it's okay momma
A short drama/horror story - hope you enjoy :)
it’s okay momma
By Luke X. Johnson
“I’m gonna find you!” Max’s mom shouted throughout the woods. Giggling behind a tree trunk, Max poked his head out from behind to see her scanning the clustered forest from left to right, a big smile on her face,
“Hmm, where could he be?” She rubbed her chin with her thumb and pointer finger while cartoonishly squinting her eyes and pursing her lips, continuing to look about. Tense with excitement, Max pushed his knees against his chest and wrapped his arms around them, pressing himself into a ball,
“Oh, Max!” Her playful calls were closer now, moving towards him. He placed his hand down on the ground to shift himself, only to be met with a sharp poke while doing so. He swiftly retracted his hand to see a small drop of blood forming where he had been punctured by a thorny twig. After the jolt of pain it induced, Max’s eyes widened.
He stumbled to his feet and turned around, seeing his mother now nowhere in sight. Beginning to run through the green and brown brush, he frantically looked all around through hurried breathing,
“Momma! Momma!” He called out. No response,
“Momma! Mo-” His cries were cut short by a collision that knocked him to the ground after about a minute of searching. Regaining himself and looking up, he sees his mother, back turned to him looking down at the ground in front of her. Max’s eyes relaxed and drooped into a somber tilt at an all-too familiar realization. Gently, he arose and made his way to her side to look down at what her gaze was locked on: A white rabbit, bloodied and torn open. Its fur was stained red and matted from its short struggle. The look of life had still not fully drained from its eyes. Max calmly slipped his hand into his mother’s, dripping with the same blood they watched spill out of the creature, until its eyes were hollow. She shook her head,
“I-, I’m sorry, baby.” She said to him, Max looked up at her, crystal tears sliding down her cheeks and mixing with the dark red blood splattered around her lips. She sniffled and fell to her knees, sobbing into her hands. Max stretched his little arms out and hugged her, one around her back and one across her chest, hands meeting at the shoulder while he rested his face on the one closest to him. He softly planted a kiss on her head as she cried,
“It’s okay… I know you’re trying momma.” She spoke through choppy whimpers and wheezes,
“I smelt your blood. I thought you were hurt and I,” She leaned into him even more, “I couldn’t control myself.” She lifted her head out of her palms, revealing her true crimson red eyes accompanied by serpentine pupils. Max looked into them with a tenderness that should’ve been beyond his years. He plucked a small white flower from the ground beneath them and held it out for her to take,
“I love you, momma.” He said. She smiled,
“I love you too, Maxy.”