When Mama Told Me When I Was Young Novels & Stories

They'd left us to figure things out ourselves, and I'd figured out young that I needed to secure my own future. I'd watched Grandmother die when I was seven. The memory still made my hands clench. The way her body had twisted, bones breaking and reforming. The sounds she made. The smell of her skin splitting open. "What's wrong with Grandma?" I'd asked, tugging on Mother's sleeve. "Nothing you need to worry about," Mother had said, pulling me and Evelyn away. "Come on, girls. Let's go." "But she's crying—" "I said come on."

When I was really little. I saw my mom. She was young and pretty and alive. She was holding a tiny baby. The baby was me. "She will be special," my mom was saying to someone I couldn't see. "The moon told me in a dream. But special comes with a price." Then that memory faded away and I was somewhere else. I was watching Kael. But he was younger too. Maybe like twelve or something. He was crying behind a tree. His face was all red and puffy.

"Dex, you don't have to wait for commands anymore. Just do whatever you want, okay?" I swallowed the chicken and looked back at him. "Please specify the command." Days bled into weeks like this. They stopped giving me commands. However, without a command, all I could do was sit there, from sunrise to nightfall, like a machine trapped in standby mode. Every day, Mom would sit by my side and tell me stories from when I was little. She talked about how, when I was three, I said "Mom" for the very first time, and she was so ecstatic that she scooped me up and spun me around in circles.

Because somehow I realized how much I did not know my mom. I knew my mother as Luna. As a leader. As an icon. But not as a young girl. Not as a friend. But as a daughter. For a whole hour after that, Mara recounted tales. Short tales. Tales which were amusing of my Mom and Dad. Tales which wouldn't make the history books. Tales of how my mother sneaked out of class. Tales of my parents racing each other in the forest. Of my mom climbing up the tree and refusing to get down.

Cheese was going to be my new favorite food. "Mommy, where did you go today?" I finally asked once my tummy was full. She wiped my mouth, then hers, and gave me the most peaceful smile. "Remember I told you? Someone had reached out to me," she said. "Someone has reached out to me, and they told me they can help me," she said, looking away from my face. "Help you with what?" I asked, curious and confused. I had no idea what she meant. "I need to tell you the truth," she began, making me narrow my eyes at her. I still didn’t understand.

Will she want to buy me out entirely? “I called you aside to tell you a story, one I’ve told you many times before. Twenty-five years ago, when your mother came to me saying she was pregnant with you, I thought my life was over. We were just eighteen—barely out of high school.” I can still picture Mike’s mother’s face. She gave all her beauty to Mike—the same lovely gray eyes and shiny brown hair. But I won’t say her name. I refuse to say her name. Not after she left me with a child and vanished.

I could feel him behind me the way you felt a presence that was being deliberately still, giving you the room you needed without disappearing from it. I looked at the city. And my mother's voice came. .... Not as a memory exactly. More like a tide. Starting somewhere deep and rising slowly through everything, carrying pieces with it as it climbed. I was six years old and she was tucking me in and I asked her why we didn't have a daddy and she was quiet for a long moment and then she said some people are not built for staying and left it there because six was too young for the rest of it.

I confessed, looking at my mama finally. “Oh mija,” Mama whispered with a shake of her head. “I….I did my best to give you a good upbringing. Mia never remembered anything about our life before Kyle. But I should have known that those memories would have left their mark on you. I just…I thought we were all finally happy and that everything would be fine now.” Her lower lip trembled and tears filled her eyes.

It looks like I am twelve years old. "I was kicked out of the house by the time I reached this age," I murmured quietly while shaking uncontrollably, and I felt mama hugged me so tight. "What are you talking about, baby? As if we could do such a thing!" She is now crying as she rests her head on my tiny neck. "Mama. You can tell me now, has he been alpha commanded you?" I murmured to mama but I know Alpha Fredrick can hear it. Mama covered her mouth in complete shock.

'Men are monsters' I was eight when Mama told this to me. It was on a Sunday evening and we were seated by the fireplace. The evening was a little bit too chilly but I could adjust to it thanks to Mama's handmade quilt that was wrapped around me to keep away the cold. 'They will take everything. Bleed you dry and leave you to rot away'