Reaper's Hollow: The Complete Series

Chapter 12-2

Ru sat on her couch, her legs crisscrossed, her hands up, her eyes closed. She was doing her best to concentrate. If what Cutter said was true, and she really did have the same powers flowing within her, then she should be able to do what he had done. A little more research online, including the pages she’d found earlier where the kids were experimenting with powers like these, and she thought maybe now was the time to try it.

Attempting to clear her mind, she concentrated on feeling her own energy flow freely through her body, visualizing a spark at her fingertips. Occasionally, she would think she felt something and opened her eyes to see—nothing. After a few hours, she collapsed onto the sofa, frustrated. “Gee, Ru, I wonder why you can’t make fire with your fingers? Maybe because everything Cutter said was made-up bullshit?”

Her phone rang, and she sighed, hoping she hadn’t somehow just summoned him. Picking it up, she turned it to see that the screen said, “Liddy Brown” on it. She sighed again. “Hello?”

“Ru? What are you doing?”

Glancing at the clock, she replied, “Getting ready for bed. It’s a school night.” It was almost 9:00, and her mother thought she still always went to bed at 10:00 as she had when she was in high school. Her mother believed that was the exact right time for everyone to go to bed regardless of what time they had to get up in the morning..

“Well, I just wanted to tell you that one of the women at church, Nancy Coats—you remember her don’t you?—anyway, she said her daughter-in-law is a teacher at Thomas, and she told her that you were dating one of the other teachers on campus. Is that true?”

Ru did her best to follow along. She had no idea who Nancy Coats was. “No, Mom. I went to dinner with one of the new teachers several weeks ago, but it wasn’t a date.”

“What kind of dinner?” Liddy asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why would I?” Ru asked, trying not to get defensive. “It wasn’t a big deal. He’s new in town and wanted to spend some time with someone away from work.”

“Oh, he.” Liddy’s voice sounded more relieved than it should’ve, and it made Ru angry. She didn’t know if she should be more upset that her mother didn’t know her well enough to know she wasn’t interested in dating women or offended that such an instance would’ve been problematic. “Well, you know you shouldn’t be dating coworkers, Ru. It’s always a bad idea.”

“I know,” Ru assured her, swallowing her frustration.

“I raised you better than that.”

Once again, Ru’s ire was up. Ordinarily, this was the type of comment she would bury inside, but after hearing Cutter’s claims, curiosity got the better of her. “Yeah, about that,” Ru began hoping the caution she intended to last the length of the conversation would make it to the end, “What do you remember about my birth mom?”

“Your birth mom?” Liddy repeated. “Why in the world would you ask me that?”

“Well, I’m twenty-five now, Mom, and I’d like to know a little more about her. I sort-of remember what you told me growing up, but I was just wondering if you could tell me again. So I can make sure I understood.”

“Oh, Ruin. She was a filthy street urchin, desperate to get rid of you. She came into the grocery store with you every day for a week or two, buying hotdogs and other cheap food, enough to get herself by, I guess. You were a dirty little thing, too. Half starved. Finally, one day, she said, ‘Will you take my kid? You’ll get government money, you know?’ I didn’t want any more kids, but I did want the extra money. I said no at first, but she told me she was running from the law, and I felt bad for you. She said your name was Ruin, that you’d ruined everything, and handed you over. You weren’t quite three years old. She wrote a statement that she was giving me custody and disappeared.

“You were awful! You must’ve cried for a month non-stop before I finally started s******g your butt until you’d stop. Finally, you got it through your thick skull that you weren’t supposed to act that way. Absolutely no manners. Like a wild animal. It’s a wonder I even kept you.”

Ru let her talk, physically jarred when she mentioned s******g a two year old who was crying over missing her mother. She didn’t specifically remember that, but she did know she had always been scared of Liddy on some level. Now she knew why. “Do you remember her name?”

“Yeah, I remember it. That’s why I made it your middle name. Her name was Sara.”

Ru swallowed hard. “What was her last name?” she asked, chills running up her arms.

“Uh… it started with an F. Fine, Fine-ah, uh, Fina, I think. Yeah, she said her name was Sarah Fina. Why do you care? She’s long gone now. I’m the only mother you’ve ever had, so you better not go off looking for someone else, Ruin.”

Shivers went up and down Ru’s spine as she attempted to listen, even though she’d temporarily lost focus at her mother’s revelation, she managed to choke out, “No, I won’t. Did she… uh.. was she blonde? Do I look like her?”

“Yes,” Liddy replied. “She was blonde and pretty, but like I said, dirty, like she’d been living in a cardboard box.”

“Did she have blue eyes?”

“I don’t remember. Geez, it’s been, twenty some-odd years.”

“Did she say anything about my father.”

“No, not really. Now, will you please stop already?” Liddy was growing frustrated.

“Okay, but one more thing. You said you chose Sara as my middle name after her. Did you name me?”

“I had to. They needed a name for your birth certificate. She told me your birthday was April 8, but she didn’t tell me anything more. ‘Cept your name was Ruin. She gave me a last name, but I didn’t know what she was saying. It sort of sounded like Roberts, so that’s what I chose.. I definitely didn’t want your last name to be the same as mine. People might think you were actually my kid.”

Fighting tears now, mostly because of her mother’s harsh words, though this information was beginning to catch up with her and causing some emotion also, Ru said, “Mom, was it Ronobes?”

“Was what what?”

“Was the last name she said, could it have been Ronobes?”

“Maybe,” Liddy replied. “Who have you been talking to, Ru? Did she find you or something?”

“No, Mom. She’s… she’s gone. But… I think I might’ve met someone who knows her.”

“Listen, she was caught up in some rough crowd, Ruin. The last thing you need is to be running with anyone who knows your birth mom. You need to stay away from them.”

“Did she say something about them?” Ru asked.

“Yeah. She said they were evil, and I needed to keep you away from anyone who ever came looking for you. Who contacted you, Ruin?”

For once in her life, Liddy Brown sounded a little concerned for her safety. “No one bad, Mom. Someone who wanted to help her.”

“Well, you stay away from them, too. If they find you, they might come after me, and the last thing I need is some evil homeless person trying to hurt me or one of my daughters. Melissa and Kylie might live far away now, but knowing you, you’d find a way to get your sisters hurt.”

Ru almost laughed; she’d actually though Liddy was concerned about her, but it was her “real” daughters she was thinking of all along. “Don’t worry,” she assured her mother, “I probably won’t even speak to them again.”

“Good,” Liddy said. “Okay. Well, stay away from that man at work, too. You don’t need to embarrass yourself any more than you already have.”

“I will.”

Liddy hung up without so much as a goodbye, certainly not an “I love you,” and Ru wondered when the last time she’d heard that phrase might’ve been, other than from her students. She couldn’t remember.

“Sara Fina,” she whispered, getting Piper’s attention. She meowed, and Ru rubbed her head. “Seraphina.” Maybe there was some truth behind Cutter’s story after all. She still wasn’t prepared to believe she was an angel, or a Keeper, or whatever else he wanted to call it, but she decided she should tell him what Liddy had disclosed. It was getting late, though. It would have to wait until tomorrow. She grabbed her laptop so she could charge it and headed to her bedroom, wondering whatever happened to Seraphina. Was she still out there somewhere? Would there be a way to find her?

After getting ready for bed, Ru climbed beneath the blankets, visions of a woman who looked much like her filling her mind. “Where are you, Seraphina?” she wondered. Falling asleep, she hoped she’d dream of a mother who loved her enough to save her by giving her away.