. I mean, I had no idea how valuable that information was going to be" he said as he calmly watched his mother struggle to stay awake. "Well, that is until I got a rejection letter from the college I had hoped to get into. Well, one of them anyway" Thomas said as his face turned into a scowl

"Rejection?" Sharon mumbled as she was finding it difficult to talk. Her vision was blurring and it was hard to keep in focus.

"Yes. They were offering a scholarship that would ensure a free ride if my grades were perfect"Thomas continued to explain. "But, that was only if Dad and you made the right amount of money so they could justify giving it to me. And guess what mom? Dad fucked everything up" Thomas said as he calmly explained everything to her.

"What?" Sharon mumbled. The water was slowly rising up her stomach and the cold was making her skin tingling with its very slow crawl. It was rising faster then it appeared, and she couldn't move her body to stop it.

"Dad apparently doesn't earn enough money to help send me to college' Thomas said rather bitterly. "But he does earn enough money that they refused to give me the scholarship. He killed my dreams mom. No matter how much you bitch and whine about him supporting us, he killed my dreams and didn't even know it" he said as he practically spat at her.

"Your father..." she tried to speak, but she wasn't finding the strength to talk.

"Yeah, I know. He supports me and all that. But that's just your opinion" Thomas said to her. "I honestly though all was lost for me. I mean, it was only the first college I had applied to, you know, no big deal. There were plenty more I could apply for. But then, when they all started to say the same thing, that Dad earned just a little too much for their tastes, I remembered his insurance papers" he continued. "And I knew what I had to do. Since dad killed my dreams, it was only fitting I returned the favour" he said.

"You...didn't.." she mumbled.

"Those construction guys never even gave me a second glance. Just had to walk in with a hard had and safety vest and I could walk anywhere. That's security for you. Found the keys to the truck easily enough. The sunvisor. Again, that's security for you" Thomas continued with a smile. "Just had to set it in neutral and the rest took care of itself" he said.

"Course, I did expect him to die" He said as he looked away for a moment, actually looking disappointed. "Insurance on him dying is twice the amount of him getting permanently injured on the job" he said.

Sharon could not believe what she was hearing, but her mind was having trouble processing it. It didn't seem real to her as the water was still slowly rising. She should have been panicking, but she couldn't find the energy for it.

"Course, since he's not dead, that means you'll just use the money to keep him alive and I know you won't give it to me to go to college" Thomas said. "You care more for him then you do for me, your own son. I mean come on mom, he' going to end up either a vegetable in a wheelchair, or a retarded vegetable in a wheelchair" he said. "It would be better just to pull the plug but you're so smitten with him, I know you'll waste the money on him, and not on me, when my future looks so much better then his.

"So, I had to do a bit of quick thinking. You know, since he can't even die properly. So, I double checked the insurance policy. And guess what it said about you?" he said.

"If you die by suicide, dad receives a lot of money" Thomas said. And he actually looked proud of himself as he stood up and turned up the volume on the speaker system. A romantic wordless medly was turned up that seemed to fit the forced romantic aura of the bathroom. He then picked up a bottle of her expensive bath gells and leant over the tub, squirting some against the slowly falling water. A soft eruption of bubbles appeared and began to spread out over the surface, the light scent of violets following. "so, I'm afraid to say, you're going to kill yourself tonight."

"But...what?" she mumbled. The water had by now reached her breasts and the cold was making her shiver.

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to discover your body in the bathroom, after finding the room flooded with water. You drowned yourself in the tub, after drinking some whiskey with some sleeping pills and prescription medicine in it. You couldn't face life without your husband and you killed yourself in a romantic last night soak in the bathtub" he said to her.

"No...you...joking" she mumbled as she struggled to keep her eyes open. It was getting harder to stay awake.

"Course, only thing I didn't plan on was having to undress you" He said with a visible shiver. "ugh, there are some things I shouldn't know about my mother" He said as he looked disgusted. "Don't worry, I wasn't too rough with you" he said as he stood up. "Although, I suppose it's no surprise to see that you spend money on new jewellery and claim you have none to assist me with" he said.

"Thomas...no... you..." she moaned as she felt the water slowly cover her breasts and start rising up past her chest.

"I can, and I have" he said to her. "See mom, I told you dad was useless. And now, because he can't even die properly, I have to adjust. That's what this is, it's an adjustment. Its not personal" he said. "If only you had the sense to see that my life was better then my fathers and put me first, like you were supposed to. But I guess I have to put my talents to waste while you cling to a vegetable who can only drool to communicate now" he said.

