After the Calling

The man’s shouting ripped through the house like a buzz saw. “What have you done?!”

“Arden, please don’t do this,” the woman pleaded.

“I didn’t do this! You did this! I told you to get rid of it!”

She fell to her knees. “I couldn’t! I couldn’t do it! Please understand!” she sobbed.

“ARRRGGGHH,” the man screamed as his threw his fist through a wall. “This is going to kill us! You’ve killed us! I never should have come back!”

“Arden, no! Everything will be fine! She might not even have it! She could be latent!” the woman said, mortified at his anger.

“What the fuck do you mean she might not have it?! Of course she has it!” he said incredulously. “You think the child of a level 6 and a level 7 won’t have something?! Oh god, we’re fucked!”

“They won’t know! She’s not branded!”

“You think just because she’s a baby they won’t brand her?!”

“I had to have her. I had to because I love you!”

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have done this to us! We aren’t even supposed to be together! Oh, god, I told you to get rid of it,” the man’s ran a hand roughly across his eyes, his face tight in a scowl.

“Arden, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I wanted her so much. I needed her,” the woman’s sobs were muffled in her hands.

After a beat, he spoke, his voice much softener. “You have to run. If they find you…if Rowanne finds you…”

The woman hiccupped into her palms. “We can run together…”

The man dropped down to a knee, shaking his head at the tearful woman. “Jovi, we’ve been running. And look where that’s gotten us.” He tried to catch her eye. “We’re done. This is done. It would have been bad if they had just caught us together but… but now? With a baby? The baby of a defective? Do you know what they’ll do to you? What they’ll do to… her? I can’t…” his voice trailed off as he watched a drop of moisture fall from her finger to the floor. Outside he could hear that a heavy rainfall had started. He hadn’t meant to do that. “Vee, please stop crying.”

At the sound of his nickname for her, she leaned into him, moaning into his shoulder. “You aren’t defective, Arden. They might find a way to fix you!”

He let her lean on him for a moment, taking in her smell, letting her tears dampen his shirt. “They aren’t looking for a way to fix me. Stop deluding yourself,” he said finally, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her to her feet.

“This will get us killed. Starting with that little girl.” He pulled her close to him in an attempt to stem her tears.

“Roux,” the woman mumbled into his chest.

“What?”

“Roux,” she repeated. “Her name is Roux.”

The man let out a heavy breath and suddenly released her, turning away. He gripped his skull, pulling at his air anxiously. “Why would you tell me?”

The woman stared at his back, shaking her head unbelievingly. “Because… because…because she’s your daughter. Her name is Roux, and she’s ours.”

He stood for a long silent moment, before spinning on his heel. “You have to get out of here. I’m already dead, but if you want that child to have a chance you will leave now and forget you ever knew me,”  he said and then pushed past her toward the door.

She clung fiercely to his arm before he could get past her, shaking her head. . “I can’t do that.”

He spun around to face her, his scowl returning. “You have to.”

“I won’t!”

“It’s your only chance. It’s… Roux’s only chance.”

She dug her nails into his bicep. “Arden, please don’t do this to me! I’m begging you not to do this to me!”

“You haven’t left me with any other choice!”

“I can’t…,” she started, her head dropping. “I can’t do this alone. I need you.”

The conflict in his heart was featured briefly across his eyes in the dim light, but he had already made his decision. “Then… then I will pray for you.” He shook himself loose and made his way to the door.

“Arden!” she called to him, fresh tears forming behind her eyes. “You’re walking out on the only thing you have left!”

He stopped, only for a moment, and let out a deep breath. “I know,” he said quietly, and with that, walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

The woman fell back to the floor, her tears flowing freely now, her violent sobs racking her thin frame. She cried for what seemed like decades until there was nothing left in her to cry.

Her emotions were going haywire. She felt a mixture of guilt and self-pity for putting herself in this situation.  She felt both anger and sympathy for the man who had just left her in a heap on the floor.  She felt a deep sense of hopelessness and an contradicting sense of resolve to keep her baby safe.  

Despite her genuine fear of what Rowanne would do if she found her with a baby, she couldn’t make herself regret the infant girl that lay quietly in the bedroom. She had every right to that child. Just because she was… different… didn’t give anyone the right to tell her that she couldn’t bear children… or fall in love…. even if the man she was in love with had just abandoned her.

She let what remaining tears she had behind her eyes escape her eyelids into her hands.

She finally opened her eyes to see a teddy bear sitting in front of her. She stared at it, not feeling as though she had willed any objects towards her, and realized it was the teddy bear that she had placed in the crib with her sleeping child.

She reached out and grabbed it, not thinking much of it, as she had been making objects move since she was a child. She looked over her shoulder at the crib which held the only thing left of any value in her life. She stood slowly and walked to the crib, looking down into the blue eyes that stared back at her.

She held up the teddy bear and wiggled it gently above the crib. “Did Mommy take this from you?” she cooed. The baby girl simply continued to stare up contentedly. “Here,” she said, placing the bear back in the crib. The moment she let go of the fluffy toy it floated right back up to her eye level.

“What the…,” the woman whispered, a cold knot forming in her stomach, as she realized that she hadn’t sensed the teddy bear moving toward her like she would have if she had telekinetically moved it herself. In fact, she was sure that she had nothing to do with the teddy bear floating. She snatched it out of the air and hung it over the crib again. “Did you give this to me? Did you want Mommy to have this?” she asked the baby, who only blinked in response.

“Oh God.” The woman dropped the teddy bear as the realization of what had just occurred hit her. She reached up to stroke the mark on her cheek that had been forced upon her as if she were cattle. “Oh God,” she repeated.

She leaned down into the crib and pulled the baby to her chest. “Come Roux. We’ve got to go.”

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*Outside Info: Jovi, Roux’s mom,  is a telekinetic (among other things), a psychic who can use their own auroric energy to move inanimate objects.  She has been labled by The Calling as a level 6 (out of 8 ) psychic.  A psychic of such a high level is considered a danger to the establishment, is marked, and prohibited from certain basic rights, such as bearing children without permission.

Arden, Roux’s dad, is an atmokinetic (among other things), a psychic who can manipulate the weather.  He is also pre-vampiric at this time and has been labled “defective” by The Calling, a title which limits his basic human rights, such as being in a relationship and fathering children, lest he pass on his ‘defect. He is also a level 7 psychic, a high level, and was marked as a danger to the establishment.

In this bit, Roux is exhibiting telekinesis, an ability that she actually ‘forgot’ how to use until she entered her teens.

*Writer’s note: Just a fun fact.  The baby playing Roux, is actually her in-game baby brother that was the result of a rare game playing session where I decided I wanted another big-forheaded, pointy-chinned baby a’la Arden and Jovi.   I keep the aging off, because I’m usually taking pictures, not playing, so he’s been a baby for like the past 4 months, and was a convenient stand in.

Another fun fact.  Although they are both dark-haired, Arden has a blond mom, and Jovi has a redheaded mom, and so far they’ve only made blondie bears.  I was tempted to change Roux’s hair color in the beginning to brown or something, but she actually looks funny (or funnier) with dark hair.