Chapter Text
She could hear her. Somewhere, despite not seeing her, Faith could hear Mother Barrow's humming. She shuts her eyes tightly as she tries to calm herself down.
It's fine.
Ge'els and Carceus took care of her. She's not here anymore.
Yes, she is.
The little girl let out a shaky breath as she hid beneath the covers, shivering, but not from the cold. The humming continued. Faith covers both ears with her hands, eyes still shut. She bites her bottom lip as she continues to tell herself that this was all in her head.
But it isn't.
She lets out a sob.
It's been a week since Ge'els and Carceus were last in the inn. A week since they performed a miracle and brought her back from undeath, from the cursed life her mother had initially damned her into.
She shook her head.
No, she musn't think like that. Her mother was a victim, too. A victim of Mother Barrow, just like everyone else was.
A woman who abandoned me.
Unable to take the instrusive thoughts that plagued her, Faith jumps out of bed and runs to her mother's room. But as soon as her tiny feet touched the floor, she froze. She looks down.
Feathers.
Black feathers.
These were crow feathers.
Faith whimpers as she slowly sat back down on her bed, eyes fixated on the feathers on the floor.
No.
The humming was louder now.
She looks around and sees a figure sitting by the window. A woman in a black dress, a veil covering her face as she rocked back and forth on a rocking chair. Her arms and legs were cuffed by metal chains that were linked to the floor.
Faith couldn't hold back her tears as she shrank away in fear.
No. Not again.
"Hush little baby, don't say a word…"
Faith lets out a cry as she covers her ears.
She could hear everything.
The singing, the creaking of the wooden floor as the weight on the chair shifts, the noise of chains being dragged as footsteps walk towards her, and the sound of bones cracking from something that Mother Barrow held in her arms.
"Go away! Go away! You're not here! You're not real!"
She hears clicking. Faith looks up and sees Mother Barrow standing right infront of her. As their eyes meet, an unnaturally large grin creeps onto Mother Barrow's face.
"Oh, but I am, my sweet. I never left."
"No! No! I saw it! We beat you!"
The familiar cackling of the older woman echoes within the four walls of Faith's room. Faith found it hard to breathe. Mother Barrow's bony hand reaches out to her, her bony fingers that were covered in blood assaulted her senses.
"Oh, my sweet, I may be gone from the mortal plane, but I am free to roam this one as I please."
Faith breaks into sobs, finding it difficult to get away from the undead figure.
"But worry not. Soon enough, I will come back and you will be my child once more. My sweet, loyal, and naive Faith."
The little girl screams in fear before hearing her bedroom door unlock and in came her mother, Grace.
"Faith? Honey, what's wrong?!"
Faith could only sob as her mother runs up to her and embraces her, as she realized that everything had been a nightmare. She held onto her mother for dear life, before Grace comforts her, patting her head and rubbing circles on her back until she calmed down.
And it would have worked.
Had it not been for the one black feather that sat on her nightstand.