"Oh, and no-one is really going to look too hard into this. Wives and husbands commit suicide like this all the time when their loved ones are going to die" he said. "They'll see exactly what they want to see, which is you killing yourself over dads accident. And the scene fits, and even if any part of me is shown in this bathroom, this is my house too. They won't look too close."

"And I promise mom, I will do you proud" Thomas said, and he sounded rather genuine. "I'll make sure I get into the college of my dreams, and I will go on to be the best that they churn out. I'll probably go and end up getting a position like yours, and maybe even go further. All as tribute to your memory" he said with a smile as he leant forward and and gave her a kiss on her forehead.

"Thomas..please...no..." Sharon moaned as she tried to move, but her body was not going to respond. Thomas said nothing as he gently put his hands on her shoulders and then pushed slowly down.

Sharon whimpered as she was pushed down, the water suddenly covering her chest and reaching her neck. With the way she was positioned, her face was just an inch under the rim of the tub, and the water was just going to keep rising till it had covered her.

"Dad is going to join you soon. When I get power of attorney over his position, I'll pull the plug. So you wont have to wait long" Thomas said as he left the room. "This all could have been avoided mom, if you just say how big of a loser dad was as I did" he said as he carefully shut the door behind him. She heard the door close and the bathroom was plunged into a semi twilight, the only sounds were the running water and the cheesey music.

"Oh god...I'm...I'm going to die" Sharon thought desperately as she found herself staring up at the ceiling. "How..how can he do this? I'm his mother. How can he do this to me?" she thought as she felt the water touch against her ears. "How could he do this to his father? My son...my baby boy...how could he do this?"

"Oh god..someone...someone please help" she screamed in her mind as she found herself closing her eyes. She willed her mouth to open so she could scream, but her mouth wouldn't move and she was unable to say anything. She didn't even have the strength to re-open her eyes.

"Oh god..help. Someone help me" she moaned to herself as she felt something touch her cheek. It was something that was floating, and it felt like it was attached to her neck.

"Oh god, the pendant" she suddenly realised as she realised that Thomas had kept it around her neck. He hadn't bothered to remove it off her. "That's right. That woman, she said I just had to break it and say the words" Sharon said as she went to move her arms.

But her arm wasn't moving. She could feel the cold water rise up her cheeks slowly, the music warbling as the water covered her ears and she couldn't hear it properly. She willed her arm to move to grab the pendant, but it just hung loosely in the water.

"Oh god...I can't move...I can't reach it" she said as she felt tears in her eyes as the water slowly crept up her face and covered her eyes. Only her nose was now uncovered, and the water wasn't slowing down.

"Please... I don't want to die...please..don't let this be the end" Sharon wept in her mind as she felt herself giving up, unable to do anything further. Her hair swirled around her head slowly, like weeds in a river.

"Please... give me help... I wish for help.......please" she whispered in her mind as she felt the water close over her nose.

The scarab glowed once, then the darkness that was held inside it broke out like black smoke.

A lion stood in front of the square pond, standing in just a long tan robe that seemed somewhat too big for him, the edges reaching the grass at his feet. He had his eyes closed, his black mane cascading down his neck and across his grey shoulders. He seemed to be waiting for something as he stood there in the light of the setting sun.

"Sir, the request was made" said the voice of a black horse who stepped out of the open front door of the manor. He was wearing clothing made of pure white that were covered in various religious symbols. A high back collar reached up to his jawline. He was jet black black with a white stripe down the front of his face, his dark coloured mane curled over one side of his face, covering the right side of his head.

He held his white hands in front of him, almost in a praying position, black nails standing out against the white fur. The only eye that was visible was his left eye, and it shone in a rather otherworldy way.

"Shall we honour it Sir?" Carrie asked as she stepped up beside the rhino, her hands clasped in front of her as they both waited for the lion to respond. The lion said nothing for a moment before he opened his eyes. They were a deep sapphire blue and seemed to sparkle in the light.

"Connor. Carrie. The request shall be granted" the lion said without turning around. They both bowed their heads in response to him. "Mother, if you may" he said as he held his arms outstretched.

"Yes, Mentu-Hotep." An elderly and rather rotund lioness walked up, her hair greying and pulled back into a severe bun. She was grey like the lion, their age difference prominent. She was dressed head to toe in the black and white outfit of a Victorian maid. She gave the lion a scathing and deadly glare from behind as she took his robe in her hands and pulled them off his slender body.

He was revealed to be naked, his smooth grey and white fur covering his whole body as he calmed stepped onto the edge of the pond and began to walk forward. His feet touched the waters surface and it rippled softly, but he didn't sink into the water. Calmly, he walked forward towards the circular platform the tea setting now removed.

The water in the pond began to rippled and swirl toward the platform as it slowly flowed upwards like a river. The water poured upwards and started to climb up the lions body. He closed his eyes as the water swirled around him and completely covered him from head to toe. The water continued to flow around as it gradually took shape, forming a sphere of swirling water around him. And then, it slowly began to rise up into the air.

Carrie suddenly began to glow a bright red as her skin began to blister and boil. It was literally burned off her body as her skin flowed like a glowing magma. Her hair burst into fire and flowed around her neck as her clothes burned into ashes that fell to the ground, a figure of living fire.

Connor began to crack apart as his skin bulged and wormed around his body before it broke like an eggshell. His skin and clothes cracked away to reveal a figure made entirely of white hands that clung to one another, fingers and thumbs making out every detail of his body.

The water sphere suddenly shattered like ice, fractured pieces hanging in the air as the area around Mentu shimmered like oil on water. Images of sand and deserts, palm trees and ancient temples flew past as Mentu slowly lowered to the ground. It was as if millennia passed around him for a brief moment as he landed on his feet.

He wore a wrapped corded blue belt around his waist that covered his lower torso, long strands of cloth made in red and gold flowed around his legs. A pair of golden sandals covered his feet, and ornate golden bands were wrapped around his biceps. A large ornate golden collar was wrapped around his neck and covered half of his chest.

Atop his head lay a golden headdress in the shape of a cobra, the head raised up with a ruby forked tongue poking out in an eternal hiss. Gilded chains hung from the headpiece and lay across his cheeks.

He turned to face Connor and Carrie, a long golden staff in his hand. Atop the staff was a large golden Ankh, the Egyptian cross with an oval on the top.

"It's time to grant a wish" he said with a smile as he tapped the base of his staff on the podium, an unearthly gonging suddenly sounding that reverberated through their souls. He smiled to them both, and it was not a good smile.

The house had suddenly lost power as everything went black for a moment. Thomas had been sitting at his computer, lost in a strategic war game. His thoughts had left his mother the moment he left the bathroom, and he was just passing the time till enough had passed that he was sure he could call the authorities without raising suspicion. He had worked himself up to a flawless victory when the device had suddenly lost power and the whole house had gone dark.

"Great, this wasn't in my plan" Thomas said as he stood up. "Dammit, I hate it when things don't go my way" he said, pushing his glasses up against his eyes. He pulled open his desk drawer and reached in, feeling the torch that was inside. With a flick of the switch the device lit up and he looked around his room for a moment.

"Probably just the breaker or something. There's no weather changes tonight' he said as he crossed the length of his room to the door and opened it.

The house was pitch black as he shone his torch through the living room. The house was silent, and slightly creepy with how everything looked in the dark. But it didn't make him feel threatened or scared, he was too old for such childish things. He crossed his way carefully to the front door. The breakers were outside.

He paused with his hand on the doorknob, when he heard a noise in the darkness behind him. He jumped slightly as he turned around, shining his torch in the darkness.

"Who's there?" he demanded as he took a step into the dark living room. He shone the torch around, illuminating the furniture and the television set for a moment, before he heard it again. It sounded like....splashing. There was a splashing noise coming from the bathroom.

"Shit, the drug must have warn off" he thought to himself as he quickly made his way towards the bathroom, carefully navigating past the furniture. The splashing sound was getting louder, like his mother was struggling in the tub. He could hear it through the door.

"Just like dad, she's not making this easy for me" he grunted as he grabbed the door to the bathroom with a firm grip. "Mom, I swear, if you make this hard on me, I will grab a knife and cut your wrists open. They'll believe that too" he said through the door as he pulled it open in one hard yank.

He suddenly found himself back in his room.

"What?" he said, surprised as he found himself looking at his bedroom, the door closing behind him. The lights were now back on and everything was in its place as it should have been, but he wasn't supposed to be in his room. He was supposed to be in the bathroom.

"This...this isn't real...this didn't happen" he said as he turned around ad opened his bedroom door and walked through it, slamming the door behind him. He blinked in surprise as he found he had walked back into his room.

"What the fuck? What is this shit?" Thomas said in shock as the door shut firmly behind him. He dropped the torch on the floor in surprise as he backed up against the door, a shocked look on his face.

"No...no this is stupid...this isn't real...this doesn't happen" he said as he turned around and wrenched the door open and ran through the opening. But he didn't get very far as he tripped over something on the floor and crashed against his desk chair.

He slowly picked himself up, grunting from the pain of falling over as he looked over to what he had tripped his feet on. And he saw that it was his torch, where he had dropped it.

"Oh god....Oh my god" he said as he found himself panicking as he stood up slowly. He found his heart hammering in his chest as fear crept under his skin. He couldn't be ...trapped here could he?

"Oh god....I can't be trapped here...I just can't..." he said as he grabbed at his mane with his hands, holding on as he fought the urge to scream. It was a reality that he didn't want to face, the reality of being stuck where he was, where he couldn't get out.

He felt panic rise in his chest as he turned towards his wall collage, seeing the hundreds of applications and practice exams he had posted up, the motivation that he woke up to every morning to help him keep focused on his goal of leaving. His eyes widened as something seemed different.

Across one were big red letters that formed a word he absolutely dreaded.

REJECTED.

He cried out in shock to see the word had been stamped over one of his application letters. Thomas grabbed the door and wrenched it open, banging it against the wall as he pushed himself through the opening, and finding himself once again re-entering his room.

This time, the words were plastered over more of his application letters.

"Oh god...no...no you can't do this to me" he shouted as he tore at his mane, his eyes bulging at the absolute horror of what he was seeing. "You can't keep me here... I don't belong here" he shouted as he pushed himself through the door again.

This time, he tripped over his feet as he landed on the floor, positively sobbing at the fact that he couldn't get out of his room. He was trapped, unable to escape his little four roomed prison, and now his dreams were being dashed with one word written in red.

He slowly looked up, tears streaming down his face as he saw that the word had now spread across his the whole wall, every single letter and piece of paper. They had all been stamped, scrawled and splashed with bright red horrible ink to proclaim his worst fears.

"no...no you can't do this...I don't deserve this" he shouted as he pulled himself up. "I dont' deserve to be held back, I deserve better then this" he shouted as he picked up his desk chair. "I'm getting out of here, you can't stop me from leaving" he shouted as he threw his chair through his bedroom window.

The glass shattered as the chair struck it, the chair falling to the floor with a shower of small shards to go with it. He grabbed his chair again and tossed it across the room where it landed with a thud on his bed. He stepped up to the window and prepared to climb through it.

A heated blast of air struck him and threw him back across the room with a roar of heated wind. He collided with the wall with a cry of pain before he fell to the floor, landing with an ooph as he found his body hurting from the fall.

"What...waht's going on..." he cried as he found himself scared from everything that was going on. "I...I can't take this...please....please stop...." he begged as he looked up, his face streaked with tears as he sobbed rather pitifully, the lenses cracked in his glasses.

There was a fire outside his window, the brilliant flames casting light across his room. Another exit from his room blocked beyond his control. They were so fierce he could feel the heat from his position on the floor.

"Oh god...." he panted in fear as he pushed himself to his knees. It was then he was aware of something squeaking above him. His bottom lip quivered as he slowly looked upwards.

REJECTED.

It was there, above him like a message written from god. In brilliant deep red. And it was being scrawled across the ceiling, written by hands. Large grey bodiless hands were using red brushes to paint the word across the ceiling.

"Oh god...what is happening. Why am I being punished? I haven't done anything wrong" he wailed out in fear and frustration as the hands continued to write, making the word bigger. It was actually made up of hundreds of smaller versions of the word REJECTED and they just kept adding to it.

"Some one ...please help me...I don't deserve this" he wailed as he bent forward and started to sob in his hands. He cried rather loudly as the hands above him started to write their way down the walls, covering the surface with a single constant word written in bright red.

"Yes you do"

He looked up slowly, and found himself staring at a face made entirely of flames. The burning embered face of a female doe was barely inches from him, and it took him just a moment to register that she was staring at him.

He screamed loudly as he jumped backwards out of pure fear, and found himself falling backwards. But he didn't land on the floor behind him, he just kept tumbling downwards. Thomas screamed as he fell down into an infinite void of darkness that swallowed him up like a bitter pill.

It came as an utter shock for him to land on a black marble floor. He scrambled to his feet, looking down at his feet. The floor was pitch black and shone like mirrored glass. His reflection was blurred in the marble, just making him all the more confused.

"What the hell is going on?" he wondered as he suddenly checked himself over for any sign of damage. He was still feeling fear over the situation, and an overwhelming urge to run.

Thomas heard the voice behind him as he turned and found himself staring at a large and imposing black throne. It was gilded with gold along the edges, a huge circular disk above the throne with a glowing eye of Ra set into the black marble.

Sitting on the throne was a grey lion dressed in some kind of royal garb, sitting cross legged like he was completely at ease. Thomas looked around and saw that he was standing in some kind of palace, or possibly temple. The whole structure was made out of black marble, and it looked old.

"I am Mentu-Hotep, and I am your judge for the request of help made on you" the lion said with a smile. "You've been a very bad boy to get my attention" he said with a smile on his face as he held up a golden staff in his hand, tapping the end on the black marble at his feet.

"What? What kind of request? What is this crap?" Thomas shouted as he found his voice. The fear was slowly being replaced by bravado now that he was out of his room and in a new place. And it felt good to have someone to shout at.

"Your mother. The one you tried to kill" Mentu said as he looked down at the zebra before him. "She put in a request. And that request, is for help dealing with you" he said as he gestured towards the zebra.

"Me? What the hell have I done?" Thomas said. "I haven't done anything that deserves any kind of punishment."

"Really? You don't' know?" Mentu said with an amused look on his face. "Oh, and here was me thinking you were one of the smart ones. Guess you're not as brilliant as you think you are" he said with a chuckle.

"You tried to kill your father" the doe said as she suddenly appeared in a brief flash of flames. She stood next to the throne on one side, her very existence lighting up the temple. "You tried to throw his life away, just for the sake of money" she said. "I would say that counts as something worthy of being punished for."

"So what?" Thomas said with indignation at her. "He broke my dream of going to college. He was useless as a father. He deserves what he gets" Thomas said. "I wanted to get ahead in life, and he was holding it back, acting like it meant nothing to him. I did what I had to do to get ahead in life, because I deserve it."

"And you tried to kill your mother, for the sake of money as well" said a new voice. The grey hands were crawling like a swarm towards the other side of the throne. They started to build themselves together, crawling over one another till they had made the figure of a horse made entirely out of bodiless hands. "Is her life really that meaningless to throw away so easily?"

"That was necessary. It wasn't personnel" Thomas said to him in anger. "She was standing in my way for getting out and getting a better life then what I was offered' he shouted. "She would have taken dads side and spent all her time and energy on him instead of on me, someone who actually deserves a future."

"So that is the reason for your actions?" the doe asked. "You saw no shame in killing your parents for money to suit yourself?" she asked.

"Do their lives really mean so little to you that you would throw them away?" the horse asked. "They are your parents, and you see no wrong?"

"I am a genius. I'm destined for great things" Thomas shouted at them both. "Do you think you'd not do the same thing? People step over others all the time to get ahead in life. I'm no different. People everyday use what they have to make it through life. I just used what was available to get myself an advantage.

"My parents stood in my way of achieving greatness, and I used what I had to get ahead. I'm going to head to college and achieve my potential, and I am not sorry for it. I will do what needs to be done for myself" Thomas shouted at them. "And if they are going to stand in my way, I will step over them and use them to get what I want."

"They don't deserve a future, I'm the one who does" he then said to the lion, who sat watching him from his throne like he was somewhat bored with the performance. "I'm going to achieve greatness, and I'm going to get out. I'm not going to waste my potential following my father in some white collar construction job when I could be doing better then he ever dreamed."

Both figures said nothing before they turned to the lion between them.

"You're decision, master?" the doe asked.

"Oh, I have a decision alright" he said with a grin as he suddenly sat up, taking an interest in the zebra. "I could tell you everythign wrong with yourself. I could sit here and point out each and every one of your flaws, and you would never listen. Because spoilt, self entitled brats like you have their heads so far up their rectums you are incapable of listening. So I am not going to waste my breath trying to get through to you" he said.

"I'm just going to enjoy handing you my verdict" Mentu said as he stood up, his long clothes falling into place around him as he slowly stepped down off his throne, lifting his staff up and pointing the ankh at the end towards the zebra.

"I am the morning and evening star. I command the sun to rise and the moon to fall. The waters of the Nile drown my enemies and the burning sands of Egypt scar those who wish wrong. I am the voice of my people, and the law of my kingdom. And I pass judgement upon you" Mentu said, his voice echoing around the tall temple.

"And that Judgement, is guitly".

For a moment, silence passed through the temple before a low growling was heard. Thomas slowly turned around to see that the slabs of marble on the floor behind him hand sunk into the ground, turning into marble steps. And moving up those steps was a horrible creature he had never seen before.

It had the head of a crocodile that was drooling around its razor sharp teeth. Its torso was that of a cheetah, heavily laden with muscles. And its hind quarters was the backside of a hippo. The beast was colossal, the size of a mountain bear. It snapped its huge jaws, a long slimey tongue licking across its sharp teeth as it focused its attention towards Thomas.

And it looked hungry.

"Ammit. Feed" said Mentu with a grin on his face.

Thomas did not have time to scream before the monster pounced on him.

Sharon sat beside her husbands bed in the hospital, the police having finally left. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and just wanted to sleep. But she was overtired, far too tired to stay awake, but far too stimulated to fall asleep.

For some reason that she couldn't understand, the police had arrived at the house and found her in time to pull her from the tub before she drowned. One of the officers had helped revived her on the spot and kept her awake long enough for the ambulance to arrive. They had been warned, apparently, that someone had tried to kill themselves in the house.

The police had arrive and tried to get the attention of anyone in the house. But when there was no reply, they had forced the door. The officers had noticed water coming from the bottom of the door to the bathroom, where they had found her passed out under the water in the tub.

The police and doctors had fussed over her for several hours, trying to get details on everything. At first, no-one believed she hadn't tried to commit suicide, considering that Thomas had planted all of the evidence rather carefully and precisely. And the fact that it genuinely looked like she had done so when they found her.

Until one of the officers checked the boys computer. And found that he had been planning everything for the last few days. Thomas had written everything down in plain sight, a file on his desktop with the name 'Practical Suicide'.

Thomas had written down every step, from disabling the truck at the work site, to the standards of the insurance policy. He had written down all the concepts and outcomes, including what happened when his mother was found in an apparent suicide in the bathroom.

It had taken several hours for the police to have everything they needed to believe Sharon when she had told them that her son was responsible for almost killing her. So they took a final statement from her and left her at the hospital with her husband, putting out an arrest warrant for Thomas on the police radio. They had failed to find him in the immediate area.

Finally, accepting that the son was the one who set everything up, they put out a warrant for his arrest after failing to find him in the immediate area.

Sharon though, knew their son was gone for good.

"I'm sorry Edward" Sharon said softly as she held her husbands hand. She was leant over the bed, her torso resting on his legs. She was dressed in a hospital gown, having no other clothes to wear. "I asked for help, and they took our son away" she said as she squeezed his hand gently. "But...I never believed that he'd be capable of doing something like this to us."

"To think, he wanted us dead for money. He thought so little of his parents, how could he have just done that...so easily?" she asked as she wiped her eyes, feeling the urge to cry. But she didn't want to. "I should have seen it coming, he was my son. But I didn't. I failed him. And I failed you."

She looked at her free hand, the golden chain balled up in her fingers. The pendant was gone, whatever had been contained inside it had been released. How, she didn't know. All she knew was that it had happened. She had been saved, but at a cost.

"I don't how it happened, but...i'm not glad it did. He was still our son. And he's gone" she said softly. "I just can't hate him for this. It's stupid isnt' it?" she said softly. "that he tried to kill us and almost did, but I can't hate him for it. He was still our son. I can't change that."

Edward didn't answer her back as he continued to lie there on the bed. She was grateful they had allowed her to stay in his room with him after all was said and done, but the doctors had already told her they didn't expect him to wake up. His condition was stable, but that was all. They didn't have much faith in his recovery.

Thomas had been right. Edward was as good as dead. Her husband was really gone, even if he was right there with her.

"I just wish...I just wish they could have let you wake up" she said softly as she closed her eyes, feeling the tears come again. This time, they were for her husband. She reached under her and took his hand and held it in both hands, pressing the gold chain between their fingers, holding his hand firmly.

With no answer, she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to take her, finally feeling the darkness claim her as she fell into a dreamless sleep.

When she woke up, she found herself still laying her head in her husbands lap, but he was sitting up in the bed, awake and alert. She looked up at him in complete and utter surprise, having not expected it in the slightest. And he looked back down at her with a warm smile.

"Hey there sweetie."