NOVEL WEB Episode 38: The Forbidden Past Part 3
The memories... After that point, meld together for a stretch of time. Gloria was amazing. She was kind and warm. She never blamed the child for anything. She protected him from other members. While she was near, nothing bad or painful ever happened. When Gloria was with him, not even his mother reappeared. The child naturally associated her with all that was good in his tiny world.
There would still be rituals, but whenever they came, the child would just sink into his mind, into his fantasies of spending time with Gloria. The discomfort would pass, and he would see Gloria again, who would, in turn, hug him and cradle him without saying a single word. She would just hug him and let him sleep on her chest, or laugh, or play as he needed.
...
Gloria was the child's first love. The rejuvenating spring in a garden of misery.
The next fully formed memory starts on the day something the child thought was impossible happened.
Gloria took the child to his mother's personal chamber.
***
The child now looked healthy enough that he could emote how terrified he was with heartbreaking effectiveness.
"Please be strong, Messiah," Gloria pleaded as she wheeled him down the unfamiliar passage. "It will only be for a moment. She asked to see you. It will only be for, and then we'll leave and go enjoy the day."
The child looked up and saw Gloria and how she trembled. Seeing her like that triggered something in the child. He felt... happy because his friend was as scared as he was. It wasn't wrong for him to be scared. And then, he felt another urge.
His trembling hand moved, and then, he rested it behind his head, right on Gloria's hand.
Gloria noticed the child's touch, and her eyes watered. She wore a smile that could have been stolen at any time, and then faced forward, her teary smile quivering.
This was the first time that the child wished to be brave for someone else. The two entered the Holy Madonna's personal chamber. The smell of sulfur attacked their nostrils immediately. It took all the child had to not gag.
He looked ahead to the center of the chamber. There, in a black pool of waist-high water, was the Holy Madonna, naked, with only her black hair draping down her back. She looked over her shoulder with a sharp glance, making the child jump.
She turned as she chuckled, revealing her buxom form for the two to see. Her heavy, unusually full breasts swayed as she walked out of the black pool, the strange waters running down her body faster than water should. She didn't stop upon taking her first step on dry floor. She just walked up to the pair, and then looked down at her child, a satisfied smirk on her face.
The child, meanwhile, trembled, his eyes locked onto his mother's, staring deep into that dark abyss.
"Is your manhood roused?"
The child, as if freezing, shook his head, scared he would end up with a handprint on his face.
The Holy Madonna let out a breath, her nostrils flaring. Then she turned to the right and walked over to a desk at the side of the chamber, her hips swaying with every step.
"The revelations are coming to me every day now." She cackled as she stood by her desk and scribbled something down. "I have you to thank for that, Gloria. You have done well in taking care of the Messiah. I could divert my attention from his well-being and focus more on my role. Honestly, I now see how faulty my past interpretations were..."
The Madonna sat on her desk and looked over at the pair.
"Your efforts should be acknowledged." The Madonna spread her legs. "What do you think, Gloria?"
"I..." Gloria shook her head. "I don't think I have done anything worthy of praise."
"Nonsense," the Madonna said with a cheerful laugh. "Step away from the Messiah and step between us."
Gloria stood still for a few moments. Then, letting go of the wheelchair, she walked to the designated spot. "Yes, ma'am," she whispered.
The Madonna smiled. "Disrobe."
"Huh? But--"
"Disrobe, Gloria."
"Y-Yes."
The child had never seen Gloria look so small. Her black robes fell off her body, revealing the pale and lithe form they hid.
"Come, Gloria," the Madonna said.
Gloria didn't look back at the child. She stepped forward, trembling with every step.
The child wasn't sure what was occurring. He watched as Gloria got on her knees and pressed her head below the Madonna's stomach. He then watched as the Madonna's chest moved in time with her deeper breaths, and watched as her cheeks reddened.
Then, the Madonna locked eyes with the child and smirked. That. The child knew THAT. That was cruelty. He didn't understand what Gloria was doing, but he knew his mother was hurting Gloria and him.
The Madonna gripped the back of Gloria's head and prevented her from escaping. Then, her smile widened.
"Is your manhood roused, my child?"
The child, his face devoid of emotion, his fear having been canceled out by his anger, shook his head.
Irritation flashed across the Madonna's face, and she yanked Gloria's head away and pushed her back.
"Enough." The Madonna got up and walked back into her pool. "Take the Messiah and leave, Gloria."
"Yes ma'am," Gloria whispered.
***
The child and Gloria were sitting in their secret spot within the atrium. The child watched as Gloria listlessly unpeeled his apple. The eyes she wore--they had to be the same ones he wore before she came into his life. That was what he thought and what he believed with all his heart.
That was the moment when he did the most "Messiah-like" thing and hugged Gloria.
"Messiah?"
Her voice--at the moment, he just wanted to hear her happy again. He looked up at her and smiled.
"I love you, Gloria," he said with a smile devoid of malice and full of affection.
Gloria stared at him as tears streamed from her eyes.
"Th-Thank you, Messiah... I... I love you too."
She returned the hug and sobbed over his head for what seemed like forever...
The tears did eventually stop, and the two returned to their routine, pretending like the Madonna was some far-off memory that couldn't hurt them.
"I think you will be able to handle an apple the way I can, Messiah," she said, handing the child an unpeeled apple.
She bit into hers, and the child, mimicking her, bit into his with the widest smile. The child heard Gloria giggle and looked up. She took a napkin and wiped his face.
"You're such a messy eater."
The child giggled back and kept eating his apple with the only friend he had in the world...
***
I got angry. That anger wasn't the child's... It was Fainntwo's. He got angry for the child, knowing what was coming... There was a memory that stuck out at the end of that day.
The child hugged Gloria, and he noticed that in her basket, strangely, was the apple core--the core that he had discarded.
He decided not to make anything of it, thinking to himself that adults did strange things sometimes...
The next memory began in the passageway that led to that damned cage.