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Chapter 4

Author: Stellan
But she had barely taken two steps when Vivian rushed over and grabbed her arm.

"Mom, if you go after her now, she'll think you've caved in again!

"The desensitization treatment we finally started will all have been for nothing!"

Vivian clung to her arm.

"Do you want her spending her whole life as a vampire who can't come out in daylight and drags the family down with her?

"You go soft every single time, and that's why she has no shame about holding us hostage with her illness!

"Wait a little longer. It'll be dark soon and she'll come back on her own."

My mother went rigid where she stood.

She looked out the window.

The sun really had dropped toward the west.

Images of the chaos that followed my flare-ups flashed through her mind. The flicker of pity she had felt was quickly smothered by irritation.

She slammed the tuna sandwich back onto the table.

"You're right.

"I can't keep indulging her. She needs to learn a lesson she'll remember."

I crouched by the coffee table, watching my mother's expression harden bit by bit, and closed my eyes in despair.

The minutes crawled by.

Night fell.

Bonfires sprang up along the distant beach, their red flames so bright they seemed to ignite a second daylight, while cheerful music carried through the villa's windows.

Eight p.m.

I still hadn't come back.

My mother finally couldn't sit still.

Ignoring Vivian's attempts to stop her, she grabbed a flashlight and the paper bag of food and strode out of the house.

"Even if she needs disciplining, I still have to see whether she's dead!"

She hurled vicious insults into the night, yet her feet moved at a near run.

The receding tide had left the beach muddy and treacherous, and footprints scarred its smooth surface like wounds.

My mother made her way toward the rocky beach to the south, stumbling through the soft patches.

"Iris!

"Stop the act and get out here!"

Her voice echoed across the empty shore.

No one answered.

Only the surf answered, striking the rocks over and over and mingling with the wind.

My mother reached the place where the argument had happened that afternoon and swept the flashlight around.

"So you're going to make me come and fetch you personally?

"Your behavior is getting more ridiculous by the day!"

Her voice sounded especially harsh in the dark.

But every time she called, the only answer was the tide dragging fine sand away.

The staff had long since taken down the shade canopy. Only the drag marks left by its legs remained.

Beside the marks lay a crushed white button patterned with grapes.

It was from my shirt.

My mother's mouth parted. As her flashlight swung from side to side, its beam swept across a massive rock in the distance.

A strip of pale blue fabric, soaked through with seawater, protruded from behind it.

It was the cuff of my shirt.

My mother's breathing went ragged at once.

She hurried across the slick sand.

The flashlight beam cleared the rock.

And a second later she saw the shape curled up in the darkness.
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  • After My Mother's Cure Killed Me   Chapter 10

    Vivian clawed at my mother's clothes like a woman possessed."Why did you ever give birth to her?"Why did you bring her to camp?"Give me back my ballet!"Give me back my life!"My mother offered no resistance.She sat numbly on the sofa, letting the glass carve bloody gashes across her face.Her once-shrewd, proud eyes were now clouded and empty. She clutched the gray shawl I had knitted and repeated the same words again and again."That's my good girl, Iris. Mom will take you home."There's sun outside."Mom will hold the umbrella for you."I floated near the ceiling and watched the farce with cold detachment.My mother had genuinely lost her mind.She remembered neither the police questions nor my father's condemnation.She clung to the belief that I was still hiding somewhere in the shade, waiting for her to take me home.She was committed to a locked psychiatric facility outside the city.After my funeral, my father sold the beach house for far less than it was worth.On the day

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    My mother's screaming brought the security staff in the distance running.Floodlights swept across the desolate rocky beach.The harsh light fell across the body and illuminated the terror on my mother's face.But she seemed to feel none of it.She knelt in the blood, unscrewed the repair cream with shaking hands, and smoothed the milky cream onto my face."It's all right. Iris is all right."Mom bought medicine. It won't hurt once I put this on."But that ruined skin couldn't take being touched at all.The moment the cream went on, a patch of skin came away under her finger, showing the raw red underneath.My mother's eyes went red instantly."How can this be happening? Why isn't it working!"White ointment mixed with dark blood and smeared across her hands and sleeves.She called my name over and over, as though if she were only loud enough she could call me back out of death."Iris, wake up!"Mom was wrong. Mom will never make you go out in the sun again!"She gathered the rigid bod

